Overview
Independent Sector regularly releases Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector reports – an evolving and growing resource of data, analysis, and recommendations about key areas powering more than 1.8 million U.S. nonprofits. Since 2020, when Independent Sector launched these reports, the focal points have been: Financial Resources, Human Capital, Governance and Trust, and Public Policy Advocacy. The reports make a broad set of measures easily accessible and present them side-by-side, so stakeholders and key decisionmakers can quickly see the most accurate snapshot of the state of civil society.
This most recent Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: Quarterly Review, for the second half of 2022 and released on March 31, 2023, provides Independent Sector analysis of federal data highlighting the nonprofit sector’s economic contributions, human capital, and advocacy activity. Among its key highlights:
- U.S. nonprofits contributed $1.5 trillion to the economy in the fourth quarter of 2022, but economic uncertainty may impact nonprofit budgeting and revenue;
- The number of donors declined 7% in the third quarter of 2022 and it is visible across all sizes of donations. This downward trend demonstrates the need to reinstate charitable giving incentives for all taxpayers through the Charitable Act.
- In the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of nonprofit sector jobs finally exceeded 2017 employment levels. However, some subsectors, like arts and civic organizations, have yet to fully recover the number of jobs they employed prior to the pandemic.
- Despite reaching pre-pandemic levels of jobs in the fourth quarter of 2022, the nonprofit workforce is whiter compared to 2019.
- This report complements data and recommendations in the 2021 Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector annual report. As the nonprofit sector continues to be the underpinning of civil society and healthy, equitable communities, our goal is to spur deeper discussions, greater action, and more collaboration so that everyone in the U.S. can thrive.
