Community Profiles:  Bloomington

To develop solid information on nonprofits in the Bloomington/Monroe County metropolitan area we included a special sample of nonprofits from the region in our 2002 survey of Indiana nonprofits along with similar samples from the eleven other communities profiled in the project and drawn from our comprehensive listing of Indiana nonprofits (see below). Most of our full survey reports include regional data in appendix tables. We have also presented some Bloomington area data in our separate series of reports on Indiana nonprofit employment.

In-depth Analysis of Bloomington Area Nonprofits

We have prepared several in-depth reports and resources on Bloomington area nonprofits based on a variety of data sources.

Comprehensive Profile of Nonprofits in the Bloomington Metrolitan Region

Read our special survey report on Bloomington Nonprofits: Scope and Dimensions (Nonprofit Survey Series, Community Report #1). This report is based on our survey of Indiana nonprofits completed in 2002 and compares the profile of Bloomington nonprofits to those in the rest of the state and to nonprofits in other metropolitan regions.

Nonprofit Employment in the Bloomington Economic Region

Read our analysis of the Bloomington Economic Region Nonprofit Employment: 2005 Report (Nonprofit Employment Report #2A). This report profiles trends in paid employment in the nonprofit sector in the Bloomington economic region (Monroe County plus continguous counties to the east, south, and west: Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Green, Jackson, Jennings, Lawrence, and Owen Counties) with comparisons to employment in the for-profit and government sectors for selected industries. See also our previous analysis of the Bloomington Metropolitan Region Nonprofit Employment: 2003 report (Nonprofit Employment Report #1A).

Supplementary demographic and economic data on the Bloomington metropolitan community is available from the Indiana Business Research Center. Click on the following communities for detailed information.  

There is a growing list of websites with complementary county-level information. These include the following:

Comprehensive Listing of Nonprofits in the Bloomington Metropolitan Region

The Bloomington metropolitan area includes Monroe County. For our most recent listing of nonprofits in the Bloomington region, please see information and links available at our Searchable Database.

The data presented in the tables below are based on our comprehensive listing of nonprofits developed in 2001 and 2002 from project sources. These included the IRS list of tax exempt entities, the Indiana Secretary of State list of nonprofit incorporations, phone listings of congregations, supplementary listings, and personal affiliation survey data. However, we were unable to consult supplementary local community listings for Monroe County, so the analysis presented here is not directly comparable to those for the remaining eleven communities.

Based on these sources, in 2001 (when the nonprofit listings were developed) the Bloomington region had a total of 1,082 nonprofit organizations or about 108.2 per 10,000 residents (some may be defunct or otherwise inappropriately included). We report the density of nonprofit organizations (per 10,000 residents) in 2001 for each area to allow comparisons of nonprofits across region.

Classifying nonprofits into major categories further enhances our understanding of the local nonprofit sector. Using the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) classification system, the project staff has tentatively classified local nonprofits to show the composition of the region’s nonprofit sector by major nonprofit field and by geographic area. The classification was based primarily on the names of the organizations and is known to be inaccurate, so the profile information below should be interpreted with caution.