Government-funded sustainable development and professionalisation of NGOs

This paper addresses the first financial initiative of the Slovenian government for the professionalisation and development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote sustainability in the third sector. The measure was the result of the Non-Governmental Organisations Act, adopted in 2018, and was followed by the Development strategy of non-governmental organisations and volunteering until 2023 (DSNGOV). The state’s contribution to an increased level of professionalisation was welcomed by NGOs because, compared to other EU28 states, which have an average employment rate of 4.18%, Slovenia is far behind, with only 0.82% of its active working population being employed in the NGO sector. In May 2018, the Ministry of Public Administration released invitations to fund projects for the development and professionalisation of NGOs and voluntary service, providing grants for 100 NGO jobs. The final project results were compiled in March 2020, and the findings were evaluated in 29 survey reports in April 2020. The research focused on the occupations for which employees were sought, legal forms of the applicant NGOs and recruitment methods. The results demonstrate that the state measure was successful, as 69% of the funded jobs were sustained. However, most of the retained jobs were filled by those who were previously employed in the NGO sector (84.6%), so the employment rate has barely risen