[Infographic] Nonprofits’ Impact on the Economy

Our infographic of the week, courtesy the Rebecca Gordon Group, delves into a topic that has been much-discussed this election season: nonprofits' impact on the economy.

 

According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the nonprofit sector contributes 5.5 percent of the nation's entire GDP, or $751 billion worth of output, and employed, as of 2009, 13.5 million individuals, or approximately 10 percent of the country's workforce.

(Independent Sector has a fact sheet on its Web site that lays out the sector's impact in much greater detail.)

Now, some would argue that statistics like these overstate the sector's impact, in that they fail to capture the extent to which the sector relies on tax-advantaged wealth transfers and the difference, in terms of the multiplier effect, between transfer payments and earned income. What's your take on that distinction? And, as we head into an election that could significantly reset the way the nonprofit sector is treated in the federal tax code, how would you characterize the sector's impact on the economy?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below...