With South Carolina facing a projected $700 million budget shortfall next year, it’s important not to overlook a sector of our economy that has the power to both stimulate economic growth and provide a wide range of social good: the nonprofit sector.
According to the S.C. Association of Nonprofit Organizations, public charities employ more than 7 percent of the state’s workforce and generate nearly $13 billion annually in revenue.
In addition to improving social and economic equity, human and environmental health, access to opportunity and community vitality, nationally the nonprofit sector accounts for 5 percent of gross domestic product, 8 percent of wages and salaries and 10 percent of employment. If the nonprofit sector in the United States were a country, it would be the eighth-largest economy in the world, ahead of Canada, Spain, Brazil and Russia.