We are pleased to invite you to the 6th professional meeting of endowment funds in Kazakhstan.

Date: October 5, 2026

Venue: Astana Medical University, 49A Beibitshilik Street, Astana

Registration:

https://forms.gle/bPuRdZADdrcU9hR79

The main topic of the meeting is responsible investment, including Islamic finance and its application to endowment funds, as well as international experience in this field.

The first part of the meeting will focus on the concept and instruments of Islamic finance. The second part will address legislative developments and provide an opportunity to exchange experience in establishing and registering endowment funds.

Since the previous meeting, several new endowment funds have been established, while organisations preparing to launch endowment funds have continued the registration process. The activity of management companies in this area has also increased.

Organisers:

• Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• Corporate Foundation “Aurora-Ala”;
• Public Foundation “AMU Endowment Development Fund”;
• Association of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan.

The meeting is supported by Halyk Finance and Standard.

For additional information, please contact:
aurora.ala.fund@gmail.com
+7 981 735 05 84 — Daniya

Programme

09:45–10:00 Registration and welcome coffee

10:00–10:30 Opening remarks

10:30–13:30 Responsible Investment: Fundamentals and Practice

• Concepts, fundamentals and international experience in responsible investment by endowment funds and other organisations;
• Development of endowment funds in Kazakhstan and the connection between the national philanthropic tradition of “Enshi” and responsible investment, including Islamic finance;
• Fundamentals of Islamic finance;
• Development of Islamic finance in Central Asia;
• Islamic finance instruments available on Kazakhstan’s financial market, including the experience of Halyk Finance Management Company;
• Experience in developing Islamic finance in the Russian Federation.

The session will feature representatives of the Muslim Board of Kazakhstan, the Association of Islamic Finance and Business of Kazakhstan, and relevant financial organisations.

13:30–14:30 Discussion

14:30–15:30 Lunch

15:30–16:00 Tour of the Simulation Centre of Astana Medical University

16:00–16:30 Current and planned legislative changes

16:30–17:30 Exchange of experience in the establishment and registration of endowment funds

17:30–18:00 Closing remarks
Informal programme for participants

At the invitation of the Project Office of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, joined the working group tasked with developing a regulatory policy advisory document for the draft Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Endowment Funds” as an expert in endowment capital.

Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, spoke at the webinar “Endowment Funds and University Management,” held as part of the new educational project “Powerful Platform for Sharing Experience” by the Kazakhstan League of Academic Integrity at AlmaU.

Svetlana spoke to the heads of more than 20 universities in Kazakhstan about the concept of endowment funds, why an endowment is a key factor in a university’s strategic sustainability, and the relationship between a university’s funding strategy and the professionalization of university management.

Approximately 70 people took part in the webinar. Participants showed particular interest in the pre-revolutionary history of endowments, or “perpetual deposits,” in Kazakhstan.

On November 1, the III International Endowment Conference was held at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University with the support of the National Endowment Association of Russia and the Aurora-Ala Foundation. The participants included representatives of government authorities, universities, endowment funds, and the financial sector from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Following a presentation by Farhad Kuanganov, Adviser to the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, on the development of the draft law on endowment funds in Kazakhstan, Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and Alexey Anisin, Director of the National Endowment Association of Russia, spoke about the current state of the endowment sector and the history of perpetual deposits in pre-revolutionary Russia.

In the second part of the conference, Svetlana held a master class on building successful fundraising campaigns, while Alexey spoke about how endowment communities operate, using the National Endowment Association and NACUBO as examples. At the end of the conference, the participants discussed the establishment of an endowment association in Kazakhstan.

On October 19, the VI Capital Markets Kazakhstan Conference, organized by Cbonds Congress in partnership with the National Endowment Association of Russia (NEA), was held in Almaty.

The Capital Markets Kazakhstan conference is a unique platform for communication among representatives of the banking community and the real economy.

The speakers included representatives of regulators, stock exchanges, leading domestic and international banks, international rating agencies, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, delivered a presentation titled “Endowments: A New Type of Investor in Post-Soviet Countries.” She spoke about endowments as a tool for sustainable development and systematic support of the country’s entire nonprofit sector.

As Kazakhstan is currently working actively on a draft law on endowment funds, the presentation generated considerable interest. With the support of the NEA, representatives of universities and nonprofit organizations from Kazakhstan were given the opportunity to attend the conference free of charge.

