2025 Associations and Foundations Monitoring published – long-term funding remains a key sector challenge

Civic Alliance – Latvia (CAL) has published the 2025 monitoring report of the associations and foundations sector.

The main objective of the monitoring report is to provide analysis of sector-specific data and developments to offer transparent and reliable information on trends in the associations and foundations sector. The study is quantitative and based on statistical data describing the sector, enabling long-term assessment of its dynamics and changes. The report is available here.

Key findings of the monitoring:

• The number of associations and foundations continues to grow, but the proportion of inactive organizations is also increasing.
• The share of financially active associations and foundations among those submitting annual reports is rising.
• Overall employment in associations and foundations is declining, although the number of organizations with at least one employee is increasing.
• The average gross salary in the sector in 2024 was €1,014.79.
• The total number of volunteers in associations and foundations is approximately 111,000. On average, one volunteer worked 15.2 hours per year.
• 70.8% of associations and foundations have annual revenues of no more than €20,000. Moreover, 30.1% have only one source of income.
• In terms of donations, associations and foundations are highly dependent on donations from legal entities (52.5%), while the number of individual donors is decreasing.
• In terms of revenue, associations and foundations are strongly dependent on public funding.
• The number of public benefit organizations continues to decline (1,679 in 2024).
• Activity is concentrated in Riga and the surrounding region, while in Latgale the share of financially active organizations is increasing.

The monitoring uses data from multiple sources: the State Revenue Service (SRS) on the number and finances of associations and foundations; data from Lursoft on the total number of associations and foundations and trends in their establishment and liquidation; data prepared by the Treasury of Latvia on state and municipal expenditures for associations and foundations; and data provided by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia in cooperation with the State Chancellery of Latvia on the socio-demographic profile of employees in associations and foundations.

The monitoring uses full-year data from annual reports submitted by associations and foundations. Therefore, the most recent data in the current report covers 2024, the latest completed full year. In certain aspects, data for 2025 are also indicated — in cases where the SRS obtains specific data from other databases and uses a defined data extraction date.

Dalies: