Busan City is offering public vegetable gardens to those who donate more than 200,000 won to the city. /Busan City
Last year, Daejeon City raised 1.99 billion KRW through hometown love donations, a 317% increase from the previous year. This was the largest increase in donations among local governments nationwide. Last year, Daejeon offered gift certificates from the popular local bakery, Sung Sim Dang, as a return gift to donors. Busan is providing those who donate over 200,000 won to the city with a 16 to 23 square meter garden plot for up to three years. This allows donors to use the land as a return gift for their donation.
Local governments are introducing various return gifts to attract donations from people who have left their hometowns. The government anticipates that in the third year of the hometown love donation program, a total of 100 billion KRW will be collected.
This year, 17 cities and provinces have raised 87.9 billion KRW, a 135% increase from the previous year.
On the 22nd, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the results of the 2024 hometown love donation program.
According to the government’s announcement, the total amount raised through the hometown love donation program conducted by 17 cities and provinces last year was 87.9 billion KRW (provisional), a 35% increase from the previous year. The number of donations also increased by 147% to 774,000.
All 17 cities and provinces across the country saw an increase in donations compared to the previous year. Jeonnam had the highest with 18.75 billion KRW, followed by Gyeongbuk (10.39 billion KRW) and Jeonbuk (9.32 billion KRW). In terms of the increase rate compared to the previous year, Daejeon was the highest at 317%. It was followed by Gwangju (299%) and Sejong (206%).
The hometown love donation program allows donors to select a region, either their birthplace or a personal choice, to donate to. It targets individuals and allows donations to any local government nationwide, excluding their registered residence. For instance, a resident of Seoul can donate to all other local governments except Seoul.
The government introduced the hometown love donation program in 2023 to respond to the issue of local extinction, benchmarking Japan’s “Furusato Nozei” program. Since 2008, Japan has operated a hometown tax system that provides donors with return gifts such as local specialties. In its first year, 2008, it recorded 81.4 billion yen (approximately 74.5 billion KRW), and it increased to 965.4 billion yen (approximately 8.88 trillion KRW) by 2022.
The background for the increase in donations by local governments compared to the previous year is attributed to the variety of return gifts. Local governments can offer return gifts to donors within 30% of the donation amount. If someone donates 100,000 KRW, they can receive goods worth 30,000 KRW.
As of last year, local governments provided 14,989 types of return gifts. Most of them are regional specialties, which contribute to the revitalization of the local economy. The value of return gifts purchased by donors last year increased by 36% to 20.5 billion KRW compared to the previous year.
Return gifts are not limited to local specialties. Busan provides allocation rights for public vegetable gardens to donors, Tongyeong in Gyeongnam offers a night sea tour experience, and Gimje in Jeonbuk provides accommodation discount vouchers at the famous local tourist spot, Byeokgolje Village.
To expand the hometown love donation program, the government plans to increase the annual donation limit per person from the existing 5 million KRW to 20 million KRW this year. They also plan to add six additional private platforms for donations, bringing the total to 12.
Koh Ki-dong, Acting Minister of the Interior and Safety, said, “Based on the achievements made in the first two years, we will work to improve donor convenience this year, ensuring the hometown love donation program plays a bigger role.”