Romania

Introduction to Philanthropy Research in Romania

By Lev Fejes

Research on philanthropy in Romania remains relatively limited and fragmented. Government institutions do not provide comprehensive, interconnected and regularly updated information on civil society or philanthropic funding, making it difficult to establish the size, activities and financial contribution of the sector.

Until recently, Romania also lacked a dedicated academic infrastructure for philanthropy research. An important development was the establishment of the Research Center for Civil Society in 2024 under the Center for the Study of Democracy at Babe?-Bolyai University.

In the absence of extensive academic research, civil-society organisations, funders and support organisations have played an important role in producing data. Key contributors include the Civil Society Development Foundation (CSDF), the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Babe?-Bolyai University, the Association for Community Relations (ARC), and the F?g?ra? Research Institute. ARC periodically produces national studies on philanthropic behaviour, while CSDF publishes broader research on Romania’s civil-society sector.

International sources such as the USAID Civil Society Sustainability Index, Global Philanthropy Environment Index, CAF World Giving Index and CIVICUS also contribute to understanding Romanian philanthropy. Nevertheless, substantial gaps remain, particularly in relation to foundations and corporate giving.

Overview of Giving in Romania

Giving by individuals

Individual giving is the best-documented component of Romanian philanthropy, although there is still no systematic national measurement covering all forms of giving.

A 2024 CSDF study found that 24% of the Romanian population had donated to NGOs in 2023. A separate ARC study focusing on adults aged 18–65 living in urban areas found considerably higher levels of participation: 52% reported donating money during 2023, and 63% of these donors supported NGOs.

Giving patterns differ between urban and rural areas. NGOs receive a substantial share of donations in cities, whereas churches are typically the most important recipients in rural communities. Individuals and families in need are significant recipients in both settings.

The ARC survey provides the most detailed available estimate of monetary giving. Based on these data, total individual donations are estimated at between 2.23 and 2.26 billion RON, with the upper estimate corresponding to approximately €447.6 million.

Health is an important area of support: 53% of donors reported supporting health-related NGOs and 34% donated to hospitals. Environmental, nature and animal-related causes were supported by 36% of donors, international aid, human rights and refugee causes by 29%, education and research by 23%, religious NGOs by 22%, sport and recreation by 15%, and culture by 14%.

Many people support more than one type of recipient. Thirty-six per cent donated to both NGOs and religious institutions, 37% supported NGOs as well as individuals or families in need, and 27% donated to all three categories.

Several established donation mechanisms also provide partial administrative data. SMS giving generated approximately €13.46 million, while direct-debit donations amounted to around €3.22 million and involved 71,650 donors. The 3.5% personal income-tax redirection mechanism generated approximately €76 million from more than 2.36 million taxpayers. These channels are components of the wider giving landscape and should not simply be added to the survey-based €447.6 million estimate.

The principal ARC survey consisted of 2,179 urban adults aged 18–65, including 1,114 donors and 1,065 non-donors. Its methodology was designed partly to improve comparability with earlier Romanian research and with international studies such as Giving in the Netherlands.

Bequest giving

The Romania chapter does not provide a national estimate for charitable bequests. No systematic figure is available for either the total value of charitable legacies or their distribution across causes.

Bequests are therefore recorded as not available in the overview of Romanian philanthropic contributions.

Corporate giving

Corporate support for nonprofit organisations is strongly influenced by Romania’s tax-credit system. Companies may redirect up to 20% of their corporate income tax liability, or 0.75% of annual turnover if this is lower, to nonprofit organisations.

Use of this mechanism is far from universal. In 2020, only around 8% of Romanian companies used the provision. An initial estimate suggested that companies used approximately 41% of the total amount potentially available for sponsorship, corresponding to around €361 million out of a theoretical €881 million.

Updated information from the National Agency for Fiscal Administration subsequently showed approximately €497.7 million in corporate sponsorships, increasing the estimated utilisation rate to 56.5%.

However, these redirected taxes are considered tax redistribution rather than voluntary philanthropic giving and are therefore not included in the chapter’s estimate of Romanian philanthropy. They nevertheless constitute an important source of NGO funding.

A 2022 survey by EY Romania and ARC provides additional evidence on corporate behaviour. Among the 150 participating companies, just over 50% reported supporting NGOs. Of these forms of support, 71.4% involved monetary sponsorship, 25.7% product donations and 2.9% pro-bono services.

Despite these data, Romania lacks a comprehensive estimate of genuinely voluntary corporate philanthropy. There is no national database combining monetary giving, non-cash contributions, tax-based sponsorship and information on recipient organisations and causes.

Foundations

Information on foundation giving is particularly limited. The number of Romanian foundations possessing endowments is unknown, and no central database systematically records foundation grantmaking.

The principal available source is the Donors’ Platform, a voluntary collaboration involving 15 major civil-society funders. In 2020, these funders reported investments of approximately €23.5 million across 807 projects in 16 areas of activity.

Health received approximately €5.95 million and education €5.77 million. Environmental protection received €2.84 million and support for vulnerable groups €2.54 million. NGO-sector development received €1.83 million, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship €1.13 million, rural development €0.82 million, philanthropy €0.79 million and community development €0.55 million. Other areas, including arts and culture, charity, research, active citizenship, urban development and sport, together received approximately €1.70 million.

These figures represent only the 15 participating funders. They do not cover the entire foundation sector and do not isolate grantmaking financed specifically from endowment returns. The €23.5 million figure should therefore be treated as a partial indication rather than an estimate of total foundation giving.

The broader foundation landscape is much larger. The 2024 CSDF research identified 19,046 active registered foundations in Romania, but very little systematic information is available on their activities, funding priorities, income or financial contributions.

Charity lotteries

The Romania chapter does not provide a national estimate for philanthropic giving through charity lotteries. Charity-lottery contributions are therefore recorded as not available in the national overview.

Sources of Contributions in Romania

A comprehensive estimate of total philanthropic giving in Romania cannot currently be calculated. Individual giving is the most developed area of research and provides an estimated upper value of approximately €447.6 million. Data on foundations cover only 15 voluntarily reporting funders, while bequests and charity lotteries are not systematically measured and corporate data are dominated by tax-redirection statistics that are not classified as voluntary philanthropy.

The conclusion table in the publication brings together these fragmented sources, but the underlying figures refer to different years and levels of coverage. They should therefore not be added to produce a national total. In particular, the €23.5 million foundation figure comes from 2020, while the individual-giving estimate is derived from the 2023 ARC survey.

Romania’s main challenge is therefore not an absence of philanthropic activity but an absence of integrated data infrastructure. Existing datasets on SMS giving, direct debit, tax redirection, corporate support, individual giving and foundations cannot readily be connected because they lack common identifying variables.

Source

Fejes, L. (2026). Philanthropy in Romania. In B. Hoolwerf & J. Vamstad (Eds.), Philanthropy in Europe: Mapping Research and Data on Donations by Households, Bequests, Foundations, Corporations and Charity Lotteries (pp. 249–260). European Research Network on Philanthropy.

You can download the full publication here: Philanthropy in Europe.