Economic Impact Assessment for Easterseals
We conducted an economic impact assessment for Easterseals’ Workforce Development Programs in the United States
Workforce development programs are designed to help individuals secure employment opportunities, empowering them to lift themselves up for years to come. In theory, this has obvious ripple effects into the larger economy. A newly trained worker receives their salary and spends that money back into the economy, purchasing goods and services from other sectors. But organizations performing this work are usually limited to capturing immediate outputs only, such as the number of workers trained and the number of workers securing employment after training. In effect, they are measuring only a portion of their impact.
Supported by longtime Easterseals corporate partner, The Coca-Cola Company, Steward Redqueen was able to provide Easterseals with a deeper look and new perspective on the true impact of their work on lives and communities. Easterseals provides a wide range of home and community-based services to individuals living with disabilities, including workforce development training. While they had strong data on trained individuals, Easterseals wanted further insight into the macro-level changes they were creating throughout the economy.
Easterseals investments into workforce development programs generate 1.2x their value in economic impact, putting a total of $155 million back into the economy on an annual basis. At the individual level, each worker trained experiences nearly $5,000 in increased spending power annually, enough to cover household utility costs for a year or pay for 4 months of groceries in the U.S. But this is just a portion of Easterseals’ economic impact: When combined with childhood development programs, Easterseals programs and operations generate more than $1.5 billion (about $4.60 per person in the US) in economic impact annually, putting them on par with small corporations.
This study helps Easterseals capture their broader story of impact as they continue to expand services and programs for their clients. “It is important to tell the story of the impact of non-profit organizations not only through anecdotes but through real, tangible economic evidence,” said Maulik Doshi, Managing Director of Steward Redqueen USA. “Easterseals makes a positive impact in the communities in which it operates and there is clear evidence of this in the numbers.”
