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Civil Society International (CSI) assists independent organizations working for democracy and civil society in countries closed, or inhospitable, to these principles. We bring together in one place information about projects worldwide committed to the keystones of civil society: limited government, popular elections, and the rule of law; free association and expression; regulated, but open and market-oriented economies; aid to the poor, orphaned, elderly, sick, or disabled; and finally, civic cultures that value pluralism and individual liberty but also respect human needs for community and shared visions of the common good... more
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Hungary's Nonprofit Sector
Hungary is widely known to be one of the
most successful "transition"
economies and since the early 90s it has received a disproportionate
share of direct foreign investment. Less well-recognized is Hungary's
nonprofit sector.
A good source of information about the Hungarian nonprofit sector is to
be found at
http://www.nonprofit.hu/, a Hungarian and English-language portal to
the thousands of organizations that contribute to civil society in
Hungary. The site is maintained by the
Nonprofit Information and Training Centre (NIOK) Foundation, which
has its own multi-lingual website. There is
a searchable database of about 6,500 NGOs at the
www.nonprofit.hu website.
In Hungary about 60,000 non-governmental organizations are formally registered with authorities, but according to the Central Statistical Office the number of organizations currently operating is approximately 47,000. Most of these came into being in the first half of the 1990s.
In 1996, the government passed the so-called "1% law" which allows tax-payers to donate 1% of their personal income tax bill to the charity of their choice, provided that the charity complies with certain legal require-ments. ››››
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›››› Hungary's Nonprofit Sector
This encourages Hungary's 4.2 million taxpayers to contribute to the third sector, and to exer-cise their choice as to which organizations or causes to support. It is said to have the potential to unlock at least 6.5 billion Hungarian forints (about US$28 million) for Hungarian charities.
In 2000, 62,500 people were employed in
the Hungarian non-profit sector, and the number of volunteers exceeded
400,000. Nearly half (48.5%) of all Hungarian nonprofit organizations
have a yearly income below 500,000 HUF.
(At 231 forints to the dollar, this is less than $2,200/year.)
In 2000 government allocations constituted 28.4% of the total revenues
of the nonprofit sector. The goal is to take this number up to 40%,
which would be more in line with the practice in other European
countries. In order to achieve this, the government intends to introduce
legislation to create a National Civil Fund.
The fund will be financed from the 1% of
citizens' personal income tax not donated directly to non-profit
organizations as well as from other revenues. Nonprofit sector
representatives will constitute the majority of the committee
responsible for allocating support grants from the National Civil Fund.
*The source for the information above is a
"STRATEGY PAPER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF HUNGARY ON CIVIL SOCIETY,"
dated 22 October 2002 and translated by the Nonprofit Information and
Training Centre (NIOK) Foundation.
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© Civil Society International, 2003
Free institutions, public service and active civic spirit deployed to social ends are the lifeblood of the properly ordered commonwealth, the fundamental preconditions for peace, harmony and material progress.
--Edward Gibbon