Updated: August 30, 2019
Business Resources
Commentary: Don’t overlook nonprofits’ role in the Maine economy
By Jennifer Hutchins
When talking about a strong Maine economy, industries like marine resources, tourism and biotech justifiably top the list. Yet the pursuit of a prosperous Maine requires deeper understanding of how communities thrive, including the wide variety of roles nonprofits play in sustaining and enriching community health and vibrancy.
Nonprofits support Maine’s future by focusing on early care and education and connecting youth with service and work opportunities. They promote economic development by counseling and investing in entrepreneurs and small businesses. They provide an essential safety net of physical and mental health services for those in need, and they enrich our natural and built environments through environmental preservation and the arts.
In a 2019 report, “Adding Up Impact: Maine Nonprofits at Work,” the Maine Association of Nonprofits outlines the economic impact of Maine’s nearly 3,000 reporting public charities, which includes 501(c)(3) organizations that are registered with the state of Maine, file tax returns and operate for public-benefit purposes. Public charities are only part of the nonprofit sector, making up 73% of the total number of tax-exempt organizations in Maine.
Maine’s nonprofit sector paid over $4.7 billion in wages in 2017, or 17.9% of the state’s total payroll.
Public charities employ over 98,000 people, or one in six Maine workers, making this sector a more significant employer than nearly all other industries in the state. About 37% work in hospitals, 30% work in other health care and social assistance organizations and almost 18% work in education. Other types of nonprofit employment include professional services, environmental protection and the arts.
Maine’s nonprofit sector paid over $4.7 billion in wages in 2017, or 17.9% of the state’s total payroll. These wages translated in an estimated $271 million of personal income tax revenue for Maine’s state and local governments and over $809 million in federal tax revenue. For instance, the Rockland-based Island Institute’s annual payroll of over $3 million employs 54 full-time Maine residents, who are addressing the long-term sustainability of Maine’s island and coastal communities.
Maine nonprofits contribute $12 billion per year to the economy through wages paid, retail and wholesale purchases, and professional services contracts. While the number of charitable nonprofits in Maine has grown 5.5% over the last decade, expenditures have grown an average of 5.3% each year. Maine’s art and cultural nonprofits alone generate over $150 million in annual economic activity, supporting over 4,000 full-time jobs.
Located in every Maine county, hospitals are significant economic drivers. While they represent less than 2% of charitable nonprofits, they account for the majority, 56.1%, of the spending. Human service organizations, which care for vulnerable populations in every far-reaching corner of the state, represent a third of these organizations and only 10% of the spending, showing that many are very small and community-based, often relying on volunteers.
Maine ranks in the top 10 nationally for volunteerism. Representing over a third of Maine residents, nearly 425,000 people contribute more the 39 million hours and $948 million in time and talent to improving Maine communities.
Maine has one of the more robust nonprofit sectors in the country, working closely with partners in government and business to ensure the health and well-being of all Maine residents. However, as nonprofits continue to be challenged by economic trends and continually be asked to do more with less, it remains important to fully comprehend their significance to Maine’s future.
Jennifer Hutchins, executive director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits, can be reached at jhutchins@nonprofit.org
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments