Western North Carolina’s nonprofit sector is a significant employer and an increasingly important piece of the region’s economy. But behind the employment growth is a sector that has spent the past several years moving from one disruption to another — and, in many cases, expanding its responsibilities along the way.

Across an 18-county Western North Carolina region, the “Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations” category accounted for 3,671 jobs in 2025, up from 2,995 in 2020. That represents an increase of 676 jobs, or 23 percent, over five years. The category included 506 payroll business locations in 2025 and paid an average annual wage of $46,952.

Buncombe County accounted for 1,881 of those jobs, followed by Henderson County with 393, Transylvania with 205 and Jackson with 203. The overall concentration of jobs in the category was approximately 18 percent greater in the region than the national average in 2025.

Those figures show a growing sector. But behind the numbers is an industry under pressure.

“I think nonprofits have been through the ringer multiple times on multiple fronts,” said Brandon Baird, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Henderson County. He pointed to the pandemic, Hurricane Helene and more recent regulatory uncertainty as successive challenges that have complicated organizations’ ability to plan.

Nonprofits need “an environment which they can plan,” he said, and should not always be “forced toward innovation when something is working. They sometimes just need the ability to double down and keep doing what they’re doing.”

Baird described the broader nonprofit landscape as a “mixed bag,” comparing it to a K-shaped recovery in which some organizations are doing well while others are struggling to find their footing and communicate their needs in an increasingly crowded environment.

Rising Above: Resilience and Recovery Among Western North Carolina Nonprofits After Hurricane Helene, a report to WNC Nonprofit Pathways with support from Dogwood Health Trust, surveyed nonprofit leaders about Hurricane Helene, federal policy shifts and organizations’ current needs. Openfields conducted the survey from May 28 to July 6, 2025, ultimately receiving 251 usable responses from nonprofits across the region.

The organizations represented a wide range of missions and sizes, but most operated with relatively small staff. Education, human services and youth development were among the most common areas of work, while the populations most commonly served included people experiencing poverty, children and youth, rural communities and adults aged 65 and older.

The Pathways report quantifies the scale of Helene’s impact. Fifty-nine percent of responding nonprofits sustained some physical damage, with 17 percent reporting major damage or total loss to buildings, other property or both. Organizations that provided estimates collectively reported more than $100 million in property damage.

At the same time, community need surged. Almost 60 percent of respondents reported increased demand for services after Helene. More than half of responding organizations provided some form of frontline assistance, from distributing food and water to offering emergency cash, helping residents navigate FEMA claims, organizing debris removal and providing space for showers, laundry and phone charging.

Baird said the hurricane revealed something fundamental about the region.

“I think [Helene] really revealed what was already true about this place,” he said, describing community ties and connections that often exist outside formal networks. “We’re not succeeding if everybody is not succeeding, if everybody’s not taken care of. I think that’s borne out in the nonprofit sector here.”

But that response came at a cost to the people providing it. The Pathways study found that staff capacity was the most frequently reported obstacle to recovery, with about half of respondents reporting issues such as burnout. 

“I think workforce in general, for sure, is an issue across the region,” Baird said. He also identified access to child care as part of the workforce and economic development equation.

It’s not just the aftermath of Helene that’s affecting nonprofits. Fifty-four percent of the surveyed organizations responding to questions about federal policy shifts said they had made at least one change to their finances, programs or staffing because of federal changes in 2025. About 31 percent had increased fundraising efforts or donor asks.

Despite those pressures, the study did not depict a sector in collapse. A majority of organizations reported that their programs were running smoothly, and nonprofit leaders remained confident about navigating the challenges ahead. As the sector moves forward, maintaining that resilience will require the same resources nonprofits provide to their communities: stability, capacity and support.

Taken together, the data show a nonprofit sector that has continued to grow and deliver for its communities, even as the resources and people behind that work are stretched thin.  

See the full report at NonprofitPathways.org/resources.