Performance Assessment of Government Financial Support of Socially-Oriented Non-Commercial Organizations in the Regions of the Russian Federation

<p>The third sector in Russia is still developing, so it strongly needs different forms of government support. &nbsp;Currently, government support of non-governmental &nbsp;non-commercial organizations has significantly improved. This research is devoted to performance assessment of government financial support of socially-oriented non-commercial organizations in the regions of the Russian Federation that is subsidies of The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation given from the federal budget of Russia to the budgets of regions for implementing support programs for socially-oriented non-commercial organizations.</p><p>The existing procedure of performance assessment consists of two stages. The first of them includes ex-ante evaluation, when experts assess applications of the regions according to specified indicators. The second stage is ex-post evaluation, when the region provides information about effects, outputs and outcomes, achieved due to spending subsidies. However, indicators used in the evaluation at both stages are not perfect and illustrative and not usually consistent with the requirement of significance and validity. &nbsp;</p><p>Due to these reasons alternative approach to performance evaluation was suggested in the research. Ex-ante evaluation is considered to be divided in two levels. The first of them should be institutional, that provides necessary information about conditions in a region, when non-commercial organizations operate. The second level includes different parameters of support programs, according to which experts will be able to assess plan of a region to develop the third sector. Indicators involved at the second level of evaluation could be also used for ex-post evaluation of performance assessment, as they allow to decide whether goals, outcomes and outputs are achieved or not.&nbsp;</p>