Study: Nonprofits Spending More on Staff, Adding Volunteer Hours

According to "The Nonprofit Almanac, 2016: The Essential Facts and Figures for Managers, Researchers and Volunteers," updated and released by the Urban Institute, growth in the sector occurred mostly in the health care and social assistance sectors, which include hospitals, mental health centers, crisis hotlines, blood centers, soup kitchens, senior centers and similar organizations. That growth came at the cost of significant deficit spending, however, with the sector as a whole running deficits of between 4 percent and 8 percent of its total revenue each year since 2008.

The report also found that nonprofits paid an estimated $425 billion in wages in 2003 and, over the next decade, saw that climb to $634 billion, an increase of 49 percent (18 percent after adjusting for inflation).