Russian NGOs in Pandemic Conditions: Crisis of State Support Measures and Survival Methods

The purpose of the article is to analyze the practices of Russian third sector adaptation to pandemic conditions in the context of the current state policy of priority support for NGOs - social service providers. The author applies the following research methods: the interpretation of the situational analysis results of the state support measures for NGOs during the pandemic, conducted within the framework of the All-Russian Civil Forum-2020, as well as an expert interview of 10 employees of NGOs included in the registers of social service providers and 10 employees of socially oriented NGOs not included in these registers. As a result, it is revealed that the success of NGOs adaptation to pandemic conditions depends on organizational and professional-activity factors. It is argued that NGOs that are not included in the registers of social service providers were able to better adapt to the pandemic conditions, more actively raise funds from various sources, improved the skills of self-reflection, strategic planning, social design, risk management, network design, prevention of professional burnout. Having transferred many events to the online format, such NGOs managed to keep and even enlarge the number of beneficiaries, which is partly due to the increase in free time of target groups. On the contrary, NGOs in social service providers registers appeared less adapted to the pandemic. Having not received budget funding in the expected amount, most of them failed to attract bank loans for the purposes of statutory activities and turned out to be less effective in mastering the skills of managing sustainable development. The results of the study suggest the need to overcome the growing trend of discretionary development of the third sector in modern Russia. At the same time, it is advisable to implement elements of the "gardener" model into the Russian practice of state-society relations. This model is practiced in a number of countries with stable democratic traditions and assumes the creation of equal organizational and legal conditions for supporting all the NGOs engaged in socially oriented activities.