"It's more than just serving soup," said Daraius Irani, director of applied economics at RESI, Towson University's consulting arm. The nonprofit sector's impact on the state "is pretty big."
Still, he questions whether it's fair to compare job growth among nonprofits and for-profits, which tend to do very different work. Manufacturers are part of the for-profit group, and they have been cutting employment for a long time. Hospitals, on the other hand, keep expanding to meet the voracious demand for health care - and in Maryland, nearly all are nonprofit.
The upside to nonprofit growth is that it's usually local. Maryland charities may work internationally - nearly half a dozen relief organizations are based in Baltimore - but they're not sending jobs overseas to save on salary costs, Hall said.
The downside, at least from a government budget perspective, is that they don't pay property taxes. "It's good for the city to have jobs, but then it's bad for the city in terms of tax base," said Irani. "The only way it can recoup some of that tax base is hopefully having some of those people live in the city."
Nonprofits point out that their employees do pay income taxes. The Johns Hopkins study estimated those local and state taxes at $482 million in 2006.
One ripple effect that's frequently overlooked: construction. The Downtown Partnership predicts that hospital and biotech expansion in downtown Baltimore will create almost 8,000 construction jobs through 2012 and hundreds of millions of dollars in business for construction companies. Kirby Fowler, president of Downtown Partnership, said nonprofits will drive almost all of this growth.
"Nonprofit institutions spin off so much income and indirect economic impact," he said.
Nonprofit employment increased across the metro area in 2006. Baltimore County had the most new jobs - about 940 - but growth was fastest in smaller Carroll County, at 4.9 percent. Nonprofit job growth outpaced for-profit growth in all the Baltimore-area counties except for Howard.
The city's nonprofit jobs increased by 1 percent, or about 840, in 2006. Among the institutions expanding was the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which makes grants and provides direct services to children and families. It had about 50 local employees when it moved its headquarters from Connecticut to St. Paul Street in 1994; by the end of last year, it had 191.
The growth in nonprofits has meant more opportunities to collaborate, said Dana Vickers Shelley, Casey's director of strategic communications. "Together, that work can be even more effective," Shelley said.
jamie.smith.hopkins@baltsun.com
