Nearly 64 percent of nonprofits in the seven program areas, compared with 70 percent of the remainder of the Philadelphia nonprofit sector, reported positive balance sheets in which revenues exceeded expenses at the close of 1998. The ability of nonprofits to positively impact and improve local communities is linked in part to their ability to reach local residents. Because most nonprofits provide programs at fixed locations, these sites need to be known by residents and within a reasonable distance to travel. Nonprofit organizations are located throughout Philadelphia, but they are primarily sited in a tight geographic area in downtown Philadelphia known as the Center City. Roughly one of every five nonprofits is located in the Center City, even though the district contains less than 2 percent of the total land area of the city.
Nonprofits also tend to cluster in University City, an area immediately west of the Center City.
Roughly one in ten community-based groups are located in this part of Philadelphia, which contains the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and a host of businesses and nonprofit associations that cater to the university community. Nearly half of the groups that are of primary interest to the Foundation are in downtown Philadelphia. Thus, nearly half of the groups which the Foundation might consider supporting, given current program areas, are located in a five square mile radius of downtown Philadelphia. In contrast, only 20 percent of other nonprofits are located in these two districts of the city. The majority of educational providers are located in neighborhoods with relatively few children.