The creative and cultural industries are one of the growing industries of today that, according to Florida and Tinagli (2004), contribute to economic development. The importance of the cultural and creative industry has been recognized by the European Union with regard to the increase in the value of funds intended for financing this sector in the next programming period. The purpose of this paper is to identify potential barriers of associations operating within the cultural and creative industries in obtaining the funding. Also, through the analysis of a semi-structured interview with representatives of three associations operating in the city of Osijek, attitudes about obstacles to obtaining funding from European funds and the success of non-profit organizations at the regional level are examined. Non-profit organizations operating within the cultural and creative industry, in this case associations as the most numerous non-profit organizations, still depend on state and local self-government to finance projects and in practice, according to respondents, European Union funds are insufficiently used. Also, according to this and other authors' research, it was determined that non-profit organizations registered in the city of Zagreb are more successful compared to other regions of the Republic of Croatia in terms of business results and use of funds from the European Union. The importance of using EU funds and programs for the implementation of more complex and larger projects and the overall development of non-profit organizations in culture and creative industries was emphasized.