We're a little late to this, but we see that Charity Navigator, a nonprofit monitor of nonprofit charities nationwide,
released its fifth annual study of metro regions on May 30 and found that charities in the Philadelphia metro region are flourishing but spend a bigger share of their budgets (11.4 percent) on administrative expenses than nonprofits in any other in the 30 biggest metro regions. Says the study:
"Charities in Philadelphia have the highest administrative expenses. This is due to the high cost of living in that area and to the fact that Philadelphia has one of the highest concentrations of arts groups, which tend to encounter significantly above-average administration fees." Detail on the region's ranking is
here and the 78 charities it examined are listed
here. The Philadelphia Business Journal
takes the angle this week (Sub. required) that Philadelphia charities "stack up much better compared with their counterparts in other regions than they did a year ago." Granted, this region climbed into the No. 7 spot in overall rankings from No. 27 a year before. But even Charity Navigator is impressed mostly by the admin expenses, higher even relative to revenue even than in NYC or San Francisco.
Overall the study found:
Market Size: New York City (562 large charities), D.C. (487) and L.A. (182) are more crowded and competitive philanthropic markets than Miami (32), Cincinnati (31) and Charlotte (29).
Fundraising Efficiency: Orlando's and Milwaukee's charities are the most efficient in their fundraising endeavors. Cincinnati's and Baltimore's charities are the least.
Program Expenses: Cleveland's charities spend the largest portion of their budgets on their programs, with Milwaukee's and Houston's charities also ranking highly in this area. Charities spending the least on their programs are found in Miami , followed by those in Seattle and Baltimore.
Annual Growth: Charities in Phoenix and Colorado Springs are among the fastest growing, while charities in Detroit and Kansas City are among the slowest.
Wealth: Pittsburgh's largest charities are generally richer in assets and working capital than charities in other parts of the country, while charities in Orlando are less financially secure.
Donor Privacy Policy: Milwaukee (67%) and Cincinnati (61%) have higher percentages of charities with written donor privacy plans; Pittsburgh (29%) and Boston (30%) have the lowest percentage of such charities.
- Thomas Ginsberg
