Colorado’s nonprofit industry generates $62 billion for state economy, report says

Doing good for families, the arts, the outdoors and public health is also good for Colorado’s bottom line, according to a new report that says nonprofits contributed $62 billion to the state’s annual economy and supported 262,000 jobs.

The jobs directly and indirectly tied to nonprofit organizations employ more people than the agriculture, mining, and information industries combined, according to a report released Thursday by the Colorado Nonprofit Association.

However, the nonprofit sector has lagged behind other industries in recovering from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, analysts said.

The 34,251 nonprofits registered in Colorado injected $25 billion into the state’s gross domestic product, the report said.

The report is released every five years to raise awareness of nonprofits’ contributions and advocate for policies to strengthen the organizations’ ability to serve communities across Colorado, the association said in a statement.

The study is based on data from 2021, the most recent year for which comprehensive information is available. The Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Bright Fox Analytics wrote the report.

The findings include:

• The nonprofit sector directly and indirectly supports an estimated 9.7% of the state’s jobs: 182,000 jobs through direct employment; 54,000 jobs in business-to-business activities; and another 26,000 induced jobs through household spending associated with employee earnings.
• Colorado’s nonprofit industry generated more than $62 billion in total economic output in 2021, including $25 billion to the state GDP and nearly $20 billion in labor income from jobs supported by the industry.
• Nonprofits collected more than $28 billion in revenues and held more than $34 billion in assets in 2021.
• Based on available data, more than 2,000 active Colorado foundations contributed more than $1.4 billion in grants in each of 2020 and 2021 Foundation spending reached nearly $2 billion in 2021,

The kinds of nonprofits studied included human and social services; environment and recreation; religious and mutual benefit; health and public safety; arts, education and science; and philanthropy, advocacy and capacity building.