On October 26 and 27, Alexey Anisin, Director of the National Endowment Association of Russia, Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and Evgeny Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Foundation, conducted training on the fundamentals of endowments for the heads and staff of universities and nonprofit organizations in Kazakhstan.

The two-day programme covered the concept of endowments, the current state of the global endowment market, successful fundraising, investment and income distribution principles, as well as trends and prospects in the endowment sector.

More than 20 participants actively engaged with our lecturers over the two days and gained practical knowledge for successfully establishing endowments in Kazakhstan.

On February 15, MAQSUT NARIKBAYEV UNIVERSITY and the Aurora-Ala Foundation signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. The event was held to mark the opening of the MIND Research Center.

At the opening ceremony, representatives of the Institute for the Rule of Law at the European University at St. Petersburg, Dmitry Skugarevsky, a member of the Aurora-Ala Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and Dmitry Serebrennikov, presented the findings of several studies, including an analysis of regulatory and supervisory activities in Kazakhstan, as well as reports on the spatial aspects of crime in Astana and Almaty.

On April 3, 2024, a meeting was held in Almaty between Vadim Volkov, Rector of the European University at St. Petersburg, and the rectors of Kazakhstan-British Technical University, the International University of Information Technologies, Astana IT University, Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications named after Gumarbek Daukeyev, and the University of International Business. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Aurora-Ala Foundation and East Kazakhstan Technical University.

The meeting was held as part of the work of the University Alliance of Science and Technology, established by the aforementioned Kazakhstani universities to create an integrated research and educational environment for training competitive professionals by pooling human, material, technical, and other resources.

The participants discussed potential academic and research cooperation projects between the universities and the European University at St. Petersburg, to be developed with the support of the Aurora-Ala Foundation.

On April 5, a meeting of Kazakhstan’s endowment funds was held in Almaty. The meeting was attended by representatives of endowment funds, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, investment companies, the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, and endowment funds from Russia. More than 40 people took part in total.

Farhad Kuanganov, Head of the Project Office of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, spoke about the changes expected to affect endowment funds following the adoption of the Law on Endowment Funds (Endowments), which has currently been submitted to the Mazhilis of the Parliament for consideration. He also presented the latest amendments to the draft law.

Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Aurora-Ala Foundation’s Board of Trustees, presented statistical data on the activities of Russian and U.S. endowment funds. Particular attention was paid to the trust management of endowment assets, which was discussed by representatives of investment companies.

The activities of existing endowment funds were presented by their heads. At the end of the event, the participants discussed current challenges facing endowment funds in connection with the adoption of the law and ways to address them.

Following the event, the participants adopted an appeal addressed to members of the Mazhilis of the Parliament, calling on them to support the draft law. The appeal emphasized the need for tax incentives to support the development of the country’s endowment funds.

The next meeting is planned to be held at the Republican Physics and Mathematics School in Almaty.

The participants agreed to hold similar meetings regularly, highlighting their effectiveness in building the endowment community and advancing the sector’s agenda.

The event was organized by the Project Office of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan in partnership with the Aurora-Ala Foundation and the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, with the support of the investment companies Standard and Tansar Capital and the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan.

In autumn 2026, the European University at St. Petersburg is launching a new continuing professional education program on the architecture of complex systems, "Philosophy, Mathematics, and Computer Science."

This new postgraduate program will teach participants to think about complex systems with mathematical rigor, philosophical depth, and engineering responsibility. It offers a language for working with problems that have not yet been formulated, in conditions where intuition is no longer sufficient and existing paradigms describe an outdated world.

The program will be valuable to entrepreneurs, engineers, developers, researchers, analysts, systems architects, specialists working at the intersection of IT and the humanities, and anyone who wishes to understand the structure of sociotechnical and distributed systems at a fundamental level, rather than settling for memorizing yet another set of tool-specific solutions.

The program consists of online sessions held in the evenings, complemented by three intensive two-day in-person sessions in St. Petersburg. It begins on 11 September 2026 and lasts nine months.

Upon completing the program, participants will:

• begin to see a distributed system as a whole, with emergent properties, a lifecycle, causality, and data flows;
• learn to describe system architecture using philosophical concepts and mathematical methods, and to translate it into reliable engineering solutions;
• be able to analyze multi-agent systems in which participants have different levels of information and different goals, and to design solutions in which knowledge is asymmetrically distributed.

