Czech Republic

Current state of Giving Research in the Czech Republic

Data on giving in the Czech Republic are collected by the Czech Statistical Office. The annual reports on nonprofit organizations include also the information on “Contributions and gifts received”, as a subcategory of “Other revenues” of nonprofits. The data are presented only in aggregate, as specified in detail below. In 2002, the Czech Statistical Office adopted a new methodology to monitor volunteering, and the data are also available in aggregate in the annual reports on nonprofits (www.czso.cz). These data are reported by nonprofit organizations, i.e. the receiving party.

Data on giving and philanthropic behaviour from donors are not collected on a regular basis and are, therefore, available to a limited extent typically from ad hoc surveys conducted by market research companies at the request of local nonprofits.

A summary of giving data is available at the main information portal for nonprofits in the CR (www.neziskovky.cz). The main surveys conducted in the last 5 years have been: surveys performed by a market research company STEM in 2004 and 2006 for NROS, the Foundation for Development of Civil Society; a survey focused on environmental organizations conducted in 2003 by Nadace Partnerstvi, of the foundation Partnership; a survey of Market Vision for Spiralis in 2003; and surveys by Factum Invenio for the Czech office of UNICEF in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The last survey in 2006 was extended for additional questions in a survey conducted by Factum Invenio without the participation of UNICEF (www.neziskovky.cz).

Corporate philanthropy is promoted mainly by Donors Forum (DF), a nonprofit organization aimed at the development of philanthropy in the country (Donors Forum), and Business Leaders Forum (BLF), a nonprofit organization focused on the promotion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Business Leaders Forum). Neither of these organizations, however, conducts regular surveys of corporate giving. BLF performs ad hoc surveys focused on CSR topics: In 2004, they prepared a study on CSR in the Czech Republic, supplemented by a survey. In 2007, they conducted a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises in Prague, focused on their knowledge and usage of CSR.

The data on donations are included also in the tax reports as donations in the Czech Republic are tax-deductible for both individuals and corporations. However because of the Czech privacy laws, it is not possible to obtain individual data from these reports.

The Czech Republic was the first country to introduce the DMS, Donors Message Service (Dárcovská DMS). DMS is an easy way to donate money to philanthropic organizations. The donor sends an SMS to a specific phone number, the SMS costs 30CZK, of which 27CZK is a donation to the chosen nonprofit organization or philanthropic project. The project was initiated by Donors Forum, and gained significant popularity in the country as well as abroad. Its importance in the Czech Republic is illustrated also by the fact that donations given via DMS were exempt from VAT in 2006. Donations via DMS are easy to measure; the results are available at Donors Forum.

Data on nonprofits
The main sources of data on nonprofits are: the Czech Statistical Office, the CVNS (Center for Nonprofit Sector Research), and the public registers of nonprofits administered by ministries or courts.

The Czech Statistical Office (CSO)
·         Collects data on nonprofits in periodic surveys

·         Is in the process of introducing Satellite Accounts for Nonprofits, which should improve the quality of data and better reflect the actual situation.

The CSO annually collected data on nonprofit organizations, sector S15. S15 includes the following nonprofit organizations: associations, clubs, trade unions, political parties, religious organizations, foundations, foundation funds, publicly beneficial organizations, schools and related entities (except public universities), trade associations and chambers, healthcare organizations, associations of home-owners, and associations of hunters. Thus, S15 is broadly defined.

Data for the S15 organizations are collected in two ways: for the organizations with less than 20 employees, which comprises the majority of the sample (around 100,000 entities), the data are collected using questionnaires sent to a random selection of organizations (approx. 10%) and the data were statistically computed for the whole sample. Organizations with more than 20 employees were all contacted via the questionnaires.

Data are available for the period 2002-2006. Data include: number of entities, number of employees, wages (total expenditures on wages), income, costs, assets, property ownership, members, and volunteers. All data are aggregate, individual data are not available. According to Czech legislation, to receive the individual data, the relevant organizations would have to agree with the provision of the information.

The CSO is working on the introduction of a “Satellite Account” for nonprofit organizations. The Satellite Account is being adopted to improve the quality of data on nonprofit organizations and to facilitate international comparisons. One of the main shortcomings of the existing system has been that the CSO collected data on S15 organizations, Nonprofits serving households, and these data were presented as ‘the nonprofit sector in the Czech Republic’. However, this category does not include all nonprofit organizations. The missing entities are included in the sector of financial and non-financial institutions (entities that were established by, or provide services to, financial or non-financial institutions, and entities with more than 50% of revenues stemming from profit-making activities), governmental institutions (entities where the state provides funding for more than 50% of their expenditures, and public universities), and households. With the adoption of the Satellite Account, the CSO wishes to include also the nonprofit entities from these remaining sectors to the reports on nonprofit organizations.

Another important change brought about with the introduction of the Satellite Account is a better reporting of volunteers and their contribution to the nonprofit sector. With this improved estimation of the volunteers’ contribution, it is possible to get a better picture of the size of the nonprofit sector and philanthropic activity in the Czech Republic.

Public registers
NPOs have to register at their establishment either at the courts, with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, or the Ministry of Culture. A general register of nonprofits is maintained at the Ministry of the Interior.

A general register of nonprofit organizations was established by the Ministry of Informatics in 2006 and is maintained by the Ministry of the Interior (www.isnno.cz). Participation is voluntary, data in the database are self-reported by the nonprofits, and the organizations themselves are responsible for their quality. According to the website, register’s administration verifies the submitted data, it is difficult to assess to what extent they manage to do this.

The register contains administrative information (official name, legal form, identification number of the legal entity, year of establishment), information about the activities (mission, field of focus, target group), contact information, and information about statutory bodies (CEO, director of the board of trustees). The organizations may disclose additional information or upload relevant documents (e.g. annual reports).

Foundations and foundations funds register at local courts, and are required to file their annual reports there. Filing of annual reports occurs too infrequently, as identified by CVNS in their study of foundations and foundation funds.

Publicly beneficial organizations register at the local courts. The register is available at the Ministry of Justice (Ministry of Justice). The register includes information about the founders of the organization, the date of establishment, and the area in which the charity operates. Publicly beneficial organizations are also required to file their annual reports. The number of annual reports available in the system is, however, very low and therefore provides only limited information about this group of nonprofits.

·         Publicly beneficial organizations

·         Political parties and movements

·         Religious organizations

·         Civic associations

·         NPOs in education

·         Selected other legal forms of nonprofits
The reports provide summary statistics and descriptions of the quality of sources for these organizations. Individual data are available to a limited extent at the CVNS, the availability depending on the methodology of research in the particular group of organizations (i.e., if there was a questionnaire or annual report). In some cases, e.g. the civic associations, the analysis is based solely on the data provided by the Czech Statistical Office (CVNS).

Catalogue of nonprofits
A local internet portal for nonprofit organizations, www.neziskovky.cz, operates a catalogue of nonprofit organizations on its website. Participation is voluntary, nonprofits that want to be included in the catalogue have to register through the website and provide the required information. Thus, the catalogue serves mainly as a marketing tool; all the data are self-reported and are of a qualitative nature (contact details, description of activities, areas of focus). The catalogue is linked to the official register of nonprofits, and there is an indication as to whether the organization is registered in the official register.

Source: Wiepking, P. (Ed.) The State of Giving Research in Europe. Household donations to Charitable Organizations in Twelve Countries. Pallas Publications: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. order here.