Municipal Government-Nonprofit Sector Collaboration in Bulgaria

Abstract

The worldwide phenomenon of devolution of power to local governments and growth of community nonprofit organizations increases opportunities for municipal government-nonprofit sector collaboration. Successful collaboration between the two institutions is seen as a promising trend because it stimulates development of a healthy civil society and delivery of a broader array of social services. This article presents an analysis of survey data that measured attitudes of Bulgarian municipal officials toward municipal-nonprofit collaboration. Municipal officials’ orientation toward working cooperatively with nonprofit organizations is critical to success. The survey data indicate that Bulgarian municipal officials are supportive of the general notion of municipal-nonprofit collaboration, but they retain serious reservations about the capacity of community nonprofit organizations to contribute meaningfully to service delivery in cooperation with local government. They perceive financial and human resource constraints within the nonprofit sector as well as within their own structures, thus making successful collaboration and its benefits problematic.