Valuing the Contribution of Urban Religious Congregations

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations are known to be beneficial to society but to date no systematic valuation of their contribution has been attempted. The aim of this article is to advance our ability to quantify the known externalities of nonprofit organizations using the case of urban American local religious congregations. Data from two studies in Philadelphia and Wilmington as well as numerous secondary sources are used to advance the study of valuing the contribution of local religious congregations. This is a first comprehensive attempt to value the overall positive externalities of local religious congregations as a means to assess their societal value.