A World without Nonprofits

Can you imagine our lives without a single nonprofit? I really don’t want to think about it, but it is my job to consider the possibilities and to fight every day to support and champion our sector. 

​What would happen if there were no nonprofits in Idaho? There are two sides to this story: the economic impact and the mission impact.

Mission Impact

Nonprofits are intricately woven into the fabric of our quality of life here in Idaho. I could argue successfully, with the data to back me up, that nonprofits ARE our quality of life. 

What do nonprofits do? They provide food, shelter, clothing, and health care for our most vulnerable citizens. They provide safe havens for victims of domestic abuse. They find homes for abandoned animals. They provide after school programming for children, of all ages, who need a safe place to go. They help our citizens in the throes of addiction.

Nonprofits provide daytime care for elderly citizens with memory issues so their caregivers can take care of other family needs without worry. They provide support for military families and programs for Veterans suffering from PTSD. They help individuals with disabilities find and retain employment.

Nonprofits provide endless cultural opportunities. Do you ever go to the Zoo? The local theater? Museums? The symphony? These significant cultural experiences are provided for our citizens and visitors every single day by nonprofits.

Nonprofits fund research to cure cancer and other terminal afflictions. They bring awareness to important causes. They teach our nation’s future leaders before they even reach kindergarten.

Nonprofits support sports for people of all ages. They host 5K road races and provide opportunities for all of us to improve our health and well-being. They care for the sick. They champion the humanities. They protect our public lands and support conservation. 

​They champion the rights of ALL of our citizens. Nonprofits do everything for every member of our community. 

Economic Impact

​But we are more than our missions, we are an economic engine in our own right.

Here is our sector by the numbers:

• Idaho’s nonprofits employ nearly 56,000 people
  
  
• We are the sixth largest employment sector.  You read that right, we employ more people than professional/technical services, construction, wholesale trade, transportation & warehousing, crop & animal production and finance & insurance.
  
  
• Idaho’s nonprofits employ DOUBLE the number of people employed by finance & insurance.
  
  
• Nonprofits GENERATE over $149 million in taxes which are created from economic activities due to federal/out-of-state revenues including indirect business taxes (i.e. sales taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes), personal income taxes, and corporate income taxes (from the direct, indirect, and induced tax impacts).
  
  
• Health, Human Services and Education combined equal 86.7% of those employed in the nonprofit sector. 
  
  

If Idaho’s nonprofits went away:
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• The state of Idaho would lose $2.7 billion in nonprofit expenditures (NOT PAYROLL)
  
  
• We would lose the following multiplier effects of those revenues including:
  
  
  • $5.19 billion in sales transactions (these are people purchasing goods & services UNRELATED to their employment)
    
    
  • $2.81 billion in gross state product
    
    
  • An additional $2.27 billion in total compensation (payroll) which are jobs CREATED as a result of our sector
    
    
• We would lose another 45,480 jobs and their economic impacts that are generated from the Idaho’s nonprofit sector
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  • We would lose over 101,000 jobs in Idaho both directly and indirectly related to our nonprofit sector.

Idaho’s nonprofits are more than just our missions. We are jobs, we are quality of life, we are economic engines, and we are the foundation on which our communities are built.

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November is Idaho Nonprofit Awareness month. Join us online and in-person as we proudly support and champion more than 6000 charitable nonprofits in Idaho.