Poland

Introduction to Philanthropy Research in Poland

By Anita Budziszewska

Philanthropy research in Poland is relatively regular but remains strongly rooted in sociology, political science and legal-administrative studies. Much of the literature focuses on volunteering, civil society, NGOs and nonprofit organisations rather than philanthropy as a distinct field. Historical research also plays an important role, alongside studies of crowdfunding, fundraising, lotteries and charitable activity.

Three broader characteristics shape the Polish research landscape. First, philanthropy is often treated as one aspect of wider research on civil society or the third sector, meaning that foundations, individual philanthropists and philanthropic behaviour receive comparatively less dedicated attention. Second, Poland’s modern philanthropic sector developed largely after the political and economic transformation of the 1990s, so philanthropy as a distinct research field is relatively young. Third, much of the quantitative research on corporate philanthropy and corporate foundations has been produced by organisations working directly in the sector, particularly Forum Darczy?ców and philanthropic foundations themselves.

The most important source of representative national data is Statistics Poland, G?ówny Urz?d Statystyczny (GUS). Its mandatory reporting system covers registered nonprofit organisations and provides information on their revenues, activities and financing. The Narodowy Instytut Wolno?ci – Centrum Rozwoju Spo?ecze?stwa Obywatelskiego (NIW) provides additional data on public-benefit organisations, while CBOS, the Social Impact Alliance for Central and Eastern Europe and other research organisations provide survey evidence on individual giving.

Overview of Giving in Poland

Giving by individuals

Poland has comparatively good information on participation in individual giving. CBOS has monitored charitable activity annually since 2006, while Statistics Poland provides regular information on nonprofit-sector revenues. GUS data are particularly important because nonprofit organisations are legally required to submit financial reports, making these statistics relatively comprehensive.

A representative CBOS survey found that 71% of Polish adults donated money to charitable causes in 2022. In addition, 61% provided material assistance such as clothing or books, while 8% participated in voluntary charitable work. The particularly high levels of activity in 2022 were closely connected to Poland’s response to the war in Ukraine.

Research by the Social Impact Alliance for Central and Eastern Europe also suggests relatively high levels of engagement. Around 40% of respondents reported donating at least quarterly, 38% once a year, 11% monthly and 2% more than once a month. Eighteen per cent reported using charitable tax deductions, compared with an average of 11% across Central and Eastern Europe.

Another survey conducted in 2022 found that 58.9% of Poles had participated in charitable activity either online or through traditional channels. Most individual donations were relatively modest: 24.5% of respondents reported donating between 50 and 100 PLN annually and 16.2% up to 50 PLN.

Public-benefit organisations also benefit from Poland’s income-tax designation mechanism. In 2022, 15.9 million taxpayers allocated approximately 1.114 billion PLN through the 1.5% income-tax designation.

Statistics Poland provides the most comprehensive monetary estimate. In 2022, nonprofit organisations received approximately 2.964 billion PLN from individual donors, equivalent to around €710 million. This represented 6.3% of total nonprofit-sector income.

The €710 million figure is therefore used as the best available estimate of individual giving in Poland in 2022.

Bequest giving

There is no representative national dataset on charitable bequests in Poland. Neither the proportion of wills containing charitable gifts nor the overall annual value of charitable bequests is systematically recorded.

Legacy giving has historically been relatively uncommon, although awareness has increased through campaigns promoting charitable wills. Available survey evidence suggests that approximately 2% of Poles include charitable organisations or causes in their wills.

Statistics Poland does not report bequests as a separate category. They are combined with other private transfers, making it impossible to isolate their value from the broader GUS statistics.

More specific information is available from NIW reporting by public-benefit organisations. Among 5,461 organisations with annual income above 100,000 PLN, 61 reported receiving bequests in 2022. Together, these amounted to approximately 11.2 million PLN, or €2.65 million.

This should be treated as a minimum rather than a national total. More than 4,000 smaller organisations were not required to submit the relevant detailed reports, and bequests may also already be included in the broader GUS estimate of giving by individuals.

Corporate giving

Corporate philanthropy is less precisely measured. Research by Forum Darczy?ców provides detailed information on corporate foundations, while Statistics Poland and NIW provide broader estimates of donations received from legal and commercial entities.

Poland had an estimated 219 corporate foundations. A 2023 study covering 71 of them found that half reported annual revenues above 1.3 million PLN. Funding from founder companies remains important, although its relative importance has declined: 76% of corporate foundations received financial support from their founder in 2022, compared with 92% in 2016.

NIW data show that 2,679 public-benefit organisations reported receiving approximately 2.158 billion PLN, or €510.7 million, from legal entities in 2022. These figures include organisations other than corporations and exclude smaller nonprofits, so they cannot be interpreted as a pure corporate-giving total.