Academic Directors of the program:

• Ilya Egorychev, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, mathematician, philosopher, and logician.
• Andrey Rodin, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, specialist in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the epistemology of computational knowledge representation; Associate Researcher at Université Paris Cité (France).
• Vyacheslav Shirikov, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Lartech Group.

Further information about the program is available on the program website.

On May 21–22, the “Perpetual Endowments” Assembly of the National Endowment Association (NEA) was held in St. Petersburg. Svetlana Lavrova and Evgeny Mokhovikov took part in organizing the event.

Representatives of the Project Office of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Kazakh State Women’s Teacher Training University, and Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University also attended the event.

More than 270 people from 165 organizations took part, including universities and schools, research organizations, museums and theatres, charitable organizations and foundations, federal and regional executive authorities, endowment funds, and asset management companies.

On the first day of the Assembly, May 21, the All-Russian exhibition “Endowment EXPO: Education, Science and the Social Sector” was held at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. The exhibitors included leading universities, endowment funds, and asset management companies.

The exhibition presented best practices in community engagement, fundraising to attract non-budgetary funding, and the use of the endowment mechanism to support nonprofit organizations.

The second day of the Assembly, May 22, took place at the Farmer’s Palace on the grounds of the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve. Two closed-door sessions were held for heads of endowment funds and financial management companies: the Visionary Session “Working with Eternity” and Investment Committee 2.0.

The participants discussed industry trends and development prospects, as well as specific actions and projects aimed at advancing the sector.

This year, two citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan who have been admitted to the English-language master's program "Eurasian Connectivity: Data-Driven Regional Studies" at the European University at St. Petersburg will be eligible to apply for funding that covers their tuition fees and partially covers their living expenses in St. Petersburg, under the charitable program of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation.

The program "Eurasian Connectivity: Data-Driven Regional Studies" is delivered by the Center for Eurasian Studies of the European University at St. Petersburg, in collaboration with the School of Computational Social Science, the ENERPRO Research Center, and the Center for Science and Technology Studies. The program combines training in international relations and regional studies with modern data analysis methods and digital research tools, offering a fresh perspective on Eurasia as a space of interconnected political, economic, and social processes.

The program focuses on Russia, Central Asia, China, Turkey, and the Arctic, viewed as parts of a single system of regional connectivity.

One of the program's key strengths is its interdisciplinary character. Students receive a solid grounding in area studies and international relations, and also master big data analysis methods, quantitative and qualitative research approaches, modern digital tools, and the methods of computational social science.

Through a partnership with East China Normal University, students gain access to international research projects and academic mobility opportunities in China. Master's students are integrated into the research teams of the European University from the very beginning of their studies.

Detailed information about the program, admission requirements, and application deadlines is available on the program website.

You can also listen to a podcast in which Igor Khodachek, Director of the Center for Eurasian Studies and Vice-Rector for Research at the European University at St. Petersburg, and Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, discuss why students from Kazakhstan choose to study in Russia, what may make the international relations program at the European University particularly appealing to them, and what steps are required to obtain a scholarship.

On 18 June 2026, the XXII Eurasian Capital Markets Forum was held in Borovoye, Kazakhstan. In her address at the event, Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aurora-Ala Foundation (Kazakhstan), Chair of the Management Board of the National Endowment Association of Russia, and Executive Director of the EUSP Foundation, highlighted the distinctive features of how the endowment mechanism is developing across the Eurasian region. She presented endowments as a universal instrument that operates on two levels. On the one hand, it is the only mechanism for systemic support of the nonprofit sector and universities, ensuring their strategic sustainability and independence. On the other hand, endowments are one of the key sources of "long money" in the economy, which is essential for structural investment and for strengthening the financial systems of the countries of the Eurasian region.

The expert provided an international overview covering the world's largest endowments, Japan's University Fund with its unique funding structure, and the practices of Indonesia, the UAE, and Singapore.

In her presentation, Svetlana Lavrova shared up-to-date data on Kazakhstan and Russia, confirming steady growth in both markets. She noted that, despite differences in regulatory models, the countries of the region show a common trend toward the institutionalization of endowments and their integration into national economic systems.

