The conference was organised by the Academy for Educational Development and the US Agency for International Development, in cooperation with the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESst).
The imminent departure of a large number of foreign donors from Croatia has prompted many NGOs to seek new methods of raising funds, the organisers of the event said.
Igor Vidacak, who heads the government's office for NGOs, said that Croatia was entering a new period in which the social and economic effects of social entrepreneurship would be increasingly valued.
The government plans to launch a program of education about social entrepreneurship for civil society and business and public sectors, and improve legislation to help develop nonprofit businesses.
The government also plans to set up a body in charge of developing social entrepreneurship and defining more precise indicators of success of that type of entrepreneurship, as well as introduce the statistical monitoring of the share of social economy in GDP, Vidacak said.
Croatia has around 30,000 civil society organisations and only one-fourth are active. Income from self-financing accounts for 1-40% of their budgets, said Eva Varga of the NESst.
Social entrepreneurship refers to the application of entrepreneurship principles in the social sector, while self-financing covers activities such as collection of membership fees, use of material and non-material assets, sale of products, interest on investment, etc.