Category: US GMU-NED

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Nonprofit organizations play a vital role in local economies in the United States, employing nearly 12.8 million people, paying billions in wages, and providing essential services to communities. On July 2, EWMI’s partner, the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise’s George Mason University – Nonprofit Employment Data Project (GMU-NED) released a new report, Nonprofit Employment in the States, 2017–2022. The report examines the latest available data on nonprofit employment and wages in 53 U.S. states and territories between 2017 and 2022. A supplementary data dashboard provides field-level data over this same period.

Drawing on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the report highlights state-level nonprofit employment and wages between 2017-2022. It examines how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted nonprofit employment in the states and territories, how state-level nonprofit employment had recovered as of 2022, and how nonprofit employment and wages compared to their counterparts in the for-profit sector during this crucial period.

The supplementary data dashboard drills into these data to provide additional information on the number of nonprofit establishments operating in each state, the fields in which they are active, and how these patterns shifted during and in the years immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. This report follows up on the December 2024 Nonprofit Employment Report which provided an overview of national-level data on nonprofit employment and wage trends between 2017 and 2022.

The report is structured around five key findings:

• Nonprofit wages rose faster than for-profit wages in the majority of states during the recovery period;
• Nonprofits are a major employer in virtually every state and territory in the U.S.;
• Nonprofit wages are a crucial component of state economies;
• Nonprofits in most states retained more of their workforce than their for-profit counterparts in 2020 during the onset of the COVID pandemic;
• However, nonprofits in most states struggled to keep up with for-profits during the first two years of recovery from the pandemic in 2021 and 2022; and
• Nonprofit wages rose faster than for-profit wages in the majority of states during the recovery period.

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On February 19, EWMI’s partner, the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, launched Nonprofit Works: An Interactive Database on Nonprofit Employment and Wages, developed by the George Mason University – Nonprofit Employment Data (GMU-NED) Project.

With the launch of the new GMU-Nonprofit Works Data Explorer, users can search and download the latest available data on U.S. nonprofit employment, establishments, and weekly and annual average wages on the national, state, county, and city levels by field for over thirty years—from 1990 through 2022—and compare nonprofits to for-profits and government over the full period.

Why Nonprofit Works?

The nonprofit sector is a vital part of the employment landscape of the U.S., employing the third largest workforce and generating the third largest payroll of any of the 18 industries into which statistical authorities divide the American economy — larger than all branches of manufacturing combined, and behind only retail trade and accommodation and food services. Nonprofits employ nearly 89% of all workers providing community, food, housing, and emergency relief services, more than 66% of all workers in hospitals, and 35% of all social services workers in the country. These organizations are essential threads in the country’s social safety net, without which more people would slip through and more communities would struggle.

Without ready access to hard data, however, nonprofit leaders and advocates often find themselves at a disadvantage in countering gross misperceptions about the considerable scale and economic contribution of these organizations or in alerting sector leaders to important sector trends, such as staffing and funding shortfalls.

Nonprofit Works makes it easy to access, download, and use the best available data on the nonprofit sector’s vital role as employers, wage payers, and service providers in communities of all sizes across the U.S. at a critical time for the sector, as it faces unprecedented challenges to its funding—including threats to government grants and payments and declining individual giving. It is our hope that GMU-Nonprofit Works will fill a gap in the tools available to nonprofit leaders, advocates, and researchers.