A separate part of the address was devoted to the government support measures required for the further spread of the endowment mechanism across Eurasia. Svetlana Lavrova stressed the importance of donation co-financing programs and tax incentives for donors, which have proven to be effective incentives in many countries. She also encouraged colleagues to consider unconventional approaches, in particular Japan's experience, where the endowment principal is formed in part through special repayable government loans. In conclusion, she noted that the further development of endowments in Eurasia requires systematic work to strengthen the expertise of professionals in the sector.

On 30 April, the milestone Fifth Professional Meeting of Endowments of Kazakhstan was held.

The meeting was traditionally organized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MSHE) and the Aurora-Ala Foundation, with the active participation of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and the support of the Standard Investment Company.

The meeting was opened with welcoming remarks by Gulzhan Dzharasova, Chair of the Committee on Higher and Postgraduate Education of the MSHE. She spoke about the prospects for the development of endowments, including plans to launch pilot endowment funds and objectives for increasing their capitalization, and made special mention of the contribution of Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, to the development of the sector.

Participants discussed key issues in the development of the sector:

• the registration and re-registration of endowment funds;
• legislative amendments developed following the outcomes of the Fourth Professional Meeting of Endowments of Kazakhstan.

As is customary, an important part of the event was a segment devoted to presentations by various endowment funds. Timur Makenov, Director of the Science and Education Endowment Fund (a corporate endowment fund), presented the Fund's concept and immediate plans to the community publicly for the first time. In the educational segment, Nadezhda Yusupova delivered an interactive lecture on fundraising from corporate donors. She emphasized the importance of this type of donor for endowment funds, given the significant tax preferences available to endowment contributors.

At the close of the meeting, Farkhad Kuanganov announced the launch of the Kazakhstan Endowment Association and described its objectives and operating principles in detail.

Concluding the event, Svetlana Lavrova extended special thanks to the hosts of the meeting, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, for organizing the event and supporting the development of a new type of institutional investor. She also invited participants to the "Perpetual Contributions" Assembly of the National Endowment Association of Russia, to be held in St. Petersburg in May 2026. In her address, she gave particular attention to the professionalization of specialists in the sector, which will continue on a permanent basis within the partnership between the Aurora-Ala Foundation and SDU University.

ALMATY, 29 April 2026 — The Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, in partnership with SDU University, has announced the completion of the first professional 72-hour program in Central Asia, "Fundamentals of Endowments and Fundraising." The program, aimed at professionalizing the endowment sector, concluded on 29 April 2026 with the graduation of 29 specialists.

Regional Significance and Scale of Training

The program was developed under the leadership of Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and launched four months after the signing of a Memorandum of Partnership in November 2025 at the Fourth Professional Meeting of Endowments of Kazakhstan.

The 29 participants included representatives of various regions and organizations across Kazakhstan, including universities, foundations, and commercial companies. The course covered all key aspects of working with endowments, including:

• the history and prospects of the endowment mechanism;
• registration and re-registration of a fund;
• fundamentals of fundraising;
• investment of assets and distribution of income;
• accounting, tax accounting, and auditing.

On completing the course, graduates presented practical assignments in which they outlined approaches to developing endowment mechanisms and plans for implementing them in their own organizations.

Ceremony and Future Plans

At the certificate award ceremony, Farkhad Kuanganov, author of the concept of the Law on Endowment Funds and Director of the Kazakhstan Endowment Association, gave a farewell address, stressing the importance of developing the professional community and strengthening expertise in the sector. He noted that "the sector is currently going through a 'zero' stage of formation, with an enormous amount of work ahead, so it is important for everyone to engage in educational outreach wherever they are."

Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, one of the experts who supported the creation of the sector's legislation and a specialist with many years of international experience, observed: "Training specialists addresses two objectives: raising the professional level and developing the community. Both are important, one might say, to an equal degree. Now that the law has come into force, we see strong demand for trained specialists, and therefore our programs focus on applied and urgent issues. In the future, we will deepen and broaden the range of topics, moving toward the creation of a large, comprehensive program."

During the meeting between the leadership of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation and SDU University, the parties agreed to expand and deepen their joint programs and to relaunch the basic course in autumn 2026. Svetlana Lavrova announced further regular educational programs and alumni reunions to support the steady development of Kazakhstan's endowment community.

On 21 April 2026, an international forum devoted to the development of endowment funds and to cooperation between universities, their alumni, and their patrons was held at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Endowment Fund, took part in the event.

