Donor’s stories

Vladimir Potanin Vladimir Potanin is founder and owner of the private company and CEO-Chairman of the ‘management‘ board of MMC . Learn about his philanthropy and the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, established in 1999.

When and why did you first engage with philanthropy? “For me, philanthropy started in early childhood – when you do something at home or in the schoolyard to make things better. People have a natural desire to change the world for the better. And the more successful you are and the more opportunities you have, the more this inclination to change things around you grows. For me, this led to the development of a structure for my philanthropy [the establishment of the Potanin Foundation] and to thinking about my legacy.”

What do you mean by legacy? “Legacy relates to how people perceive me today, as I get older and when I am no longer around, and how people perceive my family. That’s the ‘external’ side of legacy.

But another very important part of legacy is how you educate your children, and how your success or money affects your children, your grandchildren and the wider family. You can help your children get an education, healthcare and give them a good start in this world – or you can spoil them and they will live without any motivation to achieve anything. I call this the “I chose causes I felt passionate ‘internal’ side of legacy. about [education and culture].” I have decided not to leave all my wealth to my children and to dedicate a majority of it to philanthropy. I will leave them a small it is with money, time or expertise, comes from them. My portion so they are comfortable and so they have a good philanthropy has an educational influence on them.” education, healthcare and can fulfil basic needs. But I want to protect them from the responsibility of significant wealth and What is the main focus of your philanthropy? encourage them to create their own careers and lives. The “Education and culture. There’s no scientific logic behind the responsibility of managing significant wealth would result in little choice of these causes and I am fully aware that I may not see the time to focus on the things that matter to them.” full impact of my philanthropy during my lifetime. But the soul of a philanthropist needs to see some results while alive. And that’s Are your family or children involved with your philanthropy? why I chose two causes that I personally feel passionate about. “This is a good question. The choice is whether you get your children involved at the very beginning of your philanthropy or For example, there are two motivations for my focus on culture. whether you explain to them that philanthropy should come First, culture is something that is international. I lived through a from them directly. My choice was to explain to my children that period when and the were very closed. But I if and when they are successful, they can not only spend their was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel with my father money but can also pay attention to charitable issues – do who worked for the Minister for Foreign Trade and to speak something that won’t increase their wealth or improve their foreign languages. When Russia became open, I wanted people to career, but involves giving something back. My children are know more about Russia, and culture is a great way to achieve involved in my philanthropy on occasion, but philanthropy is this through supporting museums and galleries and through very personal so it’s important that supporting others, whether exhibitions about Russia abroad.

uk case studies | The Million dollar Donors Report 2013 The second reason I chose to focus on culture is that it provides do this. But all new ideas come from me personally and I fund a counterbalance to my working life, which can be very them directly. Over time, I may transfer more and more of this pragmatic, pressured and sometimes hostile. Culture is a great role to the Foundation.” antidote to this as music, art and literature are beautiful. It helps me rebalance my energy. I don’t collect art, but I like to admire art You and your Foundation have played a very active role in in galleries and museums, as that way it belongs to everyone.” strengthening philanthropy in Russia. Why did you choose to do this and what have been the key successes? If you were to single out a particular donation that you were “I think that the development of charitable activity and especially pleased with what would that be? philanthropy is a key marker that helps judge how developed civil “It’s difficult to choose one donation. All donations inspire me in society and the country itself is. In countries such as the UK and different ways. For example, I had great pleasure from the first US, philanthropy is well established and children engage with scholarship programme due to the ironic but hugely enjoyable charitable activity and giving right from school. It’s supported by way in which the students thanked me in the form of jokes, songs governments, legislation and the general public. And it gives a and a short performance. It was incredibly funny and became a psychological and moral reward. In Russia this does not exist. So tradition for a number of years. changing this environment involves changing legislation and the attitude of the public towards philanthropy. People who want to Another example is when I decided to acquire the Black Square do something charitable or philanthropic can face many hurdles. and give it to the Hermitage State Museum. It cost exactly $1m. It It’s important that people begin to believe that someone can do was a hugely symbolic donation for the Hermitage as the something for no real personal gain, other than the feeling of museum had not acquired any new work since the 1930s. What doing something good. was a small gesture therefore helped the Hermitage rekindle its ambition to acquire new art and new collections. While we have a long way to go, it’s important to say that in Russia we have made great progress since the middle of the If you are personally involved in your philanthropy, each donation 1990s. And I think it is because of the contribution of particular will be valuable to you in different ways. If you ask me this people, including myself, that we are moving this process forward. question again in one year I will probably give you different I want all people on earth to believe that there are people ready examples.” to do something for nothing.”

What does the future hold for your philanthropy? Do you What do you think the future holds for philanthropy in Russia, think the focus of your philanthropy will change? especially among wealthy families? “I decided many years before I signed the Giving Pledge to give a “The problem is that the general public think that institutions in majority of my wealth to philanthropy. Russia, all institutions and not just statutory, are corrupt or very bureaucratic. People don’t believe in institutions, and that’s why I don’t know if the focus of my philanthropy will change. I don’t they are not ready to give their money to them. To create trust think I need a clear strategy for this. takes time and there is no short cut to this. Those who are already involved in charitable organisations and philanthropy The role of the Potanin Foundation is very important as it’s also need to help build this trust, which involves actively like a business, even though it’s not for profit. I don’t want the communicating about what they are doing, why and the programmes to deteriorate in quality, so I have professional staff difference they are making. At first my philanthropy had a who run the Foundation and deliver the programmes, ensuring relatively low profile – but now I am more vocal. We need to give that they evolve as appropriate. This is important to keep the philanthropy a high profile so it encourages others to give. And culture and education programmes running, relevant and we need to hope that the next generation will believe even more effective. The Foundation has an annual budget of around $10m. I in the idea of philanthropy.” am on the board of the Foundation but not involved in its day-to-day activity. If you were talking to a wealthy family or individual that was at the beginning of their philanthropy journey, what advice would Each year or each month I may have new ideas, like giving an you give to them? endowment to my alma mater, creating an endowment for the “Be clear about your motivations for philanthropy – you need to Hermitage State Museum where I am on the board of trustees, genuinely want to do it before you seek advice from experts on creating an exhibition in Las Vegas involving the Guggenheim and how you can make a real difference.” the Hermitage, or launching the Russian International Olympic University. These are activities that I have supported directly To find out more about the Potanin Foundation, go to myself rather than through the Foundation. If such activities www.fondpotanin.ru require follow-up, sometimes I would support my Foundation to

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