The purpose of the article is generalization of the basic results of research of the author over the last 5 years. The article defines historically developed motives of charity in Russia, allocates problems of development of charity connected mainly with standard-legal regulation of this activity, for assistance of development of corporate charity some recommendations are offered. The analysis of charity practice in Russia shows that charity starts to be used more and more as an element of the corporate strategy aimed to increase capitalization of companies. The merciful nature of charity keeps the value, but key features in modern charity are connected with «responsibility» and «efficiency».