The Top 100 Non-Profits in Worcester Have Over $8 Billion in Assets

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Reporter

The top 100 non-profits in Worcester own more than a combined $8 billion in assets.

Of the $8 billion in assets, the thirty of the top 100 non-profits with the most assets are responsible for more than $7 billion - holding nearly ten times more the amount of assets of the bottom seventy organizations combined.

SEE SLIDES BELOW: #100 to #1: Worcester’s Non-Profits with the Most Assets

GoLocalWorcester reviewed nearly 1,500 tax filings collected by the non-profit, media watchdog group, ProPublica who has been collecting and organizing tax filings from organizations who filed for any fiscal year — during the 2012 or 2013 calendar years.

The data collected by ProPublica and reviewed and categorized by GoLocalWorcester revealed that nonprofits in Worcester with the most assets belong to educational and health services.

Non-Profits and Worcester's PILOT Program

“The city’s approach has been to negotiate one-off PILOT arrangements with the local colleges, universities and medical centers,” said Stephen Eide, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and former employee of the Worcester Research Bureau. “Though striking such agreements on an informal, one-off basis does raise equity issues—IS everyone contributing according to their ability?–I would not advocate anything more formal or aggressive and I doubt the law would allow it.”

Five of the city’s colleges - MCPHS, WPI, Holy Cross, UMass Medical and Clark - all contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city’s PILOT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) program. All of these schools, with the exception of MCPHS, are in the top ten non-profits with assets of $200 to $900 million (see PILOT program breakdown below).

PILOT contributions from select non-profits in Worcester - Image courtesy of Worcester Research Bureau

The five schools participating in the program contribute a combined amount of at least $2 million annually.

The PILOT program is a voluntary agreement between the organizations and the City of Worcester. In the city of Worcester, nonprofit organizations, such as colleges, own 48% of Worcester's non-taxable land and these institutions are exempt from paying property taxes.

City Councilor Morris Bergman told GoLocal, "All the players have to be together and we need to have better control over some sort of consistency of what we are asking for. We can’t ask for one different from the other because obviously whoever is going to give you the least is setting the example for the next non-profit.”

According to the Worcester Research Bureau, "the nonprofit institutions argue that they provide social, cultural, and economic value to the City that compensate for taxes the City would have received from them." The PILOT program is a negotiation between city administration and these institutions to provide financial backing for projects like improving local parks and schools.

Eide said, “Worcester’s non-profits contribute immeasurably to the local economy. As is the case in many old industrial cities, ‘Eds and Meds’ are the only significant sources of good jobs around. So they’re doing their part. If it’s the city budget you’re worried about, why not try negotiating better deals with the unionized workforce?”

National Experts Weigh-In

Aaron Renn, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told GoLocal that hospitals and schools, which dominate the richest non-profits in Worcester, straddle a fine line of non-profit status.

“There's a legitimate question of well-endowed universities,” Renn said. "Are they really truly non-profit -- like a homeless shelter is a nonprofit -- in reality, no, but what are your criteria for determining a bona fide nonprofit versus an extremely wealthy entity able to generate a large endowment and high paid executives.”

Renn also pointed to the fact that many hospitals operate on a for-profit basis.

“I would draw this distinction -- these people produce a product that produces revenue, major revenue -- but don't forget, there are for-profit hospitals, as well as for-profit universities -- it's possible to run them for profit,” Renn said. “They're non-profit due to mission-related purposes, the nature of what they do doesn't require them to be nonprofit. By contrast, most performing arts are inherently non-profit, but because by the nature of what they do they couldn't operate at a profit.”

"The organizations doing best today are those that can identify and cultivate sophisticated champions with the power, money and connections required to sustain an organization and, where appropriate, take it to scale," said Patricia Schaefer, a philanthropic and communications strategist and columnist for Non-Profit Quarterly.

"It’s a very different world today. Thirty years ago, traditional foundations and philanthropists were largely in a reactive mode, relying on those in the field to inform them and make their best case for support," said Schaefer. "Today we have a highly preemptive model of philanthropy and newer philanthropists and entrepreneurs want to see things happening on the ground now –they want to be part of the mechanics of change, involving themselves in the creation of social change networks, as opposed to individual organizations."

Related Slideshow: #100 to #1: Worcester’s Non-Profit Organizations with the Most Assets

The following only includes organizations that filed a tax return for any fiscal year during the 2012 or 2013 calendar years.

The list is the 100 nonprofit organizations in Worcester with the most assets ranked from #100 to #1.

The Top 100 Non-Profits in Worcester Have Over $8 Billion in Assets

SEE SLIDES BELOW: #100 to #1: Worcester’s Non-Profits with the Most Assets

Non-Profits and Worcester's PILOT Program

National Experts Weigh-In

Related Slideshow: #100 to #1: Worcester’s Non-Profit Organizations with the Most Assets

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