Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s annual report on registered charities (not including churches) in our state and their financial details reveals the immensity of not-for-profit enterprises in Mississippi.

Hosemann, like his predecessors since the early 1990s, is required to provide statistics and headquarters’ addresses, plus details of expenditures, of not-for-profits headquartered in Mississippi and/or raising money in Mississippi. Almost 4,000 foundations, programs, and services are registered with the office.

The requirement adds credibility to the registered charities and helps keep a watch for and prevent fraudulent solicitations.

The cumulative economic impact of legitimate charities in Mississippi and nationwide is huge. An almost indescribable range of services and causes are funded by undertakings large and small. Some are high-profile organizations deeply engaged in civic and community life. Others are virtually unknown outside their constituency of supporters. Many have some religious motivation, connection or goal. Others are humane or humanitarian but officially secular.

Charitable enterprises in Mississippi reflect nationwide measures placing our state at the top in the proportion of income donated to charitable causes. Mississippians don’t give as much as citizens of some states, but Mississippians give more in proportion to income.

The charitable impulse says something about the character of Mississippians, an intangible.

Charitable giving in our state also has a tangible and major employment and services impact.

Johns Hopkins University’s Nonprofit Employment Data Project, using federal, state, and private-sector information, placed non-profit employment in Mississippi at 85,223 workers in 2004, and the trend was upward. The Johns Hopkins data does not include employment by individual religious congregations, which inarguably would raise the Mississippi total by thousands.

The United Methodist and Southern Baptist membership alone in Mississippi is almost 900,000 combined and embraces 4,000 congregations, which means thousands of pastors, music directors and other staff members – jobs all sustained by charitable contributions.

In fact, an Indiana University study found that 37 percent of 1,000-plus congregations surveyed reported an increase in donations during the first half of this recession year, so the outlook is good.

While the recession has made most charitable organizations reassess spending patterns and priorities, donations remain a major funding source for scores of service agencies and organizations in Northeast Mississippi.

The United Way of Northeast Mississippi, for example, provides substantial support for about 60 agencies serving thousands of people of all ages in the region. Its budget has not expanded in the current cycle, but it is managing to provide much of the funding requested by its participating agencies, whose requests are reassessed every year.

A wide view of charitable enterprises reveals benefit for body, mind, spirit and the economy – with many services seldom available through for-profit businesses at any price.

- Go to www.sos.state.ms.us/SecCharities/charities.asp for a copy of the annual charities report.