5 Things That Have Been Causing the Nonprofit Sector to Grow

Over the past few decades, the nonprofit sector has been increasing by almost every metric imaginable. In fact, when you look at the numbers, it becomes immediately obvious that people are more willing to give and there are more organizations participating in charitable efforts.

In a country such as the United States—where real wages and income have remained relatively stagnant for a large portion of the population—this rapid increase in public interest may seem surprising at first. Despite the fact that many people have less excess spending power than they may have had in the past, the population has still become more likely to give both time and money.

The economy is something that is obviously incredibly complex and there is no single reason nonprofit organizations have been able to experience such tremendous rates of growth. But even keeping this in mind, there still seem to be some important contributing factors.

Increased Public Awareness

The first—and perhaps most obvious—reason why the non-profit sector has been growing as a whole is that the public has been becoming generally more aware of the existence of non-profit organizations.

Through the use of social media, increased marketing efforts, and increased access to public information, the average person has now become more aware of nonprofits than ever before.

Though marketing campaigns may take a long time to implement, when they are implemented correctly, your brand can become more well-known.

As long as exposure to all forms of media continues to increase over time, your nonprofit organization will have a better chance of becoming noticed by the public.

Corporate Partnerships

Corporations have been playing a major role in increasing the prevalence of non-profit organizations. While some corporations partner with nonprofits because they simply believe it is the right thing to do, others do it because it makes sense from a business perspective.

By making donations, giving customers an opportunity to donate themselves, or by pledging to match donations, corporations have been giving millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations every year. Based on the direction these trends are currently heading, the public should have every reason to expect this level of donations to increase.

Ease of Access to Nonprofit Organizations

Another reason donations to non-profit organizations has been generally increasing in recent years is that these organizations have become easier to access than ever before.

If you were to go a few decades back in time, though it was quite possible that many people may have been able to recognize a non-profit organization by name, it was much less likely that they would actually know how to help or get involved.

With the rise of the information era, learning about non-profit organizations—and consequently, making donations—has become easier than ever before. Through the use of the internet, mass media, and smartphone technology, these organizations are gradually overcoming barriers to access that would have otherwise been a major hindrance in the past.

Higher Demand for Public Morality

As time has gone on, we ought to keep asking ourselves, how can we do better? Whether we approach such a question from an individual or social perspective, what remains abundantly clear is that progress is always important.

In general, people are beginning to expect more from the organizations they interact with. As the public continues to demand moral actions from the companies that supply them with goods and services, inevitably, moral actions are what will end up being supplied.

Public morality isn’t something that will be realized overnight, but it is certainly something we can be actively striving for.

As consumers continue to choose the company that gives a portion of its profits to charity and choose the company that is working with a nonprofit organization, the nonprofit sector is something that will undeniably stand to benefit. 

Increased willingness to volunteer

Lastly, an increased willingness to volunteer—in a wide variety of different ways—is yet another reason why the non-profit sector has been able to experience such impressive rates of growth. In fact, volunteers were recently estimated to create $173 billion worth of value through the act of volunteering.

For many nonprofit organizations, maintaining a constant influx of volunteers is incredibly important. In many ways, volunteers are the lifeblood of the non-profit industry, and as people become more willing to give up their free-time, the industry as a whole can be expected to continue to grow.

Expanding the nonprofit industry is going to require a collective effort from a number of different parties involved. But as the industry’s statistics continue to demonstrate, progress is certainly being made. There are certainly a lot of reasons for those involved with nonprofit organizations to remain optimistic.

Tags: marketing, Non-profit, nonprofit, nonprofits, Social Media