With the change in attitude to charity ...

With the change in attitude to philanthropy in the state changed the extent and quality of coverage of this issue. However, this problem has not developed any foreign or domestic social psychology. Study of socio-psychological essence of charity will give new possibilities for studying the psychological and social processes in society. If the question prosocial behavior and altruistic actions in everyday life are widely covered in the "practical" foreign, especially American social psychology, here's a more specific question of charity has not been studied to date, neither theoretical nor a practical level. Charity can be regarded as the activities of private individuals to provide non-reimbursable financial assistance to indigent or organizations involved in finding solutions to pressing contemporary problems, including poverty. In the Soviet Union, this concept had negative connotations and is seen as a means of masking the exploitative nature of the bourgeoisie [2. - S. 41]. Now relevant to blagotvoritelskoy activity has changed. Apparently, this is due to changes in the political structure of Russia, changes in social values, development of social consciousness and change the minds of certain people. In this case, charity is a kind of map or natural symptom of modern society and this determines the need for careful attention to her as a social and a psychological phenomenon. Within the social psychology phenomenon of philanthropy can be considered as a movement, ie as an organized structure in the psyche of people that reflect the basic problems of society and whose aim is unselfish help in solving these problems. This definition comes from the more general definition of the motion Olshanski [3. - S. 332]. Based on this definition, charitable movement different from the others in that they do not have a material benefit to its participants. Modern philanthropy can be seen just as a movement, because it is part of organized structures (foundations, organizations), and even those who simply want to allocate money to a charity for that interact with these structures. It is structured assistance distinguishes charity from the charity. In this case the charity movement can be viewed at two levels. The first level are the individual movement as such, having a front to combat a specific problem in a particular social structure (such as the International Fund for AIDS). The second level is the phenomenon of charity movement as a map of community development and public awareness. The first level shows what issues are relevant to the present. The list of areas of activities of charitable foundations and organizations can be judged from the presence of any acute standing issue whose resolution is only possible through the joint efforts of the majority of the population, and requires substantial investment.