Third sector organizations are ones that are part of neither the governmental sector nor the private sector, and do not operate for profit. An analysis conducted by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research on data from “Guidestar – Israel’s non-profit organization website” found that Jerusalem is by far the third-sector capital of Israel.
As of August 2022, the number of organizations registered in Jerusalem (3,740) is three times greater than the number registered in Tel Aviv (1,210). The cities ranked next on the list are Bnei Braq (1,050) and Beit Shemesh (590).
Of all third-sector organizations operating in Israel – 22% are registered in Jerusalem (compared to 7% in Tel Aviv) and 29% operate in the Jerusalem region (compared to 20% in the Tel Aviv region).
The third-sector makes a huge contribution to the city’s economy – the annual budget of all third-sector organizations registered in Jerusalem is 27 billion NIS (compared to 14 billion NIS in Tel Aviv), and they employ about 165,000 people (compared to about 60,000 in Tel Aviv).
Nevertheless, most third-sector organizations registered in Jerusalem are small – over 90% of them have an annual turnover that does not exceed 10 million NIS, while 41% rely on volunteers only and do not employ any salaried workers.
The main areas of activity of the organizations registered in Jerusalem are – religion (1,650 organizations), education and professional training (1,510), welfare services (550) and community and society (360).
* The data refers only to organizations with a valid certificate of proper management and which have submitted annual reports for the last three years.
