Macedonia: the state of giving

Individual giving

The Philanthropy Research in Macedonia by CIRa and BSC Estek (2006) reported that only 5% of the surveyed population donated to NGOs (considered as a part of the total CSOs). Yet, 70% of the population declared to donate money, goods, cloths or food, mainly directly to individuals (Stojkovski, 2008; 2006 data). According to older data for 2004 from MCIC‘s Report, 37% of the donors asserted having donated money, whereas the remaining 63% declared to have given goods, clothing or food. Moreover, according to the same Report, citizens of the community sample of this study mostly gave for charity (2003 data).

Corporate giving

According to the MCIC‘s Report (2005), only a small percentage of enterprises support CSOs by donating money (in a situation of big dependence on foreign donations): not a single CSO included in the MCIC‘s research had received 100% of its 2003 income from enterprises; moreover, only 1% of organisations have managed to cover their budget by 60% to 80% with enterprises funds, and another 1% of them have covered 40% to 60% of their budget with firms’ money.

In fact (MCIC, 2005), in the Republic of Macedonia there are not enough encouraging mechanisms that promote donations: enterprises are tax exempted by a maximum of 3% of their turnover if they donate for scientific, humanitarian, cultural, educational, religious, amateur sports and health purposes, and on the condition that they are paid to public institutions financed from the budget or to the National Red Cross

Yet, as highlighted in the same Report, there is a philosophy of donating among enterprises if not only donations of money, but also sponsorships, donations in kinds and other kinds of performance are considered.