The social service market development, key barriers to entry the market for non-governmental organizations, best practices for the work and development of socially oriented business, government support for social enterprises — these and other topics were raised at the conference "Social Entrepreneurship and Socially Oriented NGOs". The organizers of the meeting are Opora Russia and the Commission of the Public Chamber of Russia for the development of the non-profit sector and support for socially oriented NGOs.

The meeting was attended by ASI Deputy Director General Aleksander Pirozhenko, members of the business community and NGOs, heads of federal and regional authorities.

According to experts, NGOs involvement is one of the best mechanisms for improving the quality of social services. The government has been creating conditions for such involvement. The law on the basics of social services for citizens has been adopted, the concept of "social entrepreneurship" has been legislated, the law on state municipal social order has been adopted, a roadmap for access of non-governmental organizations to the provision of services in the social sphere has been developed. However, this area is still not attractive enough for NGOs and businesses.

According to the President of Opora Russia Aleksander Kalinin, a reference regional law should be developed to explain in detail the status of a social service provider. He also voiced another proposal of Opora Russia, i.e., to reduce the rates on insurance premiums for socially oriented NGOs to 15%, as it has already been done for small businesses.

Chairman of the Opora Russia Commission for Social Entrepreneurship and a member of the Management Board Sergey Golubev discussed the mechanisms for improving the quality of social services and the required government support at the federal and regional levels, including the developed regional standard of social entrepreneurship, which can help simplify interaction with NGOs and accelerate their development. He said that the existing model was posted on Smarteka for distribution in the regions.

"As for the NGO development, it is less a matter of money and more a matter of management practices, commitment, engagement and training of project management teams able to implement these practices. Rather than project management, it is process management at the level of the subject in the social sphere," Golubev said.

Deputy Head of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District Roman Genkel shared successful regional experience in supporting social entrepreneurship. Now the local list of works classified as social entrepreneurship is wider than the federal one, and over the past five years, the involvement of non-government suppliers in the social sphere service markets has doubled.

"Among the proposed measures to support social entrepreneurs: property, educational, and information support, financial aid is the most popular. This includes rent benefits, which is reduced by 90% of the market value, support for the infrastructure of entrepreneurial activity, and reduction of the tax burden. In 2021, the region launched a grant program to support social enterprises launched in the region. The maximum amount will be 500 thousand rubles per project," Genkel said.

Deputy Director General of ASI Aleksander Pirozhenko emphasized the role of sharing successful practices, including through Smarteka, which was launched by the agency, and urged the members of the Public Chamber, representatives of the regions and the non-profit sector to join regional groups for the implementation of the National Social Initiative to work on specific life situations and on systemic issues that arise locally.

Elena Topoleva-Soldunova, Director of the Social Information Agency, suggested holding a thematic forum by the Public Chamber of Russia to see how the law on social order is being implemented in the regions. "I also propose to hold an event and invite non-governmental service providers, both NGOs and SMEs, to share their experience, practices, and discuss the barriers that they face," she said.