In Croatia, there is no specific law on youth volunteering. However, the Volunteering Act governs volunteering activities. According to this Act (Chapter 3, Paragraph 1), volunteering is defined as the ‘voluntary investment of personal time, effort, knowledge, and skills to perform services or activities for the benefit of another person or community, (…) without the existence of conditions for payment of a monetary reward or the pursuit of other material benefits for the performed volunteering, unless otherwise specified by this law’.

The key decision-maker for youth volunteering is the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy. The Ministry coordinates National Committee for the Development of Volunteerism, an advisory body of the Croatian government promoting and developing volunteering through various measures and activities.