Nonprofits Across CT Have Economic and Jobs Impact, New Database Shows

The interactive webpage was constructed and database developed prior to Election Day as a means of providing information about nonprofit organizations that their supporters could use to reach out to legislative candidates to advocate for the many charitable organizations in their local districts.  With the winning candidates now determined, the database may prove even more helpful in advocating for nonprofit organizations in what promises to be a tight state budget in 2015. The database, developed by Connecticut-based Blueprint for Impact, is an “advocacy tool” providing a range of data and information, broken down on interactive maps by Senate district and by House district.   Nonprofit organizations provide a wide variety of services throughout local communities, including some supported with state funds.  

Among the categories of data available are the number of employees working in the nonprofit sector along with the total compensation paid to those employees and the payroll taxes paid and total revenue of nonprofits within each district.

In addition, the site reports on the value of grants made by nonprofit organizations, and the average age of the nonprofits operating in each district. The age of each nonprofit is the number of years since the IRS ruling on tax-exempt status was provided. In Connecticut, there are many nonprofits that have been tax exempt for over 50 years. Older organizations may be more influential in their community.

The points on the map were organized by NTEE category. NTEE is the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities, which categorizes nonprofits based on their social purpose.

The mission of Blueprint for Impact is to “help nonprofits use data to rethink, reboot, and scale their social impact. We direct our impact into each of those three aspects.”  Christopher D. Brechlin  is the Founder of Blueprint for Impact, a registered Benefit Corporation based in Hartford, that offers a collection of data tools, services, and expertise specifically for nonprofits.

The data used to populate the maps was accessed using the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) Enhanced Extract of IRS Financial Data, 2013. NCCS allows users to download data processed by the IRS during calendar year 2013 as submitted on forms 990, 990EZ, and 990PF. All data is therefore “as is,” or as it was reported on the forms to the IRS.