Selected aspects of the workings of public benefit organisations in civil society on the basis of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the functioning of Subcarpathian public benefit organizations (pbo) in the field of cross-sectoral cooperation and financing of their activities. This has been done on the basis of CATI research (N = 368), taking into account the narrow understanding of the concept of civil society, which is the background for the activities of the analyzed NGO's. The main problem of public benefit organizations in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship seems to be the passivity of these entities, which manifests itself in focusing on obtaining finance from public sources and from private donors, and not on the active search for sources of income e.g. by running own business or charging fees for services. Also, the forms of cooperation undertaken by the public benefit organizations with primary and secondary sectors suggest that their leaders focus their attention on receiving money, and not on joint activities for the benefit of the community, the use of employee volunteering or taking an active part in consultations conducted by central and local authorities. An attempt was made to solve the problem, which is based on the assumption that public benefit organizations located in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship should, through their actions, fit into the liberal concept of civil society. This would not simply enable the sector itself to be activated, which could also contribute to the activation of the inhabitants of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. This could provide the basis for the creation of a strong civil society, which not only would be a passive observer of political and social events, but also an active stakeholder in public life.