Philanthropic Leaders

LACKING a central clearinghouse for private philanthropies, Soviet foundation executives can only speculate on the number, variety, and resources of foundations around the country. Three of the largest are: The International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity

Established in 1988, the foundation is headquartered in its own refurbished building on a Moscow side street and has branch offices in the United States and Sweden. Seeking to build East-West cooperation, its 31-member board reads like an international Who's Who that includes Soviet physicist Andre Sakharov, Pakistani Nobel Prize-winning physicist Abdus Salam, Apple Computer chairman John Sculley, Metropolitan (Bishop) Petirim of the Russian Orthodox Church, and UNESCO Director General Frederico Mayor.

The foundation plans to undertake programs on the nuclear threat, the environment, international security, social and economic development, health, education, energy, and human rights. Begun with a $1 million pledge from American industrialist Armand Hammer and several million rubles from the Soviet Peace Fund, the foundation expects to have an annual budget of about $2 million and about 2 million rubles.

The Foundation for Social Inventions

Founded in 1986 by Gennady P. Alferenko, a geophysicist turned ballet producer turned journalist, this foundation operates under the auspices of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the youth version of the Communist Party newspaper. Its purpose is to stimulate new directions, organizations, and institutions to deal with contemporary social problems. So far, says Mr. Alferenko, more than 15,000 ``social inventions'' have been received and cataloged in the foundation's computerized idea bank.

Raising money from individual contributions - largely from the newspaper's 18 million readers - the foundation now has a budget of 8 million rubles ($13.3 million).

The Soros Foundation - Soviet Union

Founded in 1987 by Hungarian-born millionaire George Soros with $3 million from his New York-based Soros Foundation, this foundation focuses its grantmaking activities in the areas of legal culture, social sciences, ecology, conferences and research travel, and libraries, museums, and archives. Its list of grant opportunities invite applications for placing Soviet legal interns in American law firms, sending Soviet economists to Cornell University and environmentalists to the University of London, organizing scientific expeditions, and various other activities.