Charity should be quiet and well-targeted. Vadim Klementyev

Vadim Klementyev, Director General of Profile Re:
‘Charity should be quiet and well-targeted’

Interview with charity event ‘Save the life of a child’ partner  

- Vadim Vladimirovich, Profile Re is a traditional partner of the All-Russia Conference on Reinsurance. But this year it is an action ‘Save the life of a child’ within the framework of the conference that the company decided to support. What was the motive of such a decision?

- Let's start with the fact that the key topic of today's conference is Effectiveness of Reinsurance: Lessons Derived from Crisis. We talk about the lessons and the consequences of the crisis.

It is true that the crisis has contributed not only to the development of our business  but to the development of the society as a whole as well. The worst thing is that people get ‘stale’ in their desire to preserve and multiply. I agree that getting rich  is the essence of any business.
But in this race we unfortunately forget that there are eternal values. There are people who need our concern, our care, our humanness. I am glad that today we are able  to make at least a couple of souls happier. As they say ‘ a smile of a child will save the world’. And I say this as a happy father of two children.
 

I thank the organizing committee of today's conference for its coming-up with a proposal to hold a charity event to help children. I support the desire to do good instead of pompous dinners and luxurious cocktails. I think that this good cause will further consolidate us and give impetus to perhaps a separate charity project.
What after all is the essence of insurance? To cover and protect. This is our direct purpose. I have no doubt that each of us without any fuss to a greater or lesser degree is involved in charity work. It is usually kept away from public and not used as a PR move.
 

For centuries people in Russia were engaged in charity. Initial Russian chronicle reads: Grand Prince Vladimir ‘commanded every beggar and wretch come to the Prince’s yard to have all needful, drink and food’. Later on Peter the Great issued a decree ‘On the establishment of hospitals in all provinces’ for ‘the most crippled, those who are not able to work in any way ... as well as the elderly ones’. The main source of financing for these institutions under Peter the Great were private donations: for example  the king himself donated for this purpose up to a third of his salary.
In 1802 under the auspices of the imperial family ‘Imperatorskoe Chelovekolubivoe Obshchestvo’ (‘Imperial Philanthropic Society’) was organized aiming at the support of educational institutions, hospitals, shelters as well as helping the poor, the disabled, homeless fire victims and migrants.

By the beginning of XX century public and private philanthropy became widespread phenomenon in Russia. Museums, libraries, schools, art galleries, exhibitions -  these are the directions of charitable activities of the Russian art patrons whose names entered the history of Russia forever: Tretyakovs, Mamontovs , Bakhrushins, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Shchukins, Naidenovs, Botkins and many others.
In Soviet times  the concepts of ‘charity’, ‘patronage’, ‘beneficence’ were almost forgotten. Only by the end of XX century they gradually began their return into our everyday lives.

- At the moment a lot of successful managers trained in the West are working in Russia . And perhaps despite all the differences in culture and mentality these people will increasingly bring not only differnt business principles but also different traditions of social life organization into our lives. For instance you lived and studied in the U.S. - a country with very strong philanthropy traditions and well developed charity ‘infrastructure’. What can we borrow from the Americans in this field?

- My experience of living in the United States shows that a society must foster a culture of philanthropy. Charity in no case should be seen as a sop. On the contrary people should accept charity as a commitment to the society as it is the society that made it possible for them to get an education, work, money. And naturally one wants to share his success with others.
All the most prestigious U.S. universities receive more money not through grants or the sale of technology but through support from the alumni associations. By the way these associations served as the prototype of social networks well-known to us today.

American student from the very beginning is taught to believe that the university  is his family who needs help. Graduates do not necessarily make contributions to the University - in our case, for example, final year built a track around the lake. In other cases the entire laboratory buildings and dormitories were built with the contributions of graduates.
On the other hand  charity in the United States is not very noticeable. Periodically some marathons, exhibitions, concerts are held. But it is not common practice to talk about it out loud. It’s like overnight there is a student dormitory  built with the money of some family or a bench donated by some man. Or it may be a collection - by the way  universities often own rather large collections that were donated to them. University Museum attracts tourists and provides additional income.

In short  philanthropy in the United States is woven into the fabric of society. It is common practice and ‘bon ton’ to make donations. For our society  it is still not true. Most of the people perhaps have not even began to think about it. 

- Low level of life in our country is not conducive to thoughts of charity either  ...

- Of course  worldwide it’s wealthy people that are primarily engaged in charity. I think it should be like that. But the charity is not necessarily a lot of money. For example  why throw away children's clothing which your children have out grown from in some two months if you can send it to the needy. But for this society should cultivate certain traditions and must create an infrastructure of philanthropy.
 Charity  in my view should be quiet and well-targeted. And our decision to join the event  held during the All-Russia Conference on Reinsurance was primarily influenced by the fact that the means here can be transferred only to a specific child who applied for help in Russia Relief Fund.
Today we are making a pioneer common step in this good endeavor. I sincerely believe that this project would not only receive support from members of our community but will push each of us to exercise morality and humanity.
I hope that this action will lay foundation to a good tradition.