How many NGOs are there in Romania

In January this year, 127,053 active NGOs were registered in the National NGO Register while 8,003 are known to be deregistered, dissolved or in liquidation.

Of the 127,000 registered NGOs, 106,433 are associations, 19,046 – foundations, 1,529 – federations, 759 – unions, 37 – branches of organizations outside Romania.

Thus, Romania has a rate of about 6.7 entities per 1,000 inhabitants, below the EU average of 9.41 and below countries such as Hungary (13.8), Slovakia (7.2), or Germany (7.6). But we are at the same level as Portugal (6.7) and above Poland (3.8), Greece (0.4) or Ireland (5.2).

Over the last three years, there has been a rate of around 4,200-4,300 registrations per year in the National NGO Register.

The most NGOs are in Harghita, Cluj, Bucharest, and the fewest in Vaslui and Ialomița, in relation to population size. Charitable NGOs predominate.

Relative to population size, the most organizations are in Bucharest and the North-West area. Thus, there are 10.6 organizations per 1,000 inhabitants in Harghita, followed by Cluj (10.4), Bucharest (10.0), Sibiu (9.6), Maramureș (7.6), Bihor (7.2), Arad (6.9). At the opposite pole, the fewest are in Moldova and Southern Romania, more precisely in Vaslui (2.1 NGOs per 1,000 inhabitants), Ialomița (2.4), Călărași and Olt (2.6 both).

In terms of fields of activity, most NGOs are in the social-charitable area (about 42,000, a third of all NGOs in the National Register), followed by civic, cultural, education, business/professional, sports.

Economic dimension: Sector revenues contribute 1.51% to Romania’s GDP.

NGOs derive income from public and private funding, donations or sponsorship and less from trading goods and services. Approximately 11% of organizations have income from economic activities, covering up to 18% of total income at sector level.

The three most common sources of income in 2023 were 3.5% of income tax, sponsorship and individual donations. In this context, 2.4 million individuals applied for the 3.5% mechanism to direct 375 million lei, with 30,200 organizations benefiting from this amount. Also, 88,544 companies (compared to 34,811 in 2015) sponsored the field with 2,468 million lei.

Thus, the total revenues earned by NGOs amounted to over RON 21 billion at the end of 2022 – about 1.51% of Romania’s Gross Domestic Product, slightly decreasing compared to 2015 (1.59%). Domain revenues are increasing compared to 2020-2021, but decreasing compared to 2019. Compared to 2015, NGO revenues were almost twice as high.

Around 26% of NGOs had no income at all in 2022. The majority of organizations (54%) recorded either revenues below 40,000 lei or below 200,000 lei. Only 20% of the organizations that filed balance sheets in 2022 had revenues above 200,000 lei.

In addition, 78% of respondents said that they had to select program beneficiaries in the last three years due to a lack of resources.

The problems of scarce or insufficient resources have been exacerbated in recent years by global threats, the most important of which are the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic recession.

“Given that some of the measures have made a significant contribution to the growth of the NGO sector have been restricted as of January 2024, the precariousness of this sector will be even more visible. Specifically, the 3.5% income tax redirection will only be applicable to income from salaries and salary-like income (foreign income eliminated), and the tax facilitation on sponsorship has been eliminated for micro-enterprises,” Ștefania Andersen, CSDF Operational Director.

 The non-governmental sector as an employer

Around 127,000 of Romania’s residents are employed in the non-governmental sector, although NGOs with paid staff represent a minority.

Most NGO employees are aged up to 44, and women predominate in most NGO fields, according to the Barometer of NGO Leaders 2023 (BLO 2023) – a survey part of the CSDF survey. The majority of employees also have a master’s or doctoral degree.

Over 80% of employees in the sector are satisfied and very satisfied with their lives and over 60% are satisfied with their income, according to the Barometer of NGO Members, Employees and Volunteers 2023 (BMO 2023) – a survey that is also part of the CSDF study. More than 70% of participants would like to spend the rest of their careers with their current organization.

