Photo by Dominic Hernandez
Eight hundred ninety-seven million dollars. That’s the total projected revenue for the current fiscal year of the 294 area nonprofits we reviewed. Not enough to crack the Fortune 500 List, but enough to make a sizable imprint on the greater Richmond economy.
The nonprofit sector is the state’s third-largest employer, generating more than 300 million in state income taxes annually and accounting for $37 billion in yearly expenditures, according to a report produced in a partnership of the Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, The Community Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society.
While most of that activity is in Northern Virginia, the sector is also a major force in the Richmond region. Annually, expenditures for metro Richmond region nonprofits (including Richmond, the Tri-Cities and the counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico and Powhatan) work out to more than $5,000 per capita, and one in 14 workers are employed by a nonprofit.
“Nonprofit employment has also grown at a faster rate than either government or for-profit sectors over time,” says Nancy Stutts, director of nonprofit studies for the Wilder School. According to the 2012 report, between 2000 and 2011, employment in the nonprofit sector rose by 3 percent in the Metro Richmond Region, while for-profit employment in that time declined 0.2 percent.
Other contributions of nonprofits are less immediately quantifiable. “Every business out there today is concerned with workforce,” says Kim Scheeler, president and CEO of ChamberRVA. “The more we are an attractive place for young professionals, the more we’re able to attract business here. Clearly, a lot of the time nonprofits play a role in that.”
Scheeler cites the James River Association, Sports Backers, and the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation as nonprofits making Richmond more enticing by investing in outdoor recreation. Performing arts foundations, galleries and museums have a big influence, too, he says, as do nonprofits that help bring education, health care and affordable housing to the region.
This impact seems poised to grow. Nonprofit revenues in the metro Richmond region increased 67 percent between 2010 and 2016, according to Stutts. The largest jump was in the city itself, where revenues more than doubled. “One big question,” she says, “is why.” For now, she can only posit possible causes, including ramped-up investment in the city’s East End and a trend toward the professionalization of the sector.
“The more important question goes beyond economic impact to whether the increases we see are making any difference to the families who are most in need of the help,” Stutts says.
Nonprofit Spotlight: FeedMore
Photo courtesy FeedMore
This nonprofit, created in 2008 with the merger of the Central Virginia Food Bank and Meals on Wheels, provided 28 million pounds of food last year to those in need. It helps children, seniors and the working poor through the efforts of more than 100 employees and more than 200 volunteers a day. “We strongly believe it is our responsibility to support our region’s most vulnerable neighbors, usually the working poor who struggle to fully provide for their families,” says FeedMore CEO Douglas Pick. —Stuart DuBreuil
