Greater Philadelphia Nonprofit Economic Recovery Survey 2014-15

Posted by La Salle University on March 23, 2015

According to experts, the Great Recession ended in 2009. That was good news for everyone, theoretically even nonprofits. But we know that nonprofits recover several years after the rest of the economy, waiting while the asset bases of foundations, corporations and individuals recover to, we hope eventually, pre-recession levels. Not quite at our ultimate goal, have nonprofits in our region begun to see their own recovery?

This was the question that The Nonprofit Center wished to know. Five years (and some months) after the official end of the Great Recession (June 2009), The Center distributed a short survey to find out just how nonprofits and their executive directors were faring with the economic recovery. And while recovery is happening to some degree more or less to the vast majority of nonprofits, recovery in the sector still has a way to go.

The survey to executive directors was distributed in November 2014. A total of 231 executive directors responded. Mirroring the sector as a whole, the largest group of respondents were in human services (26.4%, n=61), though this percentage is smaller than the national picture, which shows human services approximately 36% of the sector; this was followed by nonprofits in education (21.2%, n=49), a bit higher than the national picture, arts and culture (19.5%, n=45), more than twice the national picture, and health care (12.12%, n=28), close to the 13% it contributes to the sector as a whole.

Read more: http://www.lasallenonprofitcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/3-18-economic-survey-2014-15-final-version.pdf