The Charitable Sector in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has been blessed with an extraordinarily strong nonprofit sector that produces fantastic results from a recipe of hard work and tight budgets, funded by a mix of donations from private individuals and grants from foundations and government agencies.

As of 1994, there were 3461 "financially active" nonprofit, tax-exempt, non-religious charitable organizations in Los Angeles County that are "financially active" (reporting over $25,000 in gross revenues), according to analysis of 1994 annual informational returns filed with the IRS and collected by California's Registrar of Charitable Trusts. Notably, this figure does not include most schools, hospitals and religious organizations, which are not required to file reports with the Registrar of Charitable Trusts.

Of these financially active charitable organizations, 819 are foundations or other grantmaking organizations. The remaining 2642 organizations do the charitable work that contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations and government pay for. Nearly half (49%) provide human and social services; 21% are education or research organizations, 14% are non-hospital health or medical organizations, 10% are arts organizations, and the remaining 5% pursue other exempt purposes (advocacy, civil rights, etc.)

The budgets sizes of these active charitable organizations range in size as follows:

42% have budgets between $25,000 and $250,000; 43% are between $250,000 and $2 million; and 15% are over $2 million. Only 113 organizations, or 3.3%, have budgets over $10 million.

These charitable organizations reported over $5 billion in revenues in 1994.

Their expenditures break down fairly in proportion to their distribution by category (arts, health, etc.): 9% by arts organizations, 28% by education and research organizations, 16% by health organizations, and 47% by human services organizations. Education organizations, in particular, had expenditures significantly exceeding their share of the total number of organizations, as did health organizations to a lesser extent.

To put this in context, while the 1301 human service organizations and 361 health organizations spent a combined total of $2.1 billion on services to people of varying income levels, the County of Los Angeles alone spent approximately $4 billion solely on the various forms of public assistance to the poor (TANF, general relief, medical and child care costs and subsidies).

Source: Center for Nonprofit Management analysis of 1994 IRS Form 990 Data Reported to California Attorney General 

 Distribution of Financially Active Nonprofit Organizations in L.A. County
                       major service field, 1994 [*]
Human Services           1,301 38%
Fundraising/Philanthropy   819 24%
Education/Research         547 16%
Health                     361 10%
Arts/Culture/Humanities    255  7%
Other 501c                 178  5%
(*.)Includes only organizations reporting annual budgets of at least
$25,000
Source: Center for Nonprofit Management

Overview of Nonprofit Sector

U.S.

* In the U.S., there are 794,000 tax exempt charitable organizations

* Nonprofits employ 10% of the U.S. workforce and contribute 8% of GDP, generating approximately $700 Billion in annual revenues.

CALIFORNIA

* There are 68,525 charitable nonprofit organizations in California.

* These organizations employ 750,000 people and generate $80 billion in annual revenue.

* 43% of these organizations have revenue below $25,000; the vast majority of nonprofits in California, 75%, are entirely volunteer driven, with no employees.

(Source for national and points 2&3 of California items: Facts & Fallacies, by California Association of Nonprofits)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

* Nearly 1 out of 4 charitable nonprofits in the state 15,475, are located in LA County. Of these, only 3495, or 23%, report revenues over $25,000.

(Source: Center for Nonprofit Management analysis of Form 990 Reports to IRS)