In 2021, citizens and companies in Serbia donated 42.5 million euros for the common good, according to our research "Giving Serbia 2021". 

The same data show that two-thirds of the actions were humanitarian donations, primarily intended for treating children and adults and helping the socially endangered. 

The decline to pandemic 2020 is expected, but that is not such bad news because the donated sum in the crisis 2020 was a record. On the contrary, except for 2020, which exceeded all previous ones in terms of the number of charitable actions and the amount donated in response to the crisis, the year behind us was the most successful philanthropic year in the last five. 

Once again, the largest donors were citizens, who donated more than half of the total amount, i.e., 60.7%, through mass donations and participated in 32.2% of donation shares. 

The second-largest donor is the business sector, which donated 33.4% of the total amount and participated in 32.2% of donation shares. 

It is interesting to note that citizens primarily supported nonprofit organizations, while companies donated the most to public institutions and local and national governments. 

The most supported recipients of donations were nonprofit organizations, which received as much as 75.7% of the total amount. 

Please read all the details about donors, recipients of donations, trends in giving, and other philanthropic data in the years behind us in our annual report. In the article below, find which actions marked 2021 and who some of the biggest donors were. 

Nordeus started the foundation to help education 

Nordeus, the largest IT company in Serbia, has so far participated in numerous humanitarian actions, within which it donated over 830,000 EUR. 

In 2021, the company established a corporate foundation with an initial capital of 2.5 million EUR, which is its most significant investment. 

The strategic goal of the Nordeus Foundation is to support education, i.e., the training of young professionals in the IT industry in Serbia. 

Mastercard and NURDOR launched a donation webshop 

Another action you have surely noticed is the new cooperation between Mastercard and NURDOR. It is about launching a webshop for donations - Superhero.rs and the fashion brand Superhero. The action was also supported by AIK Bank, McCann Belgrade, Drive agency, Gampo, and Bex courier service. 

Thanks to the Being Someone's Superhero campaign, 3,000,000 RSD were collected through the Superhero.rs platform in just 45 days since its launch, and the total amount of donations for NURDOR increased by 21.54% compared to the same period in 2020. 

For this contribution and long-term cooperation with NURDOR, the representative office of Mastercard Europe SA Belgrade received the VIRTUS Award for a long-term partnership between the business and nonprofit sector, awarded by the Trag Foundation. 

UNICEF supported children with disabilities with an auction for NFTs 

To raise funds for the purchase of assistive technology for development counseling and kindergartens that would help children with disabilities, UNICEF in Serbia organized a humanitarian exhibition of the collection of digital tokens - NFT. In addition to the exhibition, an online auction of NFT tokens was organized on the website donacije.unicef.rs, during which companies and individuals could buy tokens in cryptocurrencies and thus support the action. 

The initial price of NFT was 1 Ethereum or about 4,000 euros. Serbia's Association of the Video Game Industry (SGA) supported the action by providing 15 NFT tokens. The auction lasted until December 19, and all the income from the sold digital tokens was directed to the purpose of purchasing assistive technology. 

Delhaize Serbia supports healthcare 

The largest retail chain in Serbia, Delhaize Serbia, donated 200,000 euros to UNICEF to equip neonatal wards in the country. This donation was realized within the campaign "So small to stand in the heart." 

The donated funds are intended for purchasing the first transport vehicle for premature babies, a device for therapeutic hypothermia of newborns for the Neonatal Center Kragujevac, and a device for therapeutic hypothermia for the Institute for Health Protection of Children and Youth of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. 

In addition, the donated funds are directed to provide professional staff training in implementing medical procedures and principles in the field of neonatology. 

Citizens and companies helped repair after the earthquake in Croatia 

The B92 Fund and the Serbian Philanthropic Forum have launched an action to support the population of Croatia who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake in the Banija area. 

One of the companies that responded to the action was the Elixir Group, which supported the effort with a donation of 30,000 EUR to procure eight housing containers for temporary accommodation. 

The initiative was also supported by the company Messer Tehnogas ad Belgrade with a donation of three housing containers worth 11,000 EUR. 

MK Group and AIK Bank have allocated more than 55 thousand EUR for the family support program 

Within the traditional program "Family Support," MK Group is awarding financial subsidies to employees who have become parents for the fifth year in a row. 

