Volunteer movement

In the reporting year, the Company held 3,718 corporate volunteering activities, which was nearly four times higher than the target (initially planned: 1,000 activities) and exceeded the 2022 figure (2,455) by more than 1,200.

This impressive result was due to Russian Railways designating 2023 as the Year of Corporate Volunteering and the Company’s consistent implementation of the Corporate Volunteering target programme for 2023–2030. We are developing the Russian Railways corporate account on the dobro.ru platform, which helps us spread more efficient notifications about the Company’s initiatives for those interested in joining the volunteer movement.

The Company has a dedicated volunteer base of more than 85,000 employees who engage in corporate volunteering on a regular basis. Furthermore, in 2023, over 135,000 employees, accounting for 19% of the workforce, participated in at least one volunteering activity.

In 2023, we complemented the existing focus areas for volunteering activities (Social, Environmental, Intellectual, Healthy Lifestyle, Railway) with another two – Media Volunteering and Cultural and Patriotic Education.

To engage and empower volunteers, the Company provides them with a range of resources and rewards, both on an individual and team basis. These include:

  • the Corporate Volunteering Cup competition (team basis);
  • silver Russian Railways’ Volunteer badges;
  • corporate training programmes;
  • co‑working spaces (Goodness Station railway workers’ social initiative centres on the Privolzhskaya, Oktyabrskaya, and Krasnoyarskaya railways);
  • network‑wide team‑building volunteering campaigns;
  • the Conductor to Good Deeds grant competition, and more.

2023 highlights

  • In April 2023, the Company held the Unified Blood Donation Week to mark the national Blood Donor’s Day. Currently, the blood donor movement at Russian Railways unites over 30,000 members.Source
  • The Company participated in a number of initiatives to celebrate the anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, including by organising events in cooperation with Victory Volunteers, a nationwide public movement. For instance, we held Victory Trains, a historical and educational tour across 50 Russian regions and 110 towns and cities.Source
  • The Company held a large‑scale Bring Joy campaign to celebrate the International Children’s Day. At 75 railway stations across the country, volunteers congratulated several thousand passengers with children, staged mini‑quizzes on railway safety, and distributed balloons, gifts, and leaflets with railway safety tips.Source
  • In July 2023, the Company ran Clean Baikal Shores environmental campaign that brought together around 200 corporate volunteers. During the three‑day initiative, they collected and sent for recycling over 60 cu m of waste, removed over 10 cu m of wood waste, and cleaned up the municipal beach in the town of Slyudyanka.
  • In 2023, we launched Goodness Station social initiative centres in Murmansk, Krasnoyarsk, and Nizhny Novgorod on the Oktyabrskaya, Krasnoyarskaya, and Gorky railways respectively. These dedicated spaces provide a platform for railway workers to gather, discuss, and hold volunteering initiatives, including creative projects, as well as to foster patriotism and promote intergenerational interaction among Company employees, their children, labour veterans, and partners.
  • Regional volunteer forums were conducted across the railway network, enabling some 1,600 volunteers who implemented over 100 socially important initiatives in their regions to share experiences and participate in workshops on social design.
  • The Company held a pilot regional stage of the Skills Competition in the Organising Corporate Volunteering category at the South Urals Railway.
  • Russian Railways supported 58 volunteer projects shortlisted for the Microgrant award at the Conductor to Good Deeds social grant competition. Russian Railways’ primary trade union helped implement 18 of them. Eleven projects won at the Microgrant section, while nine more raised funding at the Let’s Help Together platform.
  • In May 2023, Russian Railways participated in the Nevsky International Ecological Congress, which featured an environmental venue serving waste‑free cocktails.
  • The 4th Russian Railway Volunteer Forum recapped the year’s highlights, with 100 best volunteers awarded silver Russian Railways’ Volunteer badges.
Common contribution to the environment

The first intercorporate EcoLeader forum took place on 3–8 September 2023 in Chelyabinsk.

This is a new and unique type of cooperation organised on a par basis by three companies – Russian Railways, Rosatom, and United Metallurgical Company.

The forum was aimed at building corporate ties between employees of the three corporations to join their environmental efforts.

It was attended by 200 corporate volunteers and 40 top Russian environmental experts.

The forum’s agenda was packed with events, including plenary sessions Future Leaders and Developing Environmental Agenda for the Chelyabinsk Region, various site and museum visits, as well as environmental campaigns dedicated to art object restoration, eco‑trail maintenance, lake coastline clean‑up, and children’s playground construction.

The first intercorporate EcoLeader forum