Spring 2004

University’s economic impact reaches from flowers to city funds

Northwestern University spent more than $19 million in Evanston in 2002-03, strengthening the economy with purchases of goods and services from Evanston businesses, financial support to nonprofit agencies, and taxes and other payments to the city government.

The University’s policy of supporting Evanston companies to boost the local economy helped small and large firms, many of them family-owned companies that provide goods and services ranging from food to flowers to hardware and auto supplies. Purchases totaled $13.8 million.

Financial support of non-profit groups, including School Districts 65 and 202, amounted to $949,000 in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31.

Northwestern also paid $4 million in taxes and other payments to the city government while Northwestern students, counted as residents in the 2000 census, brought the city more than $500,000 in additional funds from the state and federal governments.

Economic Impact

“The University is committed to the economic vitality of the city and is the largest buyer of goods and services from Evanston businesses,” said Eugene S. Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance at Northwestern. “A strong local economy is essential for the city and the University. That’s why the University has a formal policy to support Evanston merchants, with an emphasis on minority and women-owned firms.”

Last year the University made purchases from 327 commercial merchants and paid for health care services from more than 50 providers. The purchases included $756,000 from minority-owned and women-owned businesses in Evanston. Each year for the last eight years, the University has sponsored a Supplier Diversity Conference to give those firms the opportunity to meet with University buyers and to help the University identify new vendors.

Anyone interested in more information on the conference or Northwestern’s Supplier Diversity Program should contact John Marshall, manager of the Supplier Diversity Program, at (847) 491-5321 or at jbmarshall@northwestern.edu.

The University also leased space in downtown Evanston, paying $1.7 million to rent offices in 2002-03.

Education/Non-profit Agencies

Northwestern’s payments to non-profit groups included support for agencies dedicated to strengthening the economic base of the community, including the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, Chicago’s North Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, Evanston Inventure and Technology Innovation Center, and support of many community service agencies.

Major support was provided to School District 65, including $150,000 for Project Excite (see related story on page 5) and $155,952 for the Lighthouse Project. More than 35 non-profit civic groups received financial support from the University, including BEHIV, Evanston Community Foundation and McGaw YMCA.

City Government

Payments from Northwest-ern to the City of Evanston consistently amount to more than $4 million yearly. Northwestern’s payments to the City of Evanston government in 2002-03 included $492,000 in athletic event taxes, a tax levied only on Northwestern; $508,000 in electric and gas taxes; and $473,000 in parking taxes. (see related chart)

The more than 5,000 Northwestern students who live in residence halls, fraternities and sororities and two graduate dorms are counted in the city’s census — the basis for tax revenues that the State of Illinois and federal government share with municipalities.

The city receives $96.90 per capita yearly from those who completed State of Illinois census forms, resulting in about $500,000 a year in student-generated funding for the city.

The federal government makes yearly payments to the city in the form of Community Block Development Grants, based on factors that include unemployed and low-income residents – students included – who are counted in the census. The formula for payments takes into account the extent of poverty, population, housing overcrowding, age of housing and population growth lag in relationship to other metropolitan areas.

The city received $3.1 million in federal funds for economic development, housing and public improvements in the last fiscal year, part of which was based on the student population that completed census forms.