Naslov
Can foundations pave the way for sustainable endogenous philanthropy?

Autori
Bežovan, Gojko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Skup
The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research

Mjesto i datum
Barcelona, Španjolska, 09.07.2008. - 12.07.2008

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Foundations; foundations development; philanthropy; Croatia

Sažetak
This paper assesses the potential of foundations to pave the way of sustainable endogenous philanthropy in post-communist, transitional society in Croatia. The influence on civil society development, especially funding and capacity building, through legislation changes were coming from the western countries. The development of civil society organisations was very much path dependent in the domination of culture/recreation organisations, with the very limited development of organisations providing services. Foreign funders were not providing the needed input to develop endogenous philanthropic culture which could rely on the commitment of local stakeholders to give donations on a regular basis from local sources. Foundations have a different tradition in transitional countries. Legislation related to the foundation definitions made a difference in the number of registered foundations. In countries where a foundation is defined as an asset, which means that a certain amount of money or property is required to get a status of a foundation as a legal body, the number of the registered foundations is lesser. The second part of the paper, on the basis of recent empirical research (mail survey, case studies, media review, secondary data analysis), deals with the role and vision of the foundations development in Croatia. The role and contribution of foundations in meeting the social, cultural, environmental, educational needs is in the stage of constant improvement. The number of foundations is reasonably increasing, recent new initiatives for setting up foundations put more money in their assets, and case studies provide encouraging evidence about the resources which can be mobilised for a better development of foundations. The roles of foundations are more complementary and they meet the needs which cannot be covered through the government and local authority programmes. Corporativist social model largely describes the role of foundations in Croatia which act for public purpose. Having in mind a small number of registered foundations, limited resources they have without support of other stakeholders, and their lack of presence in the public, one can say that it is a peripheral social model of the foundations’ development. Developmental issues of Croatian foundations are very similar to those in other post-communist countries. The future development of foundations will depend on the increase of social capital, economic prosperity, profilation of corporate social responsibility culture and emerging of the representatives of the middle class from the new generations. The paper provides some recommendations for the policy measures that could create a more favourable framework for foundation development, as well as some suggestions for future researches.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Socijalne djelatnosti

POVEZANOST RADA