Indiana nonprofit organizations continue to grow

Bloomington’s nonprofit sector continues to grow and remains an important section of the local economy, according to a recent report. \nNon-profit organizations provide jobs and social services – including 46 percent of health care services in the south central Indiana region, according to the report – and tend to be “recession-proof,” unlike other businesses, Kirsten Grønbjerg, lead author of the study, said.\nFrom 2001 to 2005, nonprofit employment increased 5 percent statewide and by 3.2 percent in the south-central Indiana region, which includes Monroe and Brown counties. In this region, 9700 non-profit employees are paid a total of $255 million, making up about 8.4 percent of the total workforce. The state average of the total workforce involved in non-profit organizations is eight percent. \nGrønbjerg, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the south central part of Indiana had significant percentages of certain types of nonprofit jobs such as social assistance and health services. But overall, nonprofit organizations’ wages in this part of the state were slightly lower than the statewide average, she said.\nThe report itself is the result of a joint effort of SPEA, the Center on Philanthropy at IU–Purdue University Indianapolis and the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Economic Data Project. It is the third in a series of reports released every two years. This year’s report contains data from 2004 and 2005. \nThe report makes comparisons among nonprofit, for-profit and government sector employment. Nonprofit organizations tend to do relatively better in times of recession than other sectors of the economy, Grønbjerg said.\n“They have volunteers they can draw on, they may have the ability to generate donations to keep services going (when) businesses that can’t sell their products or get a high enough profit margin may simply decide to close up their doors,” Grønbjerg said.\nIn years documented by previous reports, nonprofit groups outpaced the for-profit sector in growth. But the latest report shows that between 2004 and 2005, for-profit businesses had caught up and outpaced nonprofits for the first time since 2001. Between 2004 and 2005 for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations grew 1.9 percent and 1 percent, respectively.\nGrønbjerg attributes this change to a slow, but ongoing economic recovery from the last recession early in the decade.\nSome non-profit businesses are losing money, but because they are more “recession-proof,” Grønbjerg said, they are still continuing to grow. \n“We know from the survey we did in 2002 that nonprofits, a very significant proportion of them, say that demands for their services have increased and that a higher percentage said that their expenses had increased over their revenues,” Grønbjerg said.\nShe also said nonprofits and the jobs they provide play a big role in local economies because they create jobs, which create income for employees. \n“It’s always surprising to me to find how surprised people are to find how important to the economy nonprofits are, and also part of the quality of life,” Grønbjerg said. “If you look at the percent of health services that are delivered by non-profits or social assistance and even in some communities… education.” \nBet Savich, director of Bloomington’s volunteer network, who works with almost all the nonprofit organizations in town, said she sees nonprofit groups in Bloomington thriving and realizes how important they are to the community.\n“We do seem to have a healthy nonprofit community,” she said. “From my perspective, they all rely on community support and volunteer support.”