Spain: the third sector

Sector Overview

According to the data published by MOSE, a project that aims at developing a European training model for social managers, in January 2007 there were 289,451 non profit organisations in Spain.

At the same time there were 3.33 million enterprises and the non profit organisations account for 9.3% of Spanish businesses.

These 289,451 non profit organisations are made up of:

– 15,954 co-operatives,
– 8,646 foundations as revealed by the Spanish Association of Foundations (2007).
– 264,851 associations and other faith based organisations.

Association appears to be the most common juridical form between the non profit organisations, representing about the 60% of the sector.

According to the Spasexchange project over the Spanish non lucrative sector, directed by the International Research Centre on Organizations (IRCO) and IESE Business School Sigma Barcelona and Madrid attracts together the 70% of the total of the non profit organisations all over Spain.

Source of income

The BBVA Foundation Ruiz Olabuenaga in 2001 refers that the main sources of income for the Spanish non-lucrative organisations are partners’ contributions and charges derived from the supplied services with 49.1 % of the total. The income generated by public donations is around 32.1 %, whereas the income coming from private donations is much lower around 18.8 % .

Certifying body

The Spanish NGO platform, Acciòn Social, an umbrella organisation that represents the interests of 25 NGOs, foundations and associations, has announced the official launch of what aims to become the certifying body for NGOs in Spain. The ICONG, that stands for the Institute for the Quality of NGOs, aims at delivering and standardising quality control within the third sector, comparable to the ISO standards in other sectors.

ICONG will provide training opportunities, a platform for the exchange of best practices and information for the Spanish third sector, and will work closely with the ministry for employment and social services, that is also funding the initiative.

Other organisations involved in the creation of ICONG include Caritas and the Spanish Red Cross.