Government Policy and the Nonprofit Sector: Switzerland - VMI

Nollert and Budowski Government Policy and the Nonprofit Sector: Switzerland
It is the smaller rather than the larger municipalities that tend to work closely with local NPOs and tend to have
more of an impact on local politics. As the size of municipalities increases, the probability that politicians are
simultaneously involved with NPOs decreases, e.g. in sport clubs, welfare or relief organizations. Thus,
politicians in small towns absolutely need to engage in and affiliate with local NPOs in order to acquire support
at the polls. In contrast, in large towns party affiliation is more important than personal reputation for
politicians. In other words: political competition is more personalized in small towns; therefore politicians in
large towns can focus more strongly on their political objectives.
Similar differences can also be seen with regard to voluntary work. In rural regions, the population displays a
proportionally higher level of readiness for volunteer work as compared to urban agglomerations, though this
varies by region.
A comparison of the various regions in Switzerland reveals that the population in the French‐speaking sector
more readily accepts the Government as an agent for the resolution of social and public problems than German‐
speaking Switzerland. Furthermore, the former is less willing to participate in NPOs than the latter, less likely to
donate, and the public authorities in this region are less willing to give NPOs permission for public advertising
(for more details see the Volunteer Survey of the Swiss Society of Public Utility (SGG), Ammann et al. 2007).
High levels of economic and cultural prosperity observed in most large cities, but also in some small cities (such
as Zug or Neuchâtel), correlate with involvement in voluntary activities. The high concentration of NPO
headquarters in the capital, Berne, also shows that it makes sense, particularly for interest groups, to be located
at the centre of political power.
In contrast to other policy areas, the effective differences in tax benefits between the regions and cantons are
comparatively small regarding donations and volunteering. Exceptions to this are the canton of Neuchâtel that
has very low tax deductions, and Basel‐Land with very high deductions. In addition, Zurich has allowed
volunteers to deduct up to 1000 CHF of their out‐of‐pocket expenses from their gross income since 2007.
However, the canton of Zug has become particularly attractive for foundations in recent years thanks to its
unusually low rates of taxation.
Marked differences exist in the degree of tacit (symbolic) support for NPOs in the social sector. Some cantons,
Vaud and Neuchâtel for example, and some municipalities, such as Berne and Zurich, have established
coordination centers for potential volunteers and government institutions, where institutions like hospitals call
upon the local population to become active as volunteers. The linguistic regions vary in their approach to
volunteer work: in the French‐ and Italian‐speaking cantons the approach is rather “top‐down”; in the German‐
speaking cantons it is rather “bottom‐up”. In French‐speaking Switzerland the population expects the state –
and not the associations – to mobilize volunteers. Their participation as volunteers in formal organizations is
generally lower than in the German‐speaking part. The differences between the three linguistic regions
ultimately manifest themselves in the quantity of new service agreements: more service agreements exist
between the state and NPOs in the French‐ and Italian‐speaking than in the German‐speaking cantons. Still,
given the different levels of potential support (municipal, cantonal, and federal), it is worth noting that the
predisposition to support NPOs can vary widely even within single cantons.
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