National Programme for Youth Volunteering

There is no National programme for Youth Volunteering in Slovenia.



 

Funding

The sources of funding for voluntary activities are dispersed and little systematic information is available on this matter.

The largest proportion of funds comes from governmental and municipal sources or from NGOs’ own assets. The projects are mostly financed by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, the Ministry of Education and Sport and the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth.

Major sources of financing voluntary work are the following:

• National Social Security Programme that takes into account the activity of the non-government sector and volunteers’ activity as an integral part of social security system;
• Concessions granted by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities for social assistance programmes of non-government and private sectors;
• Public tenders for the co-financing of youth programmes and programmes of youth organisations issued by the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth;
• Tax relief for humanitarian and charity contributions;
• Contributions by local community, municipal budget;
• “Erasmus+” Programme;
• Foundation for Financing Disabled People’s and Humanitarian Organisations (FIHO) with National Lottery funds;
• Foundation for financing sports organisations;
• Membership fees of the organisations;
• Donations from businesses or profit-making sector, sponsorships.

Another source of financing voluntary organisations is stipulated by the Personal Income Tax Act (Zakon o dohodnini) which states that 0.5% of income may be taxed and directed to financing activities of general public benefit (Article 142). This is a new source of funding for voluntary organisations carrying out non-profit activities in the public interest, i.e. organisations for human rights protection, protection against natural and other disasters, organisations for people with disabilities, charitable, ecological, cultural, sports, religious and other purpose organisations.

There is data on public financing of non-governmental organisations, although not all of them are registered as voluntary organisations, based on records provided by the State Treasury cash flows, including ministries, government departments, agencies, municipalities, and other public bodies.

According to data provided by the Centre for information service, co-operation and development of NGOs, non-governmental organisations received 166.8 million EUR of public funds in 2003, which incrementally increased to 282.6 million EUR in 2015 and to 416.0 million EUR in 2020. In 2020, over 394 million EUR were allocated from direct and indirect budget users (ministries, municipalities, public agencies and institutions), 21.6 million EUR by the Foundation for Funding Humanitarian and Disabled People's Organisations (FIHO) and the Foundation for Financing Sports Organisations in the Republic of Slovenia (FSO). According to the same source, 15,198 non-governmental organisations managed to receive public funds in 2020.

Table 1: Scope of public funding of non-governmental organisations in 2009, and 2017-2020 in EUR

Source: Centre for information service, co-operation and development of NGOs

Characteristics of youth volunteering

Many young people take part in voluntary activities. Such activities, in keeping with other findings (Pichler, 2006), raise general life satisfaction (7.22 among those who have not taken part during the last year, compared to 7.51 for those who have). (see Youth 2013). The survey “Youth 2010, The Social Profile of Young People in Slovenia” included several indicators of young people’s voluntary activities, and they all fall into the basic conceptual framework of voluntary activities and civil society participation: 1) non-formal work or activities, generally in cooperation with others, in order to deal with specific issues, and 2) membership in voluntary societies and organisations.

According to the survey, Slovenian youth are more active in activities linked to the safety and upkeep of the location where the respondent resides (68.6 percent of young people), and to youth interests and young people (67.2 percent). The data also show that around a quarter of Slovenian youth are active in firefighting societies, and just under 17 percent in the scouts. The survey checked the extent to which Slovenian youth (compared to EU-27 youth) are members of voluntary organisations. Slovenian youth are in two types of organisation that have the most members: sports/recreation organisations and cultural organisations. Among Slovenian youth the only notably lower membership is in political parties which might be due to a low level of trust in political officials and institutions, low conventional participation and so forth. According to the survey "Youth 2020: The position of young people iin Slovenia" (Mladina 2020: Položaj mladih v Sloveniji), 27.9 percent of Slovenian youth have already participated in voluntary activities.

The key findings of the survey "Youth 2010" can be summarised in the following points:

1. Compared to 1995, Slovenian youth are significantly more active in the voluntary sphere.
2. Out of all forms of participation, young people are most frequently involved in voluntary activities. In addition to involvement in employment and education, voluntary activities are the main mechanism for social inclusion in Slovenia.
3. In the past 15 years there has been a major increase in the willingness of students to participate in actions that improve the status of young people.
4. Voluntary activities are mainly associated with the more adjusted psychosocial development of young people. A willingness to help peers and older people is associated primarily with indicators of more adjusted development, while membership in voluntary societies is generally associated with negative indicators of development.
5. Being female, older, living in an urban environment, higher educational qualifications of the respondent and higher economic status of the family are factors that positively influence most forms of voluntarism.

