Nonprofits may have a lot of similarities, but they don’t have much in common with their for-profit counterparts. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the wake of the 2008 financial downturn.
Citing new federal jobs data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Washington Post recently reported that from 2007 to 2012 nonprofits steadily increased their staffing while most industries downsized.
Despite a decline in charitable giving, federal stimulus money likely spurred the hiring increase, particularly through projects like The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that pumped millions of dollars into education and training to help retrain workers who were laid off.
“In times of greatest human need, the nonprofit sector is there,” says Shena Ashley, Director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. “As a field, we’re really excited about these results. They show that the model works.”
To learn more and view some interesting charts, please see The Industry That Adds Jobs Throughout a Recession, but Makes No Profits.