The forum addressed the development of higher education, the cultivation of a culture of charitable giving, international cooperation, and mechanisms for the sustainable financing of universities.

On 8 April 2026, a practical seminar devoted to a new type of institutional investor, endowment funds, was held at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). The keynote speaker was Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, who gave a detailed explanation of how endowments work.

The expert described endowments as the "closest relatives" of pension funds, noting their shared long-term horizon and professional approach to asset management. At the same time, he underscored their particular value: "It is one of the key instruments of sustainable development and systemic support for universities and the nonprofit sector."

According to Evgeniy Mokhovikov, the emergence of such funds creates a new niche for financial companies and stimulates demand for trust management. The speaker forecast rapid growth for the sector: "A multiple-fold increase in capitalization and the emergence of dozens of new funds are expected over the next three years."

Seminar participants discussed every stage of establishing an endowment, from fundraising to the distribution of income among beneficiaries. Particular attention was paid to the incentives required, above all tax benefits, that would allow endowments to become full-fledged participants in Kazakhstan's financial market.

On 17–18 November 2025, the Fourth Professional Meeting of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan took place in Almaty. It was organized by Almaty Technological University and the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, with the support of the National Center for the Development of Higher Education of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the National Endowment Association of Russia.

More than 100 representatives of 26 universities, endowment funds, and asset management companies from Kazakhstan and Russia took part in the event.

The two-day program focused on practical issues in managing and investing endowment funds, as well as on the exchange of experience between Kazakh and Russian universities following the entry into force of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Target Capital Funds and Endowment Funds."

The meeting was moderated by Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, and Farkhad Kuanganov, Adviser to the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"The growing response with each successive meeting reflects the rising interest in the endowment sector in Kazakhstan: for the first time, we received more than one hundred applications to participate, not only from funds but also from the financial market. It is also important to note the willingness of many universities to 'test the waters,' as well as the financiers' understanding of both the social and the business benefits," says Svetlana Lavrova.

During the meeting, a memorandum of cooperation was signed on the launch of a joint educational project between the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation and Suleyman Demirel University (SDU) [link: https://sdu.edu.kz/professionalizasya-rukovoditelei-i-sotrudnikov-endaument-fondov/].

As part of the cultural program, participants visited the Tanbaly Tas petroglyphs, where they became acquainted with a unique site on the UNESCO World Heritage List and also had the opportunity to interact in an informal setting.

At the conclusion of the event, on 18 November, participants took a guided tour of the recently opened Almaty Museum of Modern Art. The program included a closed professional session in which the museum team described in detail its plans for the museum's development, the formation of its endowment, and the specifics and mechanisms of fundraising.

Because endowments are of particular interest to the financial sector as unique clients, the general sponsors of the meeting were the investment companies Halyk Finance and Standard, which expressed deep interest in supporting and developing this field.

Photographs from the event can be viewed at the following link: [link: https://disk.yandex.kz/d/8rbr557Rf7y04A]

On 10 October 2025, the Third Professional Meeting of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan was held in Almaty. It was organized by Kazakh-British Technical University and the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, with the support of the National Center for the Development of Higher Education of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The meeting focused on the practical steps involved in establishing endowment funds for universities and other social-sector organizations, following the entry into force of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Target Capital Funds and Endowment Funds."

Participants discussed key issues related to the principles of forming and managing such funds, the procedure for registering them, and trust management.

The key challenges for the sector that significantly affect the pace of its development are, first, a high degree of distrust toward investing; second, barriers to engaging with potential donors; third, the need to professionalize sector personnel; and a number of others.

At the meeting, particular attention was given to investment issues, with the aim of overcoming distrust within the endowment sector, which stems largely from a lack of understanding of how the financial market operates. For this reason, participants showed particular interest in the introductory meeting with representatives of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), which concluded the event. The visit to the exchange gave endowment staff a deeper insight into how Kazakhstan's financial market works and prompted a lively discussion among participants.

We thank the sponsors of the event, the KBTU Endowment Fund and the Standard investment company, as well as our partners and, of course, the representatives of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, with whom we plan to continue cooperating on a regular basis.

On 9 October 2025, the VIII Capital Markets Kazakhstan Conference was held in Almaty, attended by representatives of 11 countries. It is a key platform for dialogue among representatives of the banking sector, the investment community, and the real sector of the economy.

