Tucson, Arizona- As of February 2024, Arizona has 28,379 registered non-profit organizations, the sixth-largest industry in the state, making up 6.9% of the workforce with 222,380 workers, according to Arizona State University’s Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.
Nonprofits generate about $22.4 billion annually, making up about 8% of Arizona’s gross state product.
Top Donation Recipients:
Banner Health Foundation
Banner Health Foundation leads Arizona non-profits with annual contributions exceeding $115 million and supports 30 hospitals and facilities across the state.
Banner Health manages over $800 million in assets, maintained through individual donations, corporate partnerships, and strategic investments. About 92% of donations go directly to programs. Unlike many healthcare foundations, Banner Health uses a distributed fundraising model where each major facility maintains dedicated development staff working with the central Foundation office.
Banner Health’s largest funding area is the “Excellent Care Program”. About $45 million annually is directed toward improving clinical capabilities across its network. Some recent projects include:
- A $23 million expansion of pediatric emergency services in Phoenix and Tucson.
- Creation of Arizona’s most advanced neuroscience institute at Banner University Medical Center.
- Establishment of mobile health units serving rural counties including Navajo, Apache, and Yuma.
Their “Healthcare Education Fund” provides about $12 million yearly for medical education, including scholarships for nursing students practicing in rural areas.
About $30 million of Banner Health’s annual funding supports clinical research that focuses on:
- Alzheimer’s disease prevention and treatment.
- Cancer immunotherapy advances.
- Trauma care innovations.
- Valley Fever treatment protocols specific to Southwest populations.
This research emphasis has attracted top medical talent to Arizona and established Banner facilities as reference centers for complex conditions throughout the Southwest.
Arizona State University Foundation
The Arizona State University Foundation manages investment funds of about $1.2 billion as the private fundraising arm of Arizona State University.
The foundation raises about $300-350 annually. Unlike most university foundations, ASU works with a low overhead rate of 7.8%, directing most funds to university priorities.
Some donations that have changed ASU’s landscape are:
- $125 million donation from Lanny and Marlene Legg to establish the School of Sustainability.
- $100 million from the Watts family to expand engineering programs.
- $75 million from T. Denny Sanford for the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics.
The foundation aligns its fundraising with ASU’s vision in several areas like research advancement, access & student success, and physical infrastructure:
- Research: Funds the Biodesign Institute and Global Futures Laboratory
- Student Success: 30% of funds support scholarships, with an emphasis on first-generation students
- Infrastructure: Helped fund $1 billion in capital projects, including the Downtown Phoenix campus.
Besides helping the university directly, the foundation operates several economic development programs connecting ASU research with commercial applications. The Venture Devils program has helped launch 300 student and faculty startups, creating an economic impact of about $780 million in Arizona’s economy.
The foundation has received the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Award for fundraising performance for five years, making it one of the most effective university fundraising organizations nationwide.
St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance
The food bank was founded in 1967, becoming the world’s first ever food bank and has created a model now being replicated globally by other food banks.
St. Mary’s serves about 700 partner agencies across nine counties in Arizona. Covering over 81,000 square miles and moving around 45 million pounds of food annually:
- Two main distribution centers (Phoenix & Surprise)
- 12 mobile pantry trucks in remote areas.
- 42 emergency food box locations.
- Three community kitchens.
The 250,000 daily meals feed about 2% of Arizona’s population, mainly focusing on children, seniors, and working families.
St. Mary’s does more than food distribution. They provide nutrition programs, kitchen training, and childhood hunger initiatives. Some of the initiatives include their “Backpack Program,” which sends weekend food home with over 10,000 students who might go hungry, and the “Kids Cafe” program, which partners with 136 after-school locations to provide meals for low-income areas.
St. Mary’s runs on a $21 million budget:
- 95 cents of every dollar goes to food and services.
- 80,000 volunteer hours are contributed yearly.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation
Phoenix Children’s Hospital raises over $30 million annually to support specialized pediatric care at one of the nation’s largest children’s hospitals.
The $30 million is raised through a variety of ways: 42% from individual giving, 35% from corporate partners, 15% from events, and 8% from planned giving. Their campaign, “Hope Lives Here,” completed a $125 million capital campaign, exceeding their goal by $7 million. These funds help construct specialized treatment centers like the Cancer Center and Cardiovascular ICU.
The foundation directs funds to pediatric specialties not fully covered by insurance reimbursements. The Child Life program receives $2.4 million yearly funding specialist to help children cope with hosptalization with play therapy and emotional support. The Center for Rare Childhood Disorders receives $3.7 million yearly for genetic testing and treatment development for conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 patients nationally. Behavioral Health initiatives receive $4.1 million for inpatient and outpatient mental health services, addressing Arizona’s critical shortage of pediatric mental health resources.
