Herman Gref, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank and Natalia Vodianova, Founder of the Naked Heart Foundation, a charity that supports children, have signed an agreement on holding the Green Marathon Running Hearts on 27 May 2018. This will be the seventh edition of Sberbank’s charity run and the second year in a row that it will be held with the Naked Heart Foundation.

      Green Marathon Running Hearts will be held in 54 cities across Russia and in other countries where Sberbank Group is present. More than 150,000 people will take part in these events. In keeping with tradition, the main run will take place in Moscow, where for the first time the starting line will be on Vasilevsky Slope in the city centre. The programme of the marathon includes runs of 4.2 km (including for wheelchair users), 10 km and 21.1 km (starting at the same time), a concert on Red Square, and an award ceremony for the winners of the marathon.

      In 2017, marathons held in cities where Sberbank operates and the new joint project in Moscow – Green Marathon Running Hearts – became one of the country’s most successful charity sporting events, raising a record 50,000,000 roubles. All funds were donated to the Naked Heart Foundation to help develop its project for providing early support to young children with development disorders such as autism, Down’s syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Thanks to the money that was raised, more than 500 families in five cities received access to free support services at early intervention centres, early assistance services, and nurseries that carry out the Naked Hearts project.

      The Running Hearts charity run was founded by Polina Kitsenko and Natalia Vodianova in 2015 to support the programmes carried out by Naked Hearts.