Penza, 12 October 2017. PenzaNews. Oleg Sharipkov, executive director of the community foundation “Civil Union”, advocates that more non-profit organizations should exist in Penza with one such working organization per 1,000 population.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

"I think that there are not enough non-profit organizations and communities in Penza. If we have 500,000 residents, then there should be at least one non-profit organization per each 1,000 people. It would be great," he said during the presentation of the third report on the state of the civic society in the Penza region, which was held in PenzaNews press centre on Thursday, October 12.

Oleg Sharipkov reported that as yet there were 400 officially registered socially oriented non-profit organizations, only 200 of them operated, and the number of professional organizations that conducted activities working five days a week, 8 hours a day, and had staff consisting of at least 2 people was only about 20.

"The largest number of non-profit organizations is in Finland: they have one organization per 67 residents," he noted adding that in Russia it was harder for people to unite.