The voluntary welfare associations in Germany: An overview

19

The sources of financing voluntary welfare services can basically be divided into three
groups:⁵¹

• remuneration for services,

• public grants-in-aid and

• donations and internal funding

The welfare associations receive remunerations in return for services they provide in
certain areas (hospitals, nursing homes and out-patient services among others). Either
care recipients have to pay themselves (often with a right to reclaim the charges from
social welfare), or the public welfare agencies pay directly.

As for funding in the form of public grants-in-aid, its legal basis lies in the pubic-law
obligation to provide appropriate support for voluntary welfare agencies.

The public grants-in-aid are financing

• investment aid for the building facilities and

• assistance for their operation.

This funding is in part stipulated in law, and in part furnished according to political
judgement. The form and extent of public grants-in-aid varies according to the respec-
tive field of work, and depends on the Land, district or municipality responsible.

The traditional sources of income for the welfare associations are the financial and ma-
terial donations from the public appeals, households and street collections. Internally,
the associations receive contributions from their own members, friends and supporters.

A further self-financing activity is the sale of welfare coupons which contain a sur-
charge. Revenue from lotteries are also important, e. g. the ZDF television lottery “Ak-
tion Mensch”, the ARD lottery “Ein Platz an der Sonne” and the “GlücksSpirale”.

Finally, the voluntary welfare makes a considerable contribution itself. First and fore-
most there is all the work performed by voluntary helpers, even if these do not appear
on any balance sheets as a financial item. Voluntary work saves enormous amounts of
money which would otherwise have to be covered by the public through taxes or insur-
ance contributions.

The different shares of financing are:⁵²

• remuneration for services 64,1 %

• public grants-in-aid 20,2 %

• donations 3,2 %

⁵¹ See to the different forms and procedures of funding: Backer/Naegele/Bispinck/Hofemann/Neubauer
2007, Bd. 2: 556-560. See the general information on funding: BAGFE 2002: 103-105.

⁵² Boeβenecker 2007: 4.

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