Growth of Charities in California’s Orange County: a New Study

The Nonprofit Sector in Orange County, California: 1997 Economic Scope and Characteristics, by Kathleen Costello and Robert A. Kleinhenz, intends to paint a comprehensive picture of non-profit actitvity in Orange County, Calif., which in 1997 was home to 1,626 tax-exempt organizations holding a collective $6.2-billion in assets, according to this report. The Center for Nonprofit Sector Research at California State University at Fullerton established a database in 1995 to track information on the county’s non-profit groups, culling most of its data from informational tax returns. Ms. Costello, executive director of the center, and Mr. Kleinhenz, director of the Center for Economic Education at the university, distill that information into pie charts, bar charts, graphs, and tables that delineate finances in categories such as gross receipts and distribution of assets. They also provide a city-by-city breakdown of the types of organizations that operate in each town.

Publisher: California State U. at Fullerton, 2600 East Nutwood Avenue, Suite 850, Fullerton, Calif. 92831-3112; (714) 278-5376; fax (714) 278-1537; http://www.fullerton.edu/root/research/cnsr; 55 pages; free.