craigdailypress.com

Evaluating the social and economic effects nonprofit organizations have has become a more time-consuming process than Audrey Danner imagined.

"Done by February," has become "soon" as she works to compile the report in between the duties of her job as the director of Yampa Valley Partners.

"We don't have the finished report, but we do have a wealth of data," Danner said.

Nonprofits is one factor in the valley's economic drivers, and specifically one that Partners wanted to measure and include in its next Community Indicators Report.

The report is published every two years and tracks social, economic, civic and environmental trends. Included in the 2007 report will be information on the size and scale of nonprofit organizations in Moffat and Routt counties. It will include the number of people they employ, their budgets and sources of income.

"Nonprofits have many business aspects," Danner said."

In Wyoming, the nonprofit sector ranks in the top 10 of the state's employers.

"It begs the question, 'Who would provide those services if they didn't?'" Danner said. "It's an important sector in our community."

When complete, the report will be in a format that's easy to read and use, Danner said.

It also will look at volunteers, the services they provide and what it would cost to pay for those services.

"This will show (nonprofits) are a very important sector of our economy," Danner said.

Some already know their value.

"If you don't volunteer in your community, you don't care about your community," said Jeff Pryor, with the Anschutz Family Foundation, a major funder for nonprofit organizations. "Nonprofits are essential. Without nonprofits, you don't have a community."