During the plenary session, participants discussed the most pressing issues concerning the development of the financial market of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region, as well as the regulation and infrastructure of the securities market.

Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, delivered a presentation on the significance of endowment funds and their influence on the efficiency and stability of the financial market. In her address, she noted in particular that the development of the endowment sector plays an important role in ensuring long-term financing and contributing to the success of the country's entire financial market.

We are pleased to share that Evgeniy Mokhovikov has been awarded an official commendation by Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The high appreciation was expressed for his significant contribution to the development of endowments in the country, as well as for his active support of long-term initiatives of important public significance.

The development of endowments plays a key role in the sustainable financing of educational and nonprofit projects. Recognition at this level confirms the relevance and value of the work accomplished and inspires further steps in this direction.

We congratulate Evgeniy on this well-deserved recognition and wish him continued success in his professional endeavors!

Date: 10 October 2025

Time: 10:00

Venue: Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU), 59 Tole Bi Street, Almaty

Registration is required via this link.

We invite:

• Representatives of universities and nonprofit organizations planning to establish endowments
• Managers, lawyers, and specialists of existing endowment funds

Meeting topic:

"First Practical Steps in Establishing an Endowment Fund"

The program includes:

• Principles of establishing an endowment fund
• The step-by-step procedure for establishing a fund under the new law
• The experience of the KBTU Endowment Fund
• Trust management: basic principles of working with asset management companies
• Q&A session
• Tour of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE): an immersion in the infrastructure of Kazakhstan's financial market

The event is held in cooperation with Kazakh-British Technical University, leading endowment funds, and asset management companies, with the expert participation of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation.

Seating is limited!

On 2 October 2025, the Fifth International Endowment Forum was held at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, took part in the forum.

The forum aimed to bring together experts and practitioners to discuss the establishment, development, and effective management of endowment funds.

The speakers included Gulzat Kobenova, Vice Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan; representatives of foreign universities (University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Izmir Katip Celebi University, MGIMO University, and NUST MISIS) and of the Potanin Foundation; and representatives of the country's leading universities, of Kazakhstan's endowments, and of the academic community researching endowment funds, among others.

On 9 October, we invite you to the VIII annual Capital Markets Kazakhstan conference, a key platform for the professional community: regulators, exchanges, banks, and real-sector companies.

For endowment funds, participation in the conference is a unique opportunity not only to immerse themselves in the financial world but also to meet all of the country's key financial companies, as well as the owners and top management of leading Kazakh corporations, who are potential donors.

Last year, the conference brought together more than 190 delegates from 10 countries: Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Malta, and the UAE.

The Aurora-Ala Foundation traditionally invites representatives of universities and nonprofit organizations to take part. Our partners receive a 20% discount on standard participation with the promo code Avrora_ala.

For residents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic: 105,000 KZT.

Register and view participation details

Key topics of the program:

• Kazakhstan's financial market: strategic development priorities
• The local bond market as the foundation of the financial system
• Central Asia's macroeconomy in the new economic reality
• Digital transformation of finance: from experiments to the mainstream
• International investment and the global integration of capital markets

The list of confirmed participants: link

We look forward to seeing you among the participants and partners of the conference!

For questions about participation and the program, don't hesitate to get in touch with Anna Volodina: av@cbonds.info

On 11 July, Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, spoke at the National Center for the Development of Higher Education at a meeting devoted to the Law on Target Capital Funds and Endowment Funds.

Evgeniy described the history of the Foundation's work and the advantages Kazakhstan offers foreign investors (universities and social organizations) planning to establish an endowment fund in Central Asia. In his address, he also touched on the near-term prospects for the development of Kazakhstan's endowment sector, including, of course, the financial market, as well as possible approaches to the professionalization of endowment fund staff.

The XXI Eurasian Bond Congress was held on 26 and 27 June 2025. This year, the forum brought together leading experts, investors, and representatives of public and private institutions from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries of the region.

The Congress focused on the most pressing trends: the development of local capital markets, the digital transformation of financial instruments, and new investment opportunities amid the global economic restructuring. Participants discussed ways to stimulate domestic demand for debt instruments, prospects for the growth of financial markets, and the potential of digital assets and blockchain technologies.

