AUGUSTA – The role of nonprofit groups in the state and national economies is significant but frequently overlooked, according to officials of one such organization.

In Maine, nonprofit organizations represent an even greater slice of the state’s economy than they do at the national level.

The Maine Association of Nonprofits on Monday held the second annual Nonprofit Day at the State House, with a dozen or so association members staffing booths set up in the Hall of Flags to represent their organizations. At noon, Ruth Vinal, chairwoman of MANP’s board of directors, touted the economic role nonprofits play in Maine by reading a prepared statement in the hall.

According to Vinal, nonprofits in Maine spend billions of dollars every year and employ nearly three times as many people as state government. Among the types of nonprofit entities that operate in Maine are hospitals, foundations, universities, boys and girls clubs, emergency shelters, and groups that work with the elderly, disadvantaged or disabled.

“The Maine nonprofit sector is large, diverse and growing,” Vinal said. “It should be recognized for the major impact it brings to our state.”

Other facts cited by Vinal include:

. The $4.6 billion in expenditures Maine nonprofit organizations had in 2000 represented 12.8 percent of Maine’s gross state product – a figure 5 percentage points greater than the national average of 7.8 percent.

. Such groups held $7.9 billion in assets in Maine in 2000, representing a 186 percent increase from the $2.8 billion in assets they held in 1990.

. The 70,352 people who worked in Maine’s nonprofit sector in 2002 represented one-eighth of the state’s work force and earned more than $2 billion.

. The major source of revenue for nonprofits are fees and charges, not government subsidies.

After reading her statement, Vinal said Maine’s rural setting and the societal preference in Maine for maintaining local control of community resources help give nonprofits a greater role in the state economy here than nonprofits have in other states.

Using the nonprofit group she works for as an example, Vinal said it would be more cost-effective for the Portland-based Iris Network to help blind and visually impaired people throughout Maine if the state were more densely populated. Because Maine is a big state with a relatively low population, she said, tax-exempt nonprofit organizations can be more effective than for-profit businesses at providing community-oriented services.

“We tend to fill in the gaps where other organizations don’t find it cost-effective,” Vinal said. “There’s a lot of need out there.”

Scott Schnapp, executive director of MANP, said Monday that as Maine nonprofits take on a greater economic role in the state, MANP is trying to make sure they develop practices that make them more financially accountable as well. Such transparency can help nonprofits avoid even the perception of accounting improprieties that have tarnished some high-profile national corporations and even sent some, such as Enron, into scandal and bankruptcy.

“Good ones get it,” Schnapp said. “They realize the more transparency you have, the more effective you are.”