THE ROLE OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE OF THE REGION (USING THE EXAMPLE OF HEALTHCARE)
The study considers the activities of non-governmental and non-profit organizations - voluntary public self-governing structures that do not have the goal of generating profit as their main goal and do not distribute the profit between the participants. Since health problems concern every person, regardless of gender, age, income, place of residence, the hypothetical positive effect of the activities of non-profit organizations in this area may be more significant and noticeable than in other areas, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable groups of the population. Abroad, this particular area of activity of non-profit organizations is one of the most successful, which, according to researchers, is due, firstly, to the peculiarities of public administration of territories on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, and secondly, to traditional civic initiative and the right of private organizations to grant social services. In Russia, it is currently the transfer of the right to provide social services to non-state suppliers that attract significant attention. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to assess the readiness of nonprofit organizations to act as alternative providers of social services in healthcare. The study revealed that the degree of participation of the domestic non-profit sector in solving health problems is small and limited to activities such as promoting a healthy lifestyle and protecting the health of socially vulnerable groups. Most of non-profit organizations whose projects received financial support from the Presidential Grants Fund are not included in the register of social service providers, which suggests that there are some problems in the interaction of non-profit organizations with state authorities.
Keywords: non-profit organizations, healthcare, NPO, social services provider.
Highlights:
the analysis of foreign work showed that the principle of subsidiarity has a positive impact on the development of non-profit organizations;
the study revealed that the degree of participation of the domestic non-profit sector in solving health problems is small and limited by such activities as promoting a healthy lifestyle and protecting the health of socially vulnerable groups of the population;
the analysis of financial sources for non-profit organizations made it possible to determine that active resources in the field of health care are not included in the register of social service providers. This may indicate the desire of non-profit organizations to avoid potential problems when interacting with public authorities.
Anna S. Artamonova, Research Engineer, Federal State Budgetary Institution “Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences”.