The winner of the Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize was elected in Bejing at the Emerging Societies – Emerging Philanthropies forum 24 November 2015.

The Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize is awarded annually to an individual who has demonstrated remarkable leadership of international scale, creativity and results in developing philanthropy for progressive social change in an emerging market country. The Prize was established in memory of Olga Alexeeva who is famous for developing charitable sector in Russia and elsewhere. Mrs Alexeeva presided over CAF Russia for many years, worked for CAF in London and curated over her own charitable project, The Philanthropy Bridge Foundation. Her untimely death in summer of 2011 was a huge loss to global philanthropy cause.

The Prize is a venture of Alliance Magazine. In 2014, the Vladimir Potanin Foundation provided funding in support of the Prize. The partners for this venture are WINGS, CIVICUS and The Global Fund for Community Foundations.

This year’s shortlist is comprised of non-profit entrepreneurs from the USA, Brazil, India, China, Romania and Russia. The contestant from Russia, Nina Samarina is the founder and the chair of Perm Region Community Foundations Alliance.

The winner of 2015 is Alina Porumb, strategic philanthropy program director of Romania’s Association for Community Relations. The core of Mrs Porumb’s work for a decade has been helping to create an engaging community foundations movement in Romania. There are now 13 Romanian community foundations serving 37 per cent of the population and investing a total of 560,000 USD in local communities.

The judges of this year’s Prize chaired by Christopher Harris are Akwasi Aidoo of Humanity United, Andre Degenszajn of GIFE, Larisa Zelkova of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation.

Larisa Zelkova, the president of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation said: This year we announce the winner of the Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize for the third time. Yet again the judges faced a difficult task of choosing a deserving person among devoted professionals from around the world. On one hand, it is a joyful experience to see how many bright talented people dedicate their life to philanthropy. Another aspect of the selection process is that we have to select a competent successor of the great cause of Olga Alexeeva’s whole life. Alina Porumb’s personal contribution to developing strategic charity enterprise and communities greatly impressed all judges. My fellow judges and I are looking forward to awarding the prize, which will take place during Emerging Markets Philanthropies event mid-November in China, the homeland of last year’s winner He Daofeng.