Relative to the average net monthly net salary, NGO employees are at a lower level. Comparison with NSI data for 1994-2022 shows that between 2006-2012 NGO wages were above national averages, but economic growth led to average wages virtually equal to the national average in 2013, lower in 2014-2015, and since 2016 NGO wages have been ⅙ – ⅕ lower than the national average net national wage. The differences between domains are not very large, but there are three that systematically report lower salaries: sports, social/charitable, culture/art.

About 27% of respondents work 40 hours/week and 54% less than 40 hours. Over 50% of employees in the sector have two or more jobs given the specific nature of the work and the fact that most organizations work on a project basis.

Around 60% of employees say that they also work outside the NGO sector,  with many hours worked daily/weekly on low salaries, NGO employees are prone to burnout. In fact, 46% of employees said they experience a high or very high degree of burnout and 39% experience a moderate degree of burnout.

Citizen participation: 1 in 3 Romanians interact with an NGO.

1 in 4 Romanians donated to an NGO in 2023

Participation in associations in Romania has increased about 2.5 times in the last 30 years. The estimated figure for 1993 is 13%, and today around 30% of Romania’s population participate in associations.

 

The interaction between non-governmental organizations and the population has also increased, data from the Barometer of Opinions on Civil Society 2023 (BOSC 2023) – a survey part of the CSDF study that assesses the Romanian population’s attitudes towards the NGO sector – show. Last year, for example, the percentage of citizens who had benefited from the services of an NGO was double that of 2016.

 

Also, 24% of the population has made at least one donation to NGOs (up from 21% in 2016), with the most active donors being 18-49 year olds and those with higher education, according to BOSC 2023.

Wallachia and Moldova are the areas from which the least donations were made, although the percentage of those who benefited from NGO services in these areas was above the national average. Beyond direct support for non-governmental organizations, Romanians also donated to people in need (42% of respondents) or to other causes (17%), while 45% of the population donated at least once to the church. Also, 2% of the population donated in the last year to support a publication (newspaper, magazine, online publication)

The sector’s ability to influence the public agenda. Only 1 in 5 NGOs requested information or public debates.

A majority of organizations are not part of any national (60%) or European (80%) structure, which results in a reduced capacity of the field to influence public policy agendas and decisions. However, 80% of the respondents support the idea of creating a nationally representative form for associative structures.

On the other hand, half of the leaders of organizations stated that they have not collaborated in projects with public institutions (as beneficiaries or partners), and 82% have not used the two legal tools essential for civic engagement: requesting information (Law 544/2001) and requesting meetings for public debates on normative acts (Law 52/2003), according to the NGO Leaders Barometer 2023. The same survey shows that when an NGO works with a public institution it will use legal instruments more often.

About a quarter of organizations say they have initiated public policy proposals.

The very low participation in the formal decision-making process can also be seen from the fact that in 2022, only 20% of the normative acts put up for public debate by ministries received recommendations from civil society and only 12% were improved. At the local level, only 10% of the regulations put forward for debate received recommendations and only 5% included some recommendations in their final form.

At the same time, in 2022, NGOs have requested public debate meetings for only 1% of the normative acts initiated by the city halls of the county municipalities, and for only 4% of those initiated by ministries.

What Romanians think about NGOs and how much they trust them

Overall, the level of trust in NGOs has remained steady over the years at around 50%, according to BOSC 2023.

Young people are more trusting than the elderly: 18-29 year olds have a 73% level of trust, while over 60 year olds have only 36%. Confidence also increases with higher levels of education: higher education graduates are 66% and primary and secondary school graduates 43%.

The direct beneficiaries believe that NGOs have a positive influence, the rest are neutral.

Nearly half of the population believes that most NGOs work in the interests of their beneficiaries, i.e. the NGO sector, but at the same time one third of the population associates NGOs with the interests of political parties and politicians, i.e. businessmen.

What staff, members and volunteers say about their main challenges and the NGOs they represent

Members, employees and volunteers believe that the main difficulties for organizations in implementing projects are insufficient budget (69%) and insufficient human resources (61%), according to data from the Barometer of NGO Members, Employees and Volunteers (BMO 2023), a survey within the CSDF study. These difficulties are followed by legal barriers (32%), excessive demands from funders (28%), fiscal and administrative difficulties (24%), difficulties in working with beneficiaries (19%) and lack of trust from the public (17%).

