Charities and nonprofits in Serbia
Serbia has a deep nonprofit sector covering associations (udruzenja), endowments and foundations (zaduzbine i fondacije), and unions of associations active across social welfare, healthcare, child protection, women's rights, Roma inclusion, environment, civil society and rule-of-law, and post-conflict reconciliation programs. Belgrade is also home to several regional NGOs serving the Western Balkans. Whether you are searching for a comprehensive list of Serbian charities, an APR association register lookup, a zaduzbine i fondacije directory, or a single verified Serbian nonprofit to donate to, GiveRadar consolidates official Agency for Business Registers data, financial information, news coverage, and an independent integrity score for every Serbian nonprofit. Read about how GiveRadar works before you give.
How charities are registered in Serbia
Serbian nonprofits register with the Agencija za privredne registre (APR, Agency for Business Registers). The Register of Associations covers udruzenja and unions of associations, while the Register of Endowments and Foundations covers zaduzbine and fondacije, with the Ministry of Culture as supervising authority. Both registers are public and searchable. Annual financial reports are filed with APR under the Accounting Act, with the legal deadline of March 31 each year. Tax exemption follows from nonprofit status; specific donation-deductibility rules apply under the Serbian Personal Income Tax Law and Corporate Income Tax Law. Some causes (health, education, sports, culture, environment, social protection) qualify for higher donor deduction caps.
Major causes and well-known Serbian charities
The Serbian nonprofit sector spans the full range of cause areas:
- Children and child welfare: Pomozi.rs, Fondacija Princeze Katarine, B92 Fondacija, and SOS Decija Sela Srbija.
- Health: Nurdor (Cancer Society of Serbia), Sun in the Soul, and the Serbian Red Cross.
- Disability and inclusion: Caritas Srbije, MyRight Serbia, and the Center for Independent Living.
- Civil society and rule-of-law: CRTA, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM), and Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).
- Women's rights: Autonomni zenski centar and Astra Anti-Trafficking Action.
- Roma inclusion: Roma Education Fund Serbia and various Roma community NGOs.
- Environment: CEKOR, Eko-leaks, and various nature-protection associations.
Compare two organizations side by side with our charity comparison tool, or browse best health charities in Serbia and best advocacy charities in Serbia to narrow by cause.
How to evaluate a Serbian charity before donating
Serbia has solid baseline transparency for APR-registered nonprofits, but variability is wide. Things to check before giving to any Serbian charity:
- APR registration: every legitimate Serbian nonprofit has a unique registration number and matriculation number from APR.
- Annual financial reports: filed with APR by March 31 each year and publicly searchable on the unified APR portal.
- Public-benefit recognition (where applicable): additional governance signal for established Serbian foundations.
- International partnerships: partners of EU-funded programs, UN agencies, USAID, or major Western foundations have usually passed vendor due-diligence checks.
- Sanctions and watchlists: use our free charity checker tool to cross-reference every Serbian nonprofit against OFAC, EU, and UN watchlists automatically.
Each Serbian nonprofit profile on GiveRadar combines APR registration, financial filings, governance, and third-party signals into a single 0-100 integrity score. Read our integrity score methodology for the full weighting.
Serbia charity explorer: browse, filter, compare
This page works as a Serbia charity explorer: every APR-registered Serbian nonprofit we hold data on, ranked and filterable by district, cause area, financial transparency, presence of a website, and size. Use the filters on the left to narrow by category (children, health, disability, civil society, women's rights, Roma inclusion, environment, religion, advocacy, and more), and the search bar to find a specific organization by name or APR number. The directory updates daily as we ingest new APR data and enrich existing records with contact details, financials, programs, and news coverage. To compare Serbian giving against other markets, browse all countries or jump straight to advocacy charities globally.
Donating to charities in Serbia
Most Serbian nonprofits accept card and bank-transfer donations directly through their websites. Serbian individual and corporate donors can claim a deduction of up to 5% of taxable income for donations to recognized public-benefit causes (with higher caps for specific categories). International donors typically give cross-border via Transnational Giving Europe or GlobalGiving. GiveRadar links to each nonprofit's official donation channel where available and flags fundraising pages that look unverified. For a structured donor walkthrough, read our donor due-diligence guide.