Charitable giving on the rise in the Czech Republic

New research from the Czech Republic shows that charitable giving is rising rapidly. The latest data (from 2017) shows that individual giving grew by 16% over the year. Individual donations now amount to an estimated 200 million EUR annually, up from 170 million in 2016.[1]

Jana Ledvinová, CEO of the Czech Fundraising Centre, says:

“With communism holding such a long shadow from the nation’s past, people in the Czech Republic are still fairly new to philanthropy. It’s taken a while for the concept of charitable giving to sink in, but it is now growing fast, fuelled by new online giving tools from one  side and  the first emerging generation of major donors from the other.”

From a population of 10 million, the national tax office currently identifies more than 165,000 individual donors eligible applying for tax deduction on their giving. On average, they give 530 EUR annually. A further 23,000 corporate donors are reported, giving an average of 6,500 EUR each year.

Ledvinová highlights the influence on philanthropy of Darujme.cz – an online giving portal created in 2010 by one of the largest Czech private foundations, Via Foundation. The portal was developed with the intention of providing NGOs with a simple way to fundraise online and donors with a simple and secure way to give.

Currently, almost 500 organisations are registered on the site, with over 1,400 charitable projects listed and 82,500 supporters have donated in this way.

Ledvinová adds:

“The site has strengthened public confidence in giving online and helped to build understanding of the vital role of NGOs in civil society.

“As the concept of philanthropy becomes more familiar to the nation, we are now looking at other ways to build on this, including the continued collaborative legacy campaign organised by the Czech Coalition for Easy Giving.”
 

[1] Estimate of the Czech Fundraising Center based on Czech Internal Revenue Service evidence of tax deducted giving.