Publications

Civil Society Index – Rapid Assessment. Rahmenbedingungen für die Zivilgesellschaft in Österreich

Authors: Eva More-Hollerweger, Ruth Simsa, Günther Kainz, Franz Neunteufl, Romy Grasgruber-Kerl, Felix Sebastian Wohlgemuth
Publisher: Vienna University of Economics an Business, Competence Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Social Entrepreneurship, Vienna
Content: 88 pages
Year: 2014

After a year of intensive collaboration between the Competence Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Social Entrepreneurship of the WU Vienna and CIVICUS, the research project Civil Society Index was completed in early June and presented its results on 16 June 2014 at a press conference on the premises of the Austrian National Parliament.

Within a participatory process with actors of the third sector several issues were identified as being of particular relevance: democracy, freedom of association and conventions, tax and social security conditions for non-profit organisations and volunteers, as well as the allocation of public funds. This report contains more than forty specific proposals from that research series. Some of these, such as the increased involvement of civil society organisations in policy making or promoting charitable foundations, are already waiting for their implementation by Austrian politics.

This publication is available at ERSTE Foundation Library.

Florian Bauer

Director Social Finance, Sustainability and Innovation
Since 2023, Florian Bauer has been responsible for social finance, sustainability and social innovation at ERSTE Foundation. Prior to this role, Florian worked in the NGO & Social Entrepreneurship sector for more than 13 years. He led the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), an international multilateral NGO that works to accelerate market-based deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient systems in developing countries, and was Managing Director & COO of the Impact Hub Vienna. From 2020-2023, Florian established strategic alliances with key partners and helped to create innovative semantic technology solutions at Semantic Web Company (SWC), a leading IT company in semantic AI solutions.