How many island nonprofit organizations can you name? If you can list 15 I’d be surprised. In fact, there are 50 active groups (not including homeowners’ associations) supporting and enriching almost every aspect of our community.

Most of the 50 are run entirely by volunteers, including the Music Advocacy Group, Orcas Island Education Association, the Food Bank, the Animal Shelter, Friends of Moran State Park, and many more. On the other end of the scale, some island nonprofits have many employees and substantial budgets. The two largest camps (Four Winds and Orkila) each have budgets over $2 million and employ, between them, 26 year-round residents and more than 300 three-month staff; the Fun House has 12 island employees while the three island preschools have more than 20.

I’m sure you support many of these organizations with your dollars and your volunteer hours. But have you thought about the substantial combined impact these nonprofits have on our entire island economy?

Public IRS information shows that nonprofits on Orcas contribute roughly $13 million annually to the Orcas economy. More than 80 of our fellow islanders are employed by these organizations directly – even more if we count indirect employees such as teachers whose salaries are supported by the Orcas Island Education Foundation or the 15 to 20 construction workers currently employed by OPAL. Conservatively, 6 to 10 percent of the employment on the island can be attributed to nonprofit activity.

Those workers then spend most of their paychecks on the island and the nonprofits themselves buy from local merchants. This economic multiplier effect typically ranges between two and three for small communities. Thus the ultimate annual financial impact may be more like $26,000,000 to $39,000,000.

To be sure, approximately 33 percent of the $13 million comes from donations, so you could argue that the nonprofits are merely re-circulating dollars that were already part of the island economy. But not all the donated dollars come from islanders. Most gifts to both Four Winds and Camp Indralaya, and some donations to the Chamber Music Festival are from non-islanders. These same groups also attract nonresidents to the island, who spend still more dollars at our stores, restaurants, and bed-and-breakfasts. In addition, several nonprofits also bring in significant amounts of non-island dollars in the form of grants (e.g. OPAL) and participant fees (all three island camps).

The bottom line is that the island nonprofits are essential to our island life: they are a significant part of the web of the island economy as well as enriching our community in tangible and intangible ways. In these difficult economic times it is tempting to hunker down and wait for better days. But our rich island life depends on the health of every element – on business, the environment, affordable housing, arts, and decent education. The things you value about Orcas are in no small part dependent on the survival of the many nonprofits.

So keep writing those checks; keep buying tickets to fundraisers, keep attending arts events. We all benefit.

Helen Bee lives on Orcas Island.