It Matters: The Nonprofit Sector in Southeastern Pennsylvania


March 17, 2010

Adding to our prior research on the arts, education, and healthcare nonprofit sectors, the Economy League was pleased to produce "It Matters," a study for The Philadelphia Foundation that describes and quantifies for the first time the size and impact of nonprofits in the five-county region of southeastern Pennsylvania.

The study focused primarily on those 5,300 nonprofit organizations known as Public Charities, a group that includes a subset of 3,600 Nonprofits Serving Individuals and Households (NPISH) organizations. The analysis:

  • Provides a common description and language for understanding the nonprofit community serving southeastern Pennsylvania;
  • Establishes a common framework upon which further study of the sector's strengths, weaknesses, assets, and challenges can be based; and
  • Promotes better understanding of the importance of the sector to the overall regional economy.

Summary of Key Findings

The nonprofit community in southeastern Pennsylvania is large.

Nonprofit organizations in southeastern Pennsylvania total 15,000. Nearly 7,300 of those file tax returns, more than 5,300 organizations are classified as Public Charities, and more than 3,600 exist to provide households and individuals with direct services.

The nonprofit community in southeastern Pennsylvania is growing.

Since the year 2000, the number of nonprofits in southeastern Pennsylvania has grown by about 40%.

The nonprofit community in southeastern Pennsylvania is diverse, but revenues and assets are concentrated in a few groups.

While diverse in number of organizations and services provided, nonprofit revenues and assets are concentrated in three areas - Health, Education, and Human Services - reflecting the region's historic strengths in higher education and hospitals and its urban nature.

Nonprofit spending is large, growing, and dispersed widely across the region.

Southeastern Pennsylvania's Public Charities spent nearly $32 billion in 2007, and NPISH organizations spent close to $8.5 billion. By comparison, local governments spend about $9 billion annually. Nonprofit spending is highly concentrated among industry groups and the largest organizations.

The nonprofit sector would be the third largest private employment sector if it were recognized as an official economic sector.

There are more than 240,000 jobs in southeastern Pennsylvania's nonprofits - about 13% of the five-county total - supporting $11.3 billion in annual wages.

The nonprofit sector is a key contributor to a high quality of life in the region.

Nonprofits in southeastern Pennsylvania run on thin operating margins, particularly in the human services fields.

More than a third of Public Charities and 36% of NPISH organizations ran operating deficits for the 2007 period of analysis.

It is The Philadelphia Foundation's hope that sharing this information with the community will advance its vision of a dynamic and robust nonprofit sector that is critical to our regional quality of life. Click here to view the full report.