Shaping Lives and Anchoring Communities

Report Resources

The contributions of higher education extend far beyond an individual degree. Private, nonprofit colleges and universities play significant roles in the everyday lives of those living and working in college communities and are important contributors in many ways to the nation as a whole.

This report, Private, Nonprofit Higher Education: Shaping Lives and Anchoring Communities, tells the story of the economic, social and cultural vitality that private, nonprofit colleges and universities add to communities, regions and the nation.

The research also demonstrates how America’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities are in a unique position to not only help, but to lead the acceleration of post-pandemic economic progress across the nation. Serving as one of the nation’s primary vehicles for social and economic mobility, private, nonprofit colleges and universities are accelerating economic growth, creating jobs, and boosting the nation’s tax base.

The economic impact of the private, nonprofit sector of higher education in FY 2018 and academic year 2018 2019 totaled $591.5 billion.

Additionally, the sector directly employs more than 1.1 million people and supports and sustains another 2.3 million jobs. Private, nonprofit colleges and universities contributed nearly $80 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue.  And, perhaps most importantly, the sector graduates some 1.1 million students each year.

In this landmark report, NAICU explores the societial and community impacts of private, nonprofit colleges and universitie in the following chapters:

Perhaps at no time in our history has the critical impact and vital role of America’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities been more important than today in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that has so punished the health of our people and economy.

America’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities stand ready to lead in the central task of our time – rebuilding the health and economic vitality of the nation. The role and responsibility of private, nonprofit higher education in shaping lives and anchoring communities has never been more important to the economic, social and cultural vitality of our nation.