Overview
Independent Sector is releasing our second annual Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector report, an evolving resource of data, analysis, and recommendations about key areas powering more than 1.8 million U.S. nonprofits: Financial Resources, Human Capital, Governance and Trust, and Public Policy and Advocacy.
This report provides original Independent Sector analysis of federal data highlighting our sector’s economic impact and demographic composition. Recommendations cover research, practice, and policy. The 2021 report makes a broad set of measures easily accessible and presents them side-by-side, so stakeholders and key decisionmakers can quickly see the most accurate snapshot of the state of civil society. As the nonprofit sector continues to be an underpinning of civil society, our goal is to spur deeper discussions, greater action, and more collaboration so that everyone in the U.S. can thrive.
Report Snapshot
Nonprofits make up 5.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), up 0.4 percentage points from the previous year.
Pre-COVID-19 employment levels for the nonprofit sector will return around July 2022 – a period of more than 11 months to do so.
47% of nonprofits said they served fewer people in 2020.
40% of nonprofits surveyed reported a revenue loss in 2020.
4 million nonprofit jobs saved through advocacy in 2020. Nonprofit advocacy supported the Paycheck Protection Program, payroll tax credits, and a temporary universal charitable deduction.
57% of U.S. public trust nonprofits to do what is right in 2021, down 2 percentage points from 2020.
Download the Full 2021 Report
