View Research by Author - Eric C. Twombly

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/EricCTwombly

Nonprofit organizations act as community anchors in neighborhoods across the United States, providing a place for residents to meet and visual evidence of investment in the area. The importance of nonprofits is particularly evident in low-income communities like Wards 7 and 8 in the District of Columbia. This study uses telephone surveys and site visits to compile a profile of the charitable organizations that are headquartered in these two wards. The study examines the types of services offered by local nonprofits, the populations they serve, as well their tenure, annual budgets and sources of income. The findings show a relatively underdeveloped nonprofit sector that exhibits some unexpected characteristics.

From organizations that provide child care and early childhood education programs for preschoolers to groups that offer after-school and computer literacy programs for teenagers, nonprofits play crucial roles in the lives of children in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Vital Signs, a series of community profiles, compares the nonprofit resources and fiscal health of organizations serving children in the region's 11 jurisdictions. Taken together or individually, the profiles are a tool for the region's policy-makers, philanthropists and child advocates.

Community-based nonprofits play important and tangible roles in the lives of children in the United States. But many of these groups currently face financial and administrative challenges that are rooted in the economic downturn, policy shifts, and the increase in public reticence toward charities that followed the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This brief uses the D.C. metropolitan region as a case study to assess the fiscal health of nonprofits in 2000, and finds that many providers were poorly positioned financially to absorb the social and economic shocks that followed the events of 9/11.

The accessibility of nonprofit services is a key factor in promoting effective service delivery networks for children and youth. In the D.C. metro area, little was known about the location of nonprofit providers in relation to the residential patterns of children, particularly from low-income families. This document, which is the second in a series of "fast facts" on child-related nonprofits in the D.C. region, summarizes the major findings of the report entitled, "Spatial Connections: Examining the Location of Children and the Nonprofits That Serve Them in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area." The research finds a significant relationship between the locational patterns of child and youth nonprofits, particularly social welfare organizations, and high rates of child poverty in neighborhoods in the region.

In order for child-related nonprofits to provide effective services, they must have sound financial structures and maintain good fiscal health. Currently, little is known about the financial well-being of nonprofits that serve children in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. This document, which is the first in a series of "fast facts" on child-related nonprofits in the D.C. area, summarizes the major findings of the report entitled, "Accounting for Kids: The Financial Structure and Fiscal Health of Nonprofit Child and Youth Providers in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Region." It reveals that many of these nonprofits showed signs of fiscal stress in 2000, one year before the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center that exacerbated the decline in the D.C. regional economy.

The accessibility of nonprofit services is a key factor in promoting effective service delivery networks for children and youth. Until now, little was known about the location of nonprofit providers in relation to the residential patterns of children, particularly from low-income families. Using a newly developed dataset of nonprofit organizations in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, and the Urban Institute's Neighborhood Change Database, this study takes aim at this information gap by providing the first empirical assessment of the spatial allocation of locally-oriented child and youth nonprofit resources in the D.C. region. The report finds a significant relationship between high rates of child poverty in neighborhoods and the locational patterns of child and youth nonprofits, particularly social welfare organizations, in the region.

The nonprofit sector is facing a changing funding environment and a steadily rising need for its services. This study of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area takes a systematic look at the region's nonprofit sector to identify notable strengths and gaps in activity and the financial contributions that nonprofits make to the region. The report examines the sources of income upon which nonprofits rely to support their operations, especially its reliance on government funding, and it analyses both the operating margin and net assets of the sector to assess fiscal health. The findings suggest that greater attention needs to be paid to managing the sector's financial resources, particularly its assets.

Over the past decade, legislators have been looking for ways to increase private charitable giving and direct these resources to programs that serve low-income people. To further these goals, Arizona enacted a charitable tax credit in 1997 as part of the state’s welfare reforms. This brief examines the structure of the Arizona program, the initial effects on giving, and the types of organizations that benefited from the charitable tax credit. It concludes that although the Arizona charitable tax credit stimulated some additional giving during relatively good economic times (1998-1999), it is not a panacea for funding the nonprofit sector. The jury is still out as to whether it may weaken a broad array of organizations that create community cohesiveness and civil society.

Improving the lives of children and youth requires that local nonprofit providers have sound financial structures and maintain good fiscal health. Currently, little is known about the financial well-being of these providers in the Washington, D.C. metro area. This report uses data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and several grantmakers to analyze the finances of child and youth related nonprofits in 2000 and a panel of nonprofits in 1998 and 2000. The findings reveal that many nonprofits that serve children and youth in the region showed signs of fiscal stress in 2000, one year before the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center that exacerbated the decline in the D.C. regional economy.

The confluence of rising social service needs and the shaky economy in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area has heightened the need to critically examine the availability of nonprofit resources for children and youth in the region. As a first step to address this issue, this report uses data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and several grantmakers to analyze the characteristics of child and youth related nonprofits. The report finds that more than 1,100 nonprofits focus primarily on providing goods and services to children and youth in the D.C. area. Moreover, these groups provide a diverse array of services, are generally long-tenured, and are located throughout the region.

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