The above examples from the experience and practice of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation describe only a small part of the possible areas of work within the discourse on the development of the third mission. In reality, the formats and approaches to its implementation are literally countless. The Foundation has been working on this for more than two decades, and while initially the third mission support was limited to individual student scholarships, today universities themselves are increasingly active and inventive in developing formats for social initiatives, scaling them up, making them more complex and reproducing them on their own.

Universities are therefore becoming reliable and competent partners for grant-making organizations and private foundations. Thanks to mutually beneficial cooperation between universities and nonprofits, socially important goals can be achieved with maximum efficiency.

As a result of interacting with the universities, foundations gain access to their academic potential. This enables grant providers to focus their efforts on specific areas of expertise, supporting projects and programs that contribute to addressing urgent societal challenges. In turn, universities receive support for advancing research, diversifying, and enriching the educational process. In addition, non-profit organizations help young specialists to acquire sought-after professional skills, enabling them to step into the job market after graduation while fully revealing their potential.

Together, charitable foundations and universities are capable of constructing resilient connections bridging the academic realm and society’s genuine needs. This involves translating scientific achievements into practice, impacting the quality of people’s lives, fostering technological advancements, and seeking solutions to global challenges. Thus, the collaboration between charitable foundations and universities is a creative symbiosis that advances social progress and leads to sustainable positive change in the world.

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Взаимодействие университетов и социального бизнеса – распространенная практика во всем мире. Программы стажировки, преподавание отдельных дисциплин, наставничество, совместные проекты и исследования – социальные предприниматели могут сотрудничать с вузами в разных форматах. Как выиграть от такого партнерства и к чему надо быть готовым обеим сторонам? Рассмотрим, как «третья миссия» университетов проявляется через взаимодействие с социальными предпринимателями на примере опыта выпускников программ и членов сообщества Impact Hub Moscow.

Ирина Лактюшина

Журналист, координатор программ Impact Hub Moscow

В конце 1990-х годов американский ученый, профессор Грегори Диз представил социальное предпринимательство (СП) как профессию и область для изучения. В 1995-м году в Гарвардском университете США он прочитал первый в мире курс по социальному предпринимательству. С тех пор преподавание СП в зарубежных вузах стало распространенной практикой и число таких учебных заведений постоянно растет: в 2002 году насчитывалось только 10 подобных университетов в США, в 2008 году их стало уже более 100 в 35 странах мира [65] .