NGOs are now considered by social researchers to be a full member of society, and are increasingly visible in public awareness, media and vocabulary, which shows their growing influence and importance.
Their numbers are constantly growing, and their services and activities are expanding. However, in addition to the wide range of tasks and services, there are common features of NGOs that make them a completely separate sector. Their mission is to serve the public and the community, without profit-making being their primary objective (Bányai 1997).
The non-profit sector includes those organisations in society which operate as private institutions but in fact serve community purposes (Simon 1998).

Since the range of activities of NGOs is very broad and it is difficult to draw conclusions from the whole, the focus of this short study is on youth NGOs.