The foundation also funds several family programs. The Family Resource Center houses 3,800 families annually from rural areas. “1 Darn Cool School” program employs certified teachers for hospitalized children. The Family Financial Assistance Program helps cover non-medical expenses like transportation and utility bills.
About $5.8 million is directed to pediatric research programs like the Ronald A. Matricaria Institute of Molecular Medicine, Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, and Diabetes Research Fellowship program.
The foundation is well engaged in the community by having programs that connect donors with the hospital’s mission. Their “Tears Foundation” partnership provides memorial support for families who lose children, and their youth ambassador program engages more than 600 school-age volunteers annually in peer-to-peer fundraising.
The Salvation Army (Southwest Division)
The Salvation Army Southwest Division covers all of Arizona, having 13 corps community centers, 9 service centers, and 6 adult rehabilitation facilities. With all these centers, they can serve 320,000 Arizonans annually.
The Salvation Army works as Arizona’s primary first-response social service agency. Their emergency operations include emergency food boxes, which serve 78,000 households yearly, eviction prevention services, $3.2 million in rental assistance, and crisis intervention for victims of domestic violence.
For homelessness, the Salvation Army uses a multi-stage approach. Currently, there are six year-round shelters with 720 combined beds operating. The Pathway of Hope program provides intensive case management for 450 families transitioning from homelessness to stable housing. As well as three specialized veterans’ facilities with tailored support services.
The youth programs reach over 42,000 children through facilities and programs. Kroc Center facilities in Phoenix and South Mountain provide affordable recreation, arts, and education. Music education programs that offer free instruments and instruction to over 3,000 children. There are also after-school programs that operate at 22 different sites that offer academic support.
When it comes to disaster responses, the Salvation Army maintains the largest non-governmental disaster response team. The response team consists of long-term recovery programs for survivors, emergency lodging agreements with 47 hotels throughout the state, and mobile feeding units capable of serving up to 10,000 meals daily.
The Red Kettle campaign during the holidays represents about 30% of the Arizona division’s $40 million annual budget. The fundraiser has over 400 kettle locations throughout the state, 2,800 volunteer bell ringers, and corporate matching partnerships with Arizona businesses, doubling contributions on designated days.
The Salvation Army gives back 83 cents for every dollar into Arizona communities. The remaining funds support program development and administrative costs.
Breaking it Down
Health-related non-profits hold the largest share of Arizona’s charitable dollars (about 40%), followed by education (22%), human services (18%), environmental causes (8%), arts and culture (7%), and various other categories (5%).
Rural Arizona has seen growth in non-profit activity, mainly in healthcare access programs and economic development initiatives aimed at creating sustainable communities outside major urban centers.
Arizona does face ongoing challenges, including increasing demand for services amid fluctuating donation patterns. However, the culture of giving is strong, with approximately 60% of households reporting some form of charitable giving annually.
What’s Holding Them Back?
Despite there being significant giving in Arizona, the number of homeless people, drug users, and crimes have increased. The reason those problems haven’t been solved is because of a few factors preventing them from being solved.
While $22.4 billion may seem like a lot, the scale of social problems often exceeds the resources available. For example, housing a single homeless individual costs about $35,000-$45,000 per year when accounting for services.
Many non-profits address the symptoms of homelessness instead of the actual causes. These causes include the housing affordability crisis (rent in Arizona has increased 40% since 2019), mental health treatment gaps, substance abuse challenges, economic inequality, and limited public funding for social services.
Some of the barriers non-profits face systematically are restricted funding that must be used for specific programs instead of innovative solutions, geographic distributions challenges in serving rural areas, and policy limitations that restrict certain interventions.
Many non-profits help prevent people from falling into homelessness, but hard to measure that success because non-profits tend to measure the outputs rather than the outcomes.
Another factor that comes into play is the regional area. Tucson is only a little over an hour’s drive from the border where drugs are being trafficked through, and law enforcement tends to be more focused on border security rather than community policing. The seasonal population in Southern Arizona tends to go up and down with people leaving in the summer time and coming back during the winter. The extreme heat in the summer creates life-threatening conditions for the homeless and makes them vulnerable; the heat also raises utility costs, consuming large portions of low-income budgets. With the heat water access in rural areas is also a challenge.
The majority of non-profits are working with limited resources, but change would require efforts across government policy, economic systems, healthcare access, and social services – beyond what charitable organizations alone can accomplish.
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