Czech non-profit sector thriving, says new report

Under the previous communist system, there was essentially no such thing as a non-profit sector in this country, and many Czechs were quick to embrace the idea of a civil society in the early 1990s. But 15 years on, what state is the Czech non-profit sector in? That's something addressed in a new report by the Civil Society Development Foundation.

The project, which was organized by Civil Society Development Foundation in cooperation with Charles University, found out that the number of non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic has boomed since the fall of communism fifteen years ago. Here's project manager Tereza Vajdova.

"There have been quite a lot of changes. In the beginning of the 1990s there were only a few non-profit organizations. Only in 1991 was the first legislation that allowed the establishment of civic associations enacted. The number has increased many times. But it's not only the number of non-profit organizations; it is above all the membership in non-profit organizations which is much more important indicator of activity in civil society."

"According to our research almost half of Czech citizens are members of some civic association, and a half of them are a member of more than one. Once citizens are members of civic associations, they tend to be very active."

Although most of the non-profit associations are connected with leisure activities, charities focused on public collections have also gained popularity in recent years.

"The most common organizations in Czech civil society are sport organizations and hobby clubs like for example gardeners' clubs, fishermen associations, voluntary fireman brigades...These are the organizations with the largest membership. I think also organizations which organize public collections are quite well known. Public collections are publicized in the media, so organizations which hold these public collections are also quite well known."

Andrea Volfova works for the Czech charity organization "People in Need" - one of the biggest organizers of public collections which has been helping in many crisis affected regions in the world as well as in the Czech Republic. She says she has noticed that the image of non-profit organizations in Czech society is improving.

Logo of the foundation People in Need

"I would say it's definitely improving. I think, as we are getting further from the communist era, people are getting more used to charities and they better understand the type of work these organizations do. Most people have heard about People in Need, specifically because of the floods in 2002 when People in Need was one of the biggest providers of aid and collected a lot of money to help people who were affected by the floods."

Whereas the pre-war Czechoslovakia had a great network of different hobby and sport clubs, patriotic associations and regional clubs, during the communist era civil organizations were strictly limited by political criteria. Therefore most non-profit organizations were either organized by the state or the Communist Party itself. Today the situation is quite different and Czech civil society in its structure and quantity is beginning to resemble civil society in most west European countries.