Czechia 7.3

The Culture Account of the CR (see also chapter 3.5.1., 6.3. and 7.1.1.) breaks down private expenditures on culture into household expenditures on culture and other private sources of funding for culture (from for-profit organisations, i.e. businesses, and non-profit organisations).

Expenditures of households on culture are presented in chapter 6.3.

In the framework of other private sources of funding for culture (which amount to almost two-thirds of all resources), the most important sources are financial and non-financial businesses (157.6 billion CZK) and non-governmental organisations (3.0 billion CZK). As regards the distribution of resources to individual sectors, other private sources of funding went mainly to advertising (77.4 billion CZK), architecture (27.9 billion CZK), media (20.9 billion CZK), and the press (22.0 billion CZK). Much less went to the performing arts, where public sources of funding predominate (Culture Account of the CR for 2020).

The current tax system in the CR is not especially supportive of philanthropy or patronage. The system advantages sponsors over donors. The costs of promotion and advertising are tax deductible costs and sponsors can apply the full sum to their tax base. The deductible ‘gifts’” item, however, is limited as a percentage of the tax base. In practice this means that sponsorships are realised in the form of contracts on advertising, cooperation, the lease of space, rather than as direct donations.  Patronage is not adequately dealt with in legislation in the CR. Despite this, however, the situation is currently changing. All sorts of new patrons are emerging that support music festivals, orchestras, and galleries. For example, the Strings of Autumn Music Festival already covers a portion of its costs through fundraising like other mainly music or film festivals; the National Theatre, like other theatres, and the Czech Philharmonic have established their own patronage club – Czech Philharmonic Dynamic Club. Philanthropist Meda Mládková built up a respected institution, Kampa Museum, from private sources, as did the founders of DOX and Meetfactory arts centres and the Jazz Dock Music Club in Prague, but examples can be found in other towns across the whole of the CR.

One of the provisions in the State Cultural Policy for 2015-2020 was to identify in cooperation with the regions and municipalities suitable projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPP). However, there is a generally sceptical attitude towards developing PPP projects in the field of culture. The only well-known PPP project in the field of culture to date is the project for the construction of the National Technical Library. The project was backed by the financial Sekyra Group, which secured not just the necessary investments but also the construction, engineering work, documentation, and technical oversight. Construction of the building was financed as a long-term mortgage payable to 2014. The library is a unique structure with an original architectural design and modern services for library visitors. It opened in the autumn of 2009. 

According to the Lottery Act, operators of lotteries and similar games are required to use a portion of their revenue for public benefit purposes, which includes cultural activities. However, this whole matter has long been the target of criticism in the CR from towns and municipalities, which have for many years been opposed to having gambling machines on their territory. The efforts of mayors finally led to a legislative amendment, which makes possible basically the immediate banning of gambling machines from a particular territory.

Table 10:          Expenditures on culture by private sectors – financial and non-financial businesses and non-governmental organisations, in thousands of CZK, 2020

Source(s): NIPOS based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, Prague 2022.