Nonetheless, the majority of social welfare organizations are NGOs which are fully dependent on volunteers. Volunteer work is usually unpaid. Organizations are acquiring volunteers from among their own members, clients, relatives of members, and so on. The majority of NGOs have financial problems. The main causes of these problems are lack of management skills in fundraising, inordinate reliance on state grants, and inadequate legislation regarding NGOs and taxes.
Volunteers usually participate in various activities in an organization.
The need for volunteers is far greater than the supply. For organizations, voluntarism is an advantage because volunteers represent a cheap source of labor and are typically enthusiastic, have good moral standards and possess a variety of skills. Voluntarism is a disadvantage because volunteers often lack spare time, represent recruitment difficulties, are insufficiently qualified and difficult to manage, and account for problems in communication. Volunteers are predominantly middle-aged, female and employed. More than one-half of all nongovernment social welfare organizations in Slovakia did not exist three years ago.