Since the program's initiation, more than 620 families have been supported with over 263,000 EUR. In 2021, more than 55,000 EUR was allocated to help families. 

Together with AIK Bank, the program has been expanded externally by providing monetary donations to maternity hospitals in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In total, more than 700,000 EUR is intended to improve conditions in maternity hospitals.

DM drogerie markt has invested 186,000 euros in community development 

In 2021, the company DM drogerie markt doo Belgrade invested over 186,000 EUR in supporting the community through numerous charitable initiatives. 

One of the initiatives to support education was the cooperation with the Novak Djokovic Foundation for the reconstruction and equipping of kindergartens in Topola and Veliki Popovic, within which the company has invested 59,500 euros. 

Then, to help institutions that take care of children without parental care, the drugstore chain donated more than 15,000 EUR. 

The action "Plug to a smile" was also realized, within which five aids and a combined playground were provided in Pivnice, adapted for children with disabilities. 

The company directed 39,000 EUR to support health care during 2021. 

As part of the traditional "Movember" campaign, the company donated medical equipment worth 12,700 euros to the Clinic for Urology of the Clinical Center Kragujevac. 

In addition, traditional support for safe houses throughout Serbia continued. 

Telenor Foundation enabled the realization of sustainable projects 

At the "Imagine Everything 2021" competition, four projects in the field of education, culture, art, environmental protection, and social inclusion were selected, to which the Telenor Foundation awarded more than 34,000 EUR. 

Humanitarian and nonprofit organizations and foundations registered in Serbia could apply for the call with an idea for a project that offers sustainable and innovative solutions to current challenges in the community. 

Among the winners is a project called "Art in Passage," implemented by the Association of Citizens "Crown," which is the only project in the country and the region to include blind and partially sighted people in the field of street art through an innovative approach. 

Fast food Smerdov Vršac - food donations worth over 178,500 EUR 

Since 2018, the small company Fast Food Smerdov from Vršac has been donating food and groceries to socially endangered families, churches, monasteries, social protection organizations, and kindergartens. 

In 2021, the company, in cooperation with the Food Bank of Belgrade, provided daily meals for 70 students from socially and economically endangered families in the municipality of Vrsac. During that time, 7,500 free meals were provided for socially endangered students, and 19 tons of food were distributed on the territory of the municipalities of Vrsac and Plandiste, worth 178,500 EUR. 

For his contribution to philanthropy in 2021, Fast Food Smerdov received the VIRTUS Award for philanthropy in the category of small and medium enterprises. 

"Save food - save humanity" campaign 

Food donations are certainly one of the topics that marked the year behind us, primarily thanks to the Coalition for Charity campaign: Save food - save humanity, which marked the National Day of Giving and collected donations worth 115,000 EUR. This campaign brought together more than 40 companies, organizations, and institutions. 

Some of them are: 

• Delhaize Serbia supported the campaign by donating more than 14 tons of food, collected with the help of citizens, intended for over 24 humanitarian organizations across the country. Delhaize supported the campaign with a donation of about 8,500 EUR to help institutions that are part of the Alliance for Assistance to Underdeveloped Persons of Serbia (MNRO). 

• Nestlé Serbia also supported the fight against hunger, donating more than 220,000 food products. The donated products were collected in action, during which for each Nestlé product purchased in Univerexport stores, the company donated the same product to charity. In addition, the employees themselves donated funds for the purchase of groceries. 

• On October 9 and 10, Lidl Srbija KD enabled customers to donate purchased groceries in selected stores in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Zaječar, and Šabac. With the support of the citizens, 4.5 tons of food were collected. In addition, the company provided 2 tons of food needed to make food packages. 

• DM drogerie markt donated products worth more than 17,000 euros to the Belgrade Food Bank. 

With this campaign, the Coalition launched an initiative to abolish VAT on food donations. 

Conclusion 

These are great examples of actions and donors who marked 2021 with their charities. 

The increase in online donations can also be singled out as a positive trend - only through the Donacije.rs platform, through 38 crowdfunding campaigns, about 180,000 EUR were collected in 2021. 

For more information and examples of charitable donations during the last year, see our report Giving Serbia 2021. If you think we missed adding someone to the list, send us information, and we will gladly do so. 

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