A new research, carried out by the IBGE and by the IPEA, in partnership with the Brazilian Association of non-governmental organizations (ABONG) and with the Group of Institutes, Foundations and Enterprises (GIFE), provides a complete portrait of the 276 thousand private and non-profitable institutions, which employ 1.5 million persons, paying salaries and other remuneration amounting to R$ 17.5 billions.

These organizations have in common the fact that they are at the same time: voluntary, autonomous and private; established by citizens that join themselves by their own desire around common objectives. (By this rule, the commercial associations were excluded, such as those that are regulated by the government, or those that have a specific legal structure that does not allow a person or organization to develop these activities, such as political parties, labor unions, consortiums, etc..)

São Paulo and Minas have one third of the organizations

The Southeast region concentrates 44% of the non-profitable private foundations and associations, and just São Paulo (21%) and Minas Gerais (13%) concentrate one third of the existing organizations in Brazil.

The great majority (62%) of the non-profitable associations has been created since the nineties, and the ones whose headquarters are in the North and Northeast are much younger than the ones located in the South and Southeast. As each decade passes by, the growing rhythm accelerates; it was 88% from 1970 to 1980; 124% from 1980 to 1990 and, just from 1996 to 2002, 157%.

Organizations are very small and with a great participation of religious entities

In a general way, the group of non-profitable enterprises is formed by thousands of very small organizations and by a minority, which concentrates the major part of the employees of the sector. Around 77% of them don’t even have one employee and, by the other hand, around 2,500 entities (1% of the total) employ almost one million workers.

Another characteristic of these non-profitable institutions is the great participation of religious entities. Around 26% of them dedicate themselves directly to activities known as confessional, which are: the religious orders, temples, parishes, spiritual centers, etc.. It is important to observe that this group does not include the institutions of religious origin that dedicate themselves to other activities and that have own juridical personality such as: schools, colleges and hospitals. Therefore, we can conclude that the influence of the religion in the scope of these organizations is much more extensive.

Northeast concentrates the major part of the rights defense organizations and half of the rural development organizations

The organizations aiming at the promotion of rights development and defense, which include the community centers, associations of residents and of defense of specific groups or of minorities, had a significant growth in the last decade, having increased, between 1996 and 2002, four times, passing from a little more than 11 thousand associations to 45 thousand associations in six years. With a participation of 16% in the total of the non-profitable organizations, they passed from the fifth position, in 1996, to the second one, in 2002, only behind the religious associations. The major part of them is concentrated in the Northeast (39%).

Another group of associations that grew significantly in the nineties were the organizations of professionals and employers, which, from 1996 to 2002, increased three times and a half. Among them, the great highlight are the associations of rural producers which, in six years, increased five times and a half, passing from 4 thousand, in 1996, to 25 thousand, in 2002. Once again it is the Northeast that concentrates the major part of these associations of rural producers (51%).

The recent growth of these two groups has begun since 1990, when, of the 170 thousand new organizations, 68 thousand, or 40%, belonged to these two groups.

The research also detects the repercussion of the more recent social movements, which can be observed in the great increase of the entities related to environment and to animal protection, in the last decade, passing from 389 entities in 1996, to 1,591 in 2002.

Health and Education Organizations are the oldest ones

The organizations that provide health and educational services are among the oldest, particularly hospitals and secondary schools. 70% of them were founded before the decade of the nineties and two thirds of them are located in the Southeast Region.

The two areas, health and education, employ more than half (52%) of the total of the employed persons in non-profitable organizations. Nevertheless, in the internal composition of these two groups, the entities that provide services of childhood education, such as day nursery and preprimary school, employ few salaried workers, approximately seven employees per institution, while the higher education organizations employ approximately 121 employees per institution.

The same occurs regarding the health area, where the providers of non-hospital services, such as the ones of prevention and education or in ambulances activities employ approximately 24 workers per organization, while the hospitals employ, on the average, 154 workers per institution.

Although Health and Education employ 52% (798,855 persons), they represent only 8% of the total of the entities. There are 3,798 entities in health and 17,493 entities in education. The opposite occurs in the religious organizations, in the rights defense organizations and in the employers associations: they include the major number of entities, more than half of the total, and employ only 17% of the workers of non-profitable entities. In the group of religion, we can find a little more than one worker per institution – there are 70,446 entities that employ 101,513 persons. According to the research, the major part of the services provided by these entities must happen through non-remunerated work.

Remuneration is higher than the remuneration of the average of workers as a whole

In 2002, the average remuneration of the workers in non-profitable enterprises was 4.5 minimum wages per month (minimum wage equals to R$ 260.00), slightly above than the average remuneration of the salaried workers of enterprises as a whole (public, private profitable and non-profitable), which was 4.3 salaries per month.

The ones who work in religious organizations (2.9 minimum wages), nevertheless, receive half of the earning of those who work in education (6.0 minimum wages). The organizations that work with environment are inclined to remunerate above the average, paying 5.2 minimum wages per month. The major salaries differences, among the groups, can be found in the area of rights defense, where the workers of the areas of training receive, on the average, 10 minimum wages per month, while the ones in the association of residents receive, on the average, two minimum wages per month.

Also in higher education, the workers of faculties and universities receive 7.6 minimum wages, three times more than the employees in institutions that provide childhood education. According to the research, the institutions related to art remunerate much better (7.0 minimum wages) than the ones related to sports and leisure (3.5 minimum wages).

In a general way, the salaries are higher in conformity to the size of the organizations and, the biggest ones are, also, the ones that demand a more qualified labor force, such as hospitals, schools and universities.

The growth in the labor force, although significant, around 48% from 1996 to 2002, was lower than the one observed in the number of organizations (157%), which resulted in the reduction of the average size of the entities in this period.

The major growth occurred, precisely, in the entities that proportionally also grew more in number, between 1996 and 2002. It is the case of the entities of rights defense, which had an increase of 79% in the employment; of the professional and employers associations (72%) and in the environment organizations (65%). The entities that provide service in education hired more 146 thousand workers, an increase of 49% in this period. The registered non-profitable faculties and universities, for example, hired more 90 thousand workers, an increase of 85%. The areas of culture and health presented much lower rhythms of hiring, 9% and 35%, respectively, but the lowest growth was observed in the entities of sports and recreation, which hired only two thousand persons, an increase of 2%.

Among the group of rights defense, stands out the fact that the association of residents and the organizations of rights defense of groups and minorities more than doubled their human resources in these six years (135% and 111% respectively).