In terms of personal challenges related to the way they work, 85% of employees said they experience burnout to some degree (moderate to very high), a worrying figure, but one which is also an acute problem in other countries, with a UK study citing growing insecurity in the sector amid the economic downturn.

Stress is another major challenge – over 30% of employees feel stressed all or most of the time, compared to just over 20% of members and volunteers.

Almost 70% of respondents believe that what they do makes a difference to people or society most of the time or always.

At the same time, 45% of employees believe that, considering all the efforts and achievements of their work, the job is not paid adequately. But half of them believe that the work gives them good prospects for career advancement (50%) and that the organization where they work motivates them in terms of performance (64%).

What are the main challenges for leaders

Attracting funding is the main challenge for leaders, with 94% of respondents believing that a great deal or very great deal of help is needed in this area. This is followed by getting useful information from the non-governmental sector with 86% of respondents. Another significant challenge is related to identifying, recruiting and mobilizing volunteers: 58% of respondents consider that they need help in this area to a very great or great extent. Organizational leaders also consider that they need support in terms of public communication (76% very much or very much), organizational assessment or digitalization (over 70%).

“We observe a complex picture of the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations in Romania. Financial and human resources or relevant information about the functioning, funding and cooperation between organizations in this sphere continue to be lacking. The lack of resources is visible both in the small number of full-time employees and in the inability to meet the needs of a high number of beneficiaries. At the same time, employees in the sector are working long hours, many of them suffer from burnout, and harassment by individuals or groups or deliberate or implicit harassment by public institutions continues, albeit at a lower level than seven years ago. However, for most of those working in the non-governmental sector, the workplace or organization where they work is a pleasant space where they feel supported by both leadership and colleagues,” explained Simona Constantinescu, Director of Development and Advocacy at CSDF.

 

Methodology

The data collected or prepared for this report are of two major types: administrative data, collected by public authorities and to which open access is available or to which access has been requested (National NGO Register, ANAF), and survey data, collected under the supervision of the project team. Twelve experts (sociologists, political scientists and members of civil society) with experience in the field of civic activism, the NGO sector and civil society are part of the research team.

 

The research team designed three separate surveys for this study:

• BOSC 2023: Barometer of Opinions on Civil Society – a survey conducted on a nationally representative sample of 1,200 respondents, which allows to assess the attitudes of the Romanian population about the NGO sector. BOSC is a telephone interview based survey (CATI), with data collection being conducted by Mercury Research in November 2023.
• BLO 2023: The NGO Leaders Barometer – a survey addressed to non-governmental organizations that collects mainly data about the organization and less about the people who run it. BLO is a survey of a large sample (803 respondents), as a questionnaire-based survey administered online (CAWI). Completion was carried out between November 2023 and January 2024.
• BMO 2023: Barometer of NGO Members, Employees and Volunteers – is a new tool in the context of the CSDF reports on the NGO sector, but uses some of the items that BLO 2016 included. 2028 responses were collected through a websurvey (CAWI) between December 2023 and January 2024.

 

About the study “Romania 2024. The non-governmental sector. Profile, trends, challenges”

Data on the Romanian NGO sector in Romania is very little publicly available, and it is rare that comprehensive studies on the sector appear. The Foundation for the Development of Civil Society (for 30 years in Romania) does it once every 5-7 years and remains the only organization that publicly presents the size and evolution of NGOs in Romania – the 2017 study is here.

The research method includes a variety of approaches, from collecting information from official sources to carrying out surveys addressed to NGOs, sector employees and citizens. Twelve researchers (sociologists, political scientists and members of civil society) with experience in civic activism, the NGO sector and civil society are part of the research team. The team proposes a new perspective in 2024, more detailed through a longitudinal and comparative analysis, with a focus on the perceptions and desires of the employees of the third sector – organized civil society. The 2024 report is HERE .

 

This material has been produced within the project “Building capacity for collective impact and knowledge on CSOs ecosystem” with the financial support of Active Citizens Fund Romania, a program funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA Grants 2014-2021. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the EEA and Norwegian Grants 2014-2021; for more information go to www.eeagrants.org. Information about Active Citizens Fund Romania is available at www.activecitizensfund.ro