Political and voluntary activities are relatively strongly associated positively with each other. The 2018 Yearly Report on volunteerism in Slovenia (Skupno poročilo o prostovoljstvu v Republiki Sloveniji za leto 2018), prepared by the Ministry of Public Administration which is responsible for the monitoring of voluntary organisations, as based on the Volunteering Act, showed that volunteers under 18 years carry out 13% of all registered volunteer hours (in 2017: 12%, 2016: 7%, 2015: 2%) and volunteers aged 18 to 30 years 20% (in 2017: 18%, 2016: 29%, 2015: 13%). These data are based on the data from organisations that are enrolled in the official registry. It is assumed that the percentage of young volunteers is much higher, but the youth organisations are not enrolled in the registry, mainly due to the lack of financial and human resources for administration, and therefore they are not included in the official statistics.

In 2009, the Office for Youth, together with the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, prepared an analysis of inclusion of young people in voluntary activities (see report in Slovene). These data show much higher involvement of young people compared to older generations in regular voluntary activities (participation at least once a week).

Inclusion of volunteers by age (in percentages)

Helping others (in percentages)

Support to young volunteers

The Volunteering Act includes two important aspects: on one hand the economic impact in the form of refunding material expenses, rewarding and comparison of volunteers, and on the other hand it states among the benefits of voluntary work the acquisition of new knowledge and experience and thus provides a measure of the educational impact of volunteering.

The costs associated with volunteering that can be reimbursed include travel to and from the place of volunteering, travel while volunteering, meals (when work lasts more than four hours), accommodation, postage, phone calls, stationery etc., and cost of protective clothing/special equipment. The Volunteering Act obliges voluntary organisation to sign an agreement with a volunteer in order to specify all the cost that will be reimbursed, so the reimbursement of expenses related to volunteers’ activity is left at the discretion of the host organisation.

Under the Slovenian tax law reimbursements for food, accommodation or any other expenses related to the voluntary activity (e.g. travel cost) as well as the volunteer allowance, are not subject to taxation as long as the volunteer does not receive any type of financial remuneration or award from the voluntary organisation. If the volunteer receives such financial award or remuneration, then both received income and reimbursements are subject to taxation.

According to the Personal Income Tax Act, tax exemption applies to “revenues intended to cover documented costs of transport, subsistence and accommodation, when the payment is made to a volunteer individual or person respondent to an invitation or call to participate in various activities - amateur, voluntary, humanitarian or charitable activities, educational training, health, humanitarian, cultural, sports, research, trade union activities, activities carried out by chambers, religious communities and political parties, provided that the said activities are non-profit and voluntary, or carried out on the basis of an invitation or call to participate in activities of associations and unions” (Article 107). The activities need to be in line with the objectives or purposes for which the societies are established, and should not seek financial profits.

A foreign volunteer who is included in organised voluntary activity is entitled to receive the compensation for personal expenses if this was agreed with volunteer’s sending organisation or is part of the international treaty that promotes international exchanges of volunteers.

The amendment to the Personal Income Tax Act provides that Slovenian volunteers who are sent to voluntary services abroad are entitled to the tax-free allowance for personal expenses, but it must be part of the agreement between hosting and sending organisation or part of the international treaty or European or international programme that defines these benefits.

For health insurance, the Volunteering Act states that volunteer organisations must pay health insurance for volunteers carrying out organised voluntary work if these activities constitute a danger to the health of life of a volunteer, or if health insurance is part of an agreement. However, this is not a major issue as all people legally resident in Slovenia, including students, unemployed, employed and retired persons, benefit from the obligatory health insurance which covers the basic rights. Students and employees also benefit from specific insurance policies.

According to specific laws, e.g. Law on Fire Brigades, Law on Protection against Natural and Other Disasters as well as Healthcare and Health Insurance Act, volunteers are entitled to insurance. However, as the above-mentioned strand of legislation suggests, the obligation of insurance only pertains to certain specific volunteers.

With regard to other insurance benefits, volunteers do not benefit from pension and disability insurance (as it is the case for the employed), unemployment insurance, parent care insurance, work accident insurance and professional disease insurance.

Target groups

No specific target groups within the youth population are defined in the official documents in Slovenia apart from the Article 18 of the Volunteering Act which requires a legal representative or custodian to sign a volunteer agreement if a child is under the age of 15.

However, the promotion of volunteering specifically among primary and high school students is included in The National Youth Strategy where the proportion of people that belong to those groups are used as an indicator in measuring the voluntary activities of youth.