The role of civil society in the development of the economy and finance has been determined. The division of the principles of organization and functioning of civil society finances into three main profoundly different groups has been substantiated. The conceptual apparatus of civil society finances has been developed due to the substantiation of the need to use the categories “civil society finances” and “financial resources of civil society institutions” in scientific usage; the division of usage of financial resources of civil society has been improved, which is based on differentiation of obligatory expenses, expenses directed on development and support of activity of the civil society organizations, and those expenses directed on achievement of their statutory purposes. The theoretical approach to the interpretation of the place of civil society finances in the structure of the state financial system has been formed, namely, it has been substantiated that civil society finances are an element of finances of non-profit institutions and organizations, which accordingly belong to business finances. The methodological bases for the study of civil society finances have been developed in accordance with the institutional approach, which allows determining the overall financial potential of civil society institutions and its impact on the efficiency of civil society finances and, consequently, the level of civil society and democracy in the country. The influence of the introduction of democratic innovations on the methodology of civil society finance research has been substantiated: the introduction of each democratic innovation is accompanied by a significant complication of this methodology. An approach to the substantiation of methodological bases of state regulation of civil society finances has been proposed, which is based on the clear definition of such components as the subject and the object of regulation, the principles of legislative activity in the field of financial regulation of civil society, forms and methods of influence, and the consequences of state regulation of civil society finances. We have carried out the analysis of the state of revenues and expenditures of civil society institutions based on the consideration of the best practices in the field of civil society finance, which implies the need to balance the revenues and expenditures of non-governmental organizations in terms of volume and structure. The methodology for determining the role of personal finances in the formation of budgets of civil society organizations has been improved, taking into account inflation, population figures, minimum and average wages, and employment rates. The influence of changes in the indicators of expenditures of civil society organizations on the indicators of democracy development has been determined; a scientific and methodological approach to determining scenarios for changes in the Democracy Index when changing the expenditures of civil society institutions has been developed, which is based on the use of economic and mathematical tools and allows to determine how changes in specific expenditures of civil society institutions affect the Democracy Index. A conceptual understanding of the role of civil society institutions in the system of countering such threats to the financial security of the state as political corruption and non-transparency of the process of state budget funds distribution in their favour has been formulated, according to which civil society institutions should be considered in two aspects: as institutions that carry out the activities to eliminate, counteract and reduce the consequences of these threats, and on the other hand, as entities that act as tools for committing criminal acts. We have suggested the ways to reduce corruption risks in the field of state funding of statutory activities of political parties by preventing changes to the procedure and the mechanism of financing the statutory activities of political parties, which come into force during the current convocation of the legislature, which is authorized to make such decisions. The peculiarities of forming the budgets of civil society organizations at the expense of the state budget based on theories of rationalism and institutionalism have been discussed; the possibilities of introduction of the “money follows the person” mechanism in the context of a change of approaches to the state financing of non-governmental organizations as the tool of their de-shadowing have been substantiated.
Key words: public finances, civil society finances, finances of the civil society institutions, financial resources, expenditures, efficiency of civil society finances, political corruption, de-shadowing of civil society finances, financial crimes, financial support of social and economic development, financial instruments, social responsibility.
