Nonprofits help sustain Cumberland County
Nonprofits in Maine play a significant role in the state's economy, contributing roughly $8 billion or 17% of the state's gross product and providing more than 82,000 jobs, claims a new report, "Partners in Prosperity," by the Maine Association of Nonprofits, which is based in Portland.
In 2008, the most recent data available, Maine had 6,315 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, but only 49% earned more than $25,000 per year, triggering IRS documentation. Cumberland County is home to a majority of those nonprofits, which employed 23,368 people in 2008.
Yet, even while most of Maine's nonprofits have miniscule earnings, together they manage to hire one in seven workers here and are the state's second largest employer behind the retail industry, the report says. These workers in 2008 were paid $3.1 billion, and they paid a combined income tax of $119 million to Maine.
By far the largest nonprofit type in Maine measured by dollars is hospitals, which account for only 2% of nonprofits required to report their earnings, but spend more than $4 billion annually, contributing 53% to the whole sector's $8.2 billion economic impact, according to the report. They also employ 37% of the people working in Maine's nonprofit sector.
In comparison, human service organizations comprise 33% of the reporting nonprofits in Maine, but are only responsible for 14% of the $8.2 billion in expenditures, which is a tally of wages, sales and contracted services.
Beyond hired employees, the nonprofit sector mobilizes 360,000 volunteers every year, which the report says is one of the highest rates in the country.
Although the report says about 65% of Maine taxpayers don't itemize their taxes to receive deductions for charitable giving, the Mainers who did itemize gave an average gift of $2,279 in 2007, compared to the average national gift of $3,726.
Finally, the report finds that nonprofits targeting specific populations -- such as special-needs children, students, seniors, former prisoners and the visually impaired -- save the state hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
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