(RNS) Tens of thousands of leaders of nonprofit organizations, including a host of faith-based groups, are calling for a public-private partnership to address the nation’s social and economic troubles.

“We issue this call now because of the magnitude of the problems that confront us, but also because of the opportunity the present moment offers to address them,” the nonprofits said in a public declaration issued on Tuesday (Feb. 24).

Titled “Forward Together: Empowering America’s Citizen Sector for the Change We Need,” the declaration is signed by a broad spectrum of nonprofits, including the Metropolitan Jewish Health System in New York, Catholic Charities of Idaho, and the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society.

“The citizen sector is a powerful engine for change with enormous potentials to assist in coping with our nation’s problems, but the country is not taking anywhere close to full advantage of these potentials,” said Lester Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies and the Listening Post Project, which generated the declaration.

The declaration outlines ways that private groups can contribute to economic recovery, including re-working mortgages with nonprofit housing organizations and organizing volunteers for recovery assistance.

“Those of us who work in the citizen sector are ready to act, and we can be so much more effective if we act in true partnership with leaders in business and government,” said Peter Goldberg, CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families.