The efficiency of state information support for non-profit organizations in the Russian regions

Introduction: the information activity of non-profit organizations (NPOs) is aimed at building public trust in the organization, making possible fundraising campaigns, finding volunteers and attracting the support of stakeholders to a specific social problem. To successfully interact with the media, NPO newsmakers must create newsworthy events that are interesting to the target audience. Non-profit organizations have the right to information support from the state, but to receive it, NPOs must follow the rules and requirements imposed by the media and social advertising operators acting in a commercial market. Objectives: to identify the problems faced by NPOs in obtaining state information support. Methods: a survey of socially oriented NPOs; a secondary analysis of sociological studies; an analysis of regulatory documents. Results: NPOs are poorly informed about the possibilities of information support from state and municipal authorities. To successfully work with the media, NPOs lack special media competencies, while in social advertising there is no transparent procedure for allocating preferential locations and broadcast “slots”. Conclusions: to resolve these problems, it is necessary, firstly, to improve the media competencies of NPOs employees responsible for media communications. Secondly, it is recommended to develop a regulatory legal act (procedure) regulating the mechanism for allocating social advertising to NPOs.