Small and medium-size towns are perhaps the most important scenes of non-profit activities in Hungary. This book reports on research conducted among nonprofit organisations engaged in social welfare activity in four Hungarian towns: Békés, Komló, Sárvár and Sátoraljaújhely. The investigation provided the opportunity to examine similarities and differences between the towns and also to draw certain conclusions.
In Hungary recent years numerous representative empirical surveys have examined the place of nonprofit organisations in the welfare model.

Experts concluded from findings that civil organisations are playing a big role in easing social and social welfare tensions, particularly in local societies. At the same time it also became obvious that substantial differences can be found from one region and area to another and even from one town to another in the tasks undertaken by the nonprofit organisations.

For this reason, with the support of Vienna-based Institute for Human Sciences, Social Consequences of Economic Transformation in Central Eastern Europe (SOCO) programme, we launched an investigation aimed at comparing the operation of organisations in towns located in different regions of Hungary