Non-profit organizations are organizations whose primary goal is to achieve social benefit and serve the public. Their focus is not on making a profit, even though they need it to fulfill their mission. Nonprofits are characterized by social sensitivity to the public, commitment, and a focus on general, social, and civic interests. Managing a non-profit organization is not easy, and to survive and succeed, non-profits must behave in an entrepreneurial manner, i.e., be proactive, creative, innovative, and take bold risks to try to achieve all their stated goals. Many non-profit organizations face various challenges, from human resource management, financial sustainability to measuring their contribution to the social and economic development of the country. Measuring results is a major challenge for them because they cannot express their results in terms of profit. The overall economic impact of non-profit organizations can be looked at in several ways, such as share of GDP, number of employees, number of volunteering hours and the like. Employment can be seen as the share of employees in the third sector in the total workforce, but non-profit organizations rely heavily on volunteers in addition to employees. Volunteers make up half of the labor force in the nonprofit sector. Evidence of the economic value of volunteerism confirms the importance of volunteers in non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations, especially civil society organizations, are the pillar of any successful, democratic society. Therefore, it is important to clearly see, promote and support their actions. The aim of the thesis is to examine the specifics of non-profit organizations and their role in the sustainable development of society. The empirical part of the thesis focuses on how the public perceives the importance of non-profit organizations. The results of this research help to understand the image that this sector has in society.