A recent survey showed local Dane County businesses are providing a positive impact on the economy.The survey counted 4,277 employees working at Dane Buy Local businesses.

No, Tara Ingalls isn’t solving the employment crisis on her own. But the owner of a Madison-based graphic design firm is proud of doubling her staff over the past year to eight employees.

“We’re generating a lot of business from all the new startups in town,” says Ingalls, owner of Tingalls Dzyn. Ingalls thinks the recession caused a lot of companies to lay off their own in-house design people. Now that the economy is recovering, she says those companies are looking for help.

“We don’t just do website design,” she says. “We do websites that get found.” Ingalls is one of the 625 member businesses of Dane Buy Local, a group working to raise awareness about the impact of spending money with a locally owned company.

The effort appears to be paying off. Dane Buy Local members report creating 467 jobs in 2011, an increase of 11 percent. Members also report paying out over $85 million in salaries last year and another $9.2 million in state and local taxes. The results came from a 2011 economic impact survey, described at the monthly meeting of the Fitchburg Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. The survey counted 4,277 employees working at Dane Buy Local businesses. Those member companies also donated 178,330 volunteer hours and $2.4 million to nonprofits.

“Eight years ago, a group of devoted people got together and decided they wanted to make an impact,” says Dane Buy Local board member Kay-Tee Franke. “I think the results speak for themselves.”

Dane Buy Local is now counted as one of the five largest organizations of its kind in the country, says Rick Lenz, CEO of Motus Financial in Madison.