One of the speakers was Evgeniy Mokhovikov, Executive Director of the Aurora-Ala Corporate Foundation, who spoke about Kazakhstan's experience in developing endowment funds and about the prospects of this mechanism for the strategic sustainability of the social sphere in Central Asia. Evgeniy paid particular attention to the prospects for cooperation between the endowment sector and the financial market to stimulate the development of endowment funds.

The Congress confirmed growing investor interest in the region and reinforced Central Asia's status as an important hub for attracting capital and innovation in debt financing.

On 5 October 2026, the VI Professional Meeting of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan was held at NJSC "Astana Medical University". The event was organised by the Corporate Fund "Aurora-Ala" in partnership with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MSHE RK), the Association of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan, and the host party — PFTC "AMU Endowment Development Fund". The main theme of the meeting was responsible investment, including Islamic finance and the opportunities for its use in the target capital sector in Kazakhstan.

The meeting was sponsored by the asset management companies Halyk Finance and Standard.

The endowment community in Kazakhstan is developing rapidly: its permanent core numbers 40–50 specialists, and each meeting attracts dozens of registrations. There is also steady interest from the financial market, demonstrating the growing importance of this type of client for management companies.

The meeting programme traditionally consisted of two substantive parts. In the first part, the central focus was on meaningful issues of responsible investment, including the opportunities for using Islamic finance to develop target capital. The session was opened by Svetlana Lavrova, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Corporate Fund "Aurora-Ala", who spoke about international experience in implementing responsible investment and proposed a framework for the possible application of Islamic finance to endowment funds in Kazakhstan. In the next presentation, Farkhad Kuanganov, Chair of the Management Board of the Association of Endowment Funds of Kazakhstan, spoke about the historical continuity of the Kazakh philanthropic tradition "Enshi" and modern endowments.

Nurzhan Stambakiyev, Head of the Islamic Finance Sector at the Sharia and Fatwa Department of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan, focused in detail on the fundamentals of Islamic finance and dispelled numerous myths surrounding this topic. The theme was continued by Madina Tukulova, Chair of the Association of Islamic Finance and Business of Kazakhstan and Head of the Islamic Finance Department at the AIFC, who outlined the dynamics of market development in Central Asia and proposed providing for both the possibility of creating endowments based on the waqf model and investing the assets of traditional endowments in Islamic financial instruments.

Islamic financial instruments available to endowments, launched in the summer of this year within the "Islamic window" of JSC "Halyk Finance", were presented by Kuanysh Tuyakov, Deputy Director of the Asset Management Department of the company. The block concluded with a presentation by Laura Sugrobova, Head of Endowments at the "Rybakov Fund", who shared international examples of endowments using Islamic financial instruments and institutions established as waqfs, with particular attention to practical experience in Russia.

In the second part, Timur Makenov, Director of the CFTC "Endowment Fund of Science and Education" and co-author of the Law on Endowment Funds, explained which legislative changes appear necessary from the standpoint of current fund practice. The topic resonated strongly: funds have already accumulated practical experience, and new questions, problems and solutions are emerging that will need to be further elaborated and discussed. Participants fully supported the proposed initiatives.

An important part of the discussion in the second part of the meeting was the exploration of opportunities for investing endowment fund assets through mutual investment funds (PIFs), which have appeared quite recently, as described by Sanzhar Seitkasimov, Managing Director of Standard Asset Management Company. This solution makes trust management of assets more accessible for start-up funds and minimizes management companies' costs of working with them, making such funds attractive clients for the financial market.

The meeting concluded with a lively discussion on the registration and re-registration of endowment funds, featuring Timur Makenov (CFTC "Endowment Fund of Science and Education"), Anar Romazanova (PFTC "AMU Endowment Development Fund") and Assel Kalambayeva (CFTC "Endowment ATU").

The meeting also announced the launch of the second cohort of the professional development programme "Fundamentals of Endowments and Fundraising". The training will take place in November–December 2026. Until 16 October, a preferential participation fee of 400,000 tenge applies (the standard fee is 500,000 tenge). Detailed information and registration are available in the educational programmes section of the "Aurora-Ala" Fund website.

Despite the long and intensive programme, participants remained highly engaged until the end of the meeting and continued their professional dialogue during the informal part.

The agenda for the next meeting is currently being developed by the organizers, taking into consideration current sectoral issues, accumulated practical experience and the need to continue educational work. It will be made available in due course.