On January 27, 2005 ECNL in cooperation with the Association of Tax Workers and the First Children's Embassy in the World - 'Megjashi' organized conference on Financial Sustainability of NGOs' Philanthropy and Taxation in Skopje, Macedonia. The conference provided a forum for exchange of opinions between NGO and Government participants. The conference also presented results from a research on financial sustainability of NGOs in Macedonia.
As a result of the conference, participants prepared a list of recommendations for issues that need to be addressed, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance and distributed to other stakeholders. Among the recommendations, the participants propose: improving the legal framework for self-financing (tax exemption on economic activities) and donations (tax deductions for corporate and individual donations), drafting a regulation on distribution of funds from the budget, revising the laws on distribution of lottery proceeds to NGOs, and abolishing taxation of the reimbursement of volunteers. The conference was organized as a part of the Percentage Philanthropy Project supported by NIOK - Hungary.