Statistics Poland provides a broader and more representative estimate. In 2022, approximately 8,700 nonprofit organisations reported receiving income from profit-oriented entities. The total amounted to 2.486 billion PLN, equivalent to approximately €595 million, or 5.3% of all nonprofit-sector revenue.

Because the GUS category covers all profit-oriented entities rather than corporate philanthropy narrowly defined, €595 million should be understood as an upper-bound estimate of corporate giving. Nevertheless, it is the most comprehensive figure available.

Foundations

In 2022, Poland had approximately 19,300 active foundations within a wider nonprofit sector of 103,400 organisations. Statistics Poland provides the most comprehensive data because registered and active organisations are covered through mandatory reporting requirements.

Foundation activity spans a wide range of areas. Around 4,100 foundations reported activity in culture and the arts, 3,700 in education and research, approximately 3,300 in humanitarian aid and welfare, 1,800 in health and 1,800 in sport and recreation. Environmental protection was an area of activity for approximately 1,400 foundations.

Foundations reported total revenues of approximately 17.4 billion PLN, or €4.07 billion, in 2022. Around 30.2% of this came from private, non-public sources. However, foundation revenue is not the same as grantmaking, and there is no comprehensive national dataset showing how much foundations themselves distribute to beneficiaries.

Corporate foundations form an increasingly visible part of the sector. Of the 219 identified corporate foundations, approximately 70% were created by large companies. Health and disability support was the primary activity of 23% of those studied, followed by education and child development at 21%, support for organisations and social initiatives at 10%, environmental protection at 9%, and social welfare at 9%.

Research on entrepreneurial and family philanthropy also points to increasing institutionalisation. In a study of 42 entrepreneurs and business families, 68% focused their philanthropic activities on traditional areas such as education, culture and health, while more than 60% used institutional forms such as foundations, philanthropic funds or corporate social programmes.

For national financial estimates, Statistics Poland reports approximately 1.054 billion PLN, or €251.3 million, received from foundations, associations, social organisations, religious organisations and trade-union organisations. Because foundations cannot be separated from these other sources, €251 million represents a ceiling for foundation-related giving rather than a precise foundation-only estimate.

Charity lotteries

Poland has no national register or comprehensive statistics on charitable lotteries. They have a long tradition as a fundraising mechanism for NGOs, but legally they fall under the general regulation of games of chance rather than a distinct category of charitable lottery.

The most prominent recent example is the Wielka Loteria Top Charity. Its first edition in 2022 raised approximately 8.792 million PLN, equivalent to about €2.06 million. Half of the proceeds were used to support Ukrainian refugees and half for the statutory objectives of the participating organisations.

The initiative expanded considerably in subsequent years, raising 28.6 million PLN in 2023 and around 48 million PLN in 2024. However, because no central reporting system exists, the 2022 figure of approximately €2.06 million represents only a documented minimum rather than the total value of charitable-lottery fundraising in Poland.

Major Polish fundraising initiatives extend beyond lotteries. The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity raised approximately 224.4 million PLN in 2022 for children’s eye care, involving more than 100,000 volunteers. Caritas Polska reported approximately 188.8 million PLN in private donations in the same year.

Sources of Contributions in Poland

The national source-based estimate presented for Poland amounts to approximately €1.558 billion. Individual giving accounts for the largest share, at approximately €710 million or 45.6%, followed by giving from profit-oriented entities at approximately €595 million or 38.2%, and giving from foundations and other civil-society entities at approximately €251 million or 16.1%.

The bequest and charity-lottery figures are not representative national totals. The €2.65 million bequest figure covers only public-benefit organisations subject to detailed NIW reporting, while the €2.06 million lottery figure reflects one documented large charitable lottery.

A separate GUS calculation based on all private-source nonprofit income produces an estimate of approximately €1.9 billion in philanthropic donations in 2022. The difference arises because this broader calculation includes additional categories of private revenue that cannot be attributed cleanly to individual donors, corporations or foundations.

Based on this broader private-income estimate, international aid, human rights and refugee-related activity received the largest share of philanthropic funding in 2022, approximately €773.8 million or 41.1%. Health received €201.7 million, education and research €188 million, sport and recreation €172.8 million, domestic public and social benefit €116.9 million, culture €112.9 million, and environmental causes €86.3 million.

The exceptionally large share directed to international and humanitarian causes reflects the extraordinary mobilisation of Polish society following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the arrival of large numbers of Ukrainian refugees in 2022.

Source

Budziszewska, A. (2026). Philanthropy in Poland. In B. Hoolwerf & J. Vamstad (Eds.), Philanthropy in Europe: Mapping Research and Data on Donations by Households, Bequests, Foundations, Corporations and Charity Lotteries (pp. 217–238). European Research Network on Philanthropy.

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