The value of nonprofits cannot be overstated. Nonprofit organizations provide countless important and necessary direct services to individuals and families and also serve as an economic engine in our communities.

Statewide, the impact of nonprofits on our economy is staggering. Nonprofits employ nearly 14 percent of the state’s workforce (450,000 jobs) which is more than any other single sector and more than local, state and federal government jobs combined. Nonprofits also provide local jobs that cannot be outsourced and produce salaries that stay in our communities. Coming out of the last recession, the nonprofit sector was the first to add jobs and, in Central Massachusetts, nonprofits pump nearly $4 billion dollars into the economy each year.

Linking the economic health of Massachusetts to the health of the nonprofit sector, two candidates vying to win a primary slot in the special election to fill the Senate vacancy caused by the death of Edward M. Kennedy told nonprofit leaders yesterday in Framingham that government should increase funding to the nonprofit sector.

Citing a need to “develop a culture of giving back,” Stephen G. Pagliuca, a businessman, co-owner of the Boston Celtics, and chairman of Massachusetts Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said, “Government tries to cure problems; nonprofits try to prevent problems. Government should increase funding to nonprofits.”