Abstract
The study focuses on the Russian practice of institutionalizing non-governmental social-service providers. The paper discusses the arrangements for the transfer of governmental social services under the terms of budget financing to commercial and non-profit organizations. The authors proceed from the fact that although there are uniform institutional conditions for the formation of the non-governmental sector in the field of social services, established by the federal center, most of the rules and procedures which determine the implementation of this process are defined on the level of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation. The paper explores the practices of three regions: Perm, the Republic of Bashkortostan and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra. These regions are recognized as the leaders in the process of diversification of social services. The analysis made it possible to identify the general and the particular in the regional processes of the transfer of social services to the non-governmental sector.