Ten Fascinating Facts About California Nonprofits

The California Association of Nonprofits recently released Causes Count, a report on the impact of the nonprofit sector throughout the state. Here are ten fascinating (and sometimes surprising) facts I gleaned from the report to share with you:

     1) Nonprofits represent a significant part of the California economy: 15% of California's Gross State Product (a measurement of the state's total economic output) comes from the nonprofit sector.
     2) There are 170,783 nonprofit agencies in the state: Of these, 72,000 are 501(c)(3)s - charitable organizations operated exclusively for exempt purposes and eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in according with IRS tax codes.
     3) Almost 1 million people work for a nonprofit organization: This means that 6% of all state jobs are in the nonprofit sector, with the largest percentage in health care and education.
     4) The nonprofit sector is the 4th largest industry in the state (based on number of jobs): That's more than construction, finance, and real estate. Nonprofit job numbers are topped only by the leisure/hospitality industry, retail businesses, and manufacturing.
     5) Just about every nonprofit relies on volunteers: Whether large corporate-style agencies or small grassroots organizations, all nonprofits utilize volunteers and all of them have more volunteers than paid staff.
     6) Volunteers contribute $24.7 billion in unpaid volunteer labor annually: That's the equivalent of 450,000 full-time employees. A whopping 86% of these volunteers say they love what they do.
     7) And they're not just stuffing envelopes: More than half of these volunteers do significant work in the areas of fundraising and deliverance of core programs.
     8) Plus 400,000 people sit on nonprofit boards: That means one out of every hundred people you know contributed time and expertise as a proud member of a Board of Directors.
     9) That brouhaha about nonprofit mismanagement and excessive overhead costs has very little basis: On average, nonprofits spend 89% of their total budget on program expenses, with just 10% designated to management and a mere 1% to fundraising. Of the folks polled by the California Association of Nonprofits, 80% were confident that California's nonprofits deliver quality services and operate ethically to serve the public's benefit.
     10) Nonprofits pay taxes: Contrary to popular belief, nonprofits actually pay a significant amount in state and federal taxes - $37 billion annually, largely in payroll taxes.

Looks like good work turns out to be darn good for the economy and for the state.