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Facts and Figures from the Nonprofit Almanac 2008 (Policy Briefs/In Brief)
Author(s): Amy Blackwood, Kennard Wing, Thomas H. Pollak

This brief highlights trends from the seventh edition of "The Nonprofit Almanac 2008", prepared by the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute. The Almanac is the latest in the Urban Institute's series of statistical profiles of the nonprofit sector and focuses primarily on 501(c)(3) public charities. We also highlight key findings on private charitable contributions and volunteering, two vital components of the nonprofit sector. This brief includes the most recent available data (2005 and 2006).

Posted: May 12, 2008

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Catalog of Administrative Data Sources for Neighborhood Indicators (Document)
Author(s): Claudia J. Coulton

The data used to craft neighborhood indicators often come from the records of administrative agencies. These are particularly useful for community indicators because they are timelier or can be applied to smaller areas than government surveys. This monograph describes 42 of these data sources. It begins with a brief section on recent developments in neighborhood indicators work, followed by a discussion of some of the challenges of using administrative records data for these purposes. The main body of the monograph is a catalog that describes the sources and gives examples of the types of indicators that can be constructed from each.

Posted: January 30, 2008

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Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators (Research Report)
Author(s): Maria Rosario Jackson, Florence Kabwasa-Green, Joaquin Herranz

This report introduces a definition of cultural vitality that includes the range of cultural activity people around the country find significant. We use this definition as a lens to clarify our understanding of data necessary, as well as the more limited data currently available, to document arts and culture in communities in a consistent, recurrent and reliable manner. We develop and recommend an initial set of arts and culture indicators derived from nationally available data, and compare selected metropolitan areas based on these measures. Policy and planning implications for use of the cultural vitality definition and related measures are discussed.

Posted: December 15, 2006

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San Francisco, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Columbus, Ohio, Are Tops in Cultural Vitality Rankings (Press Release)
Author(s): The Urban Institute

A first-of-its-kind comprehensive statistical portrait of cultural vitality—ranging from community festivals to financial contributions—finds metropolitan areas on both coasts and in the Midwest earning top honors. Developed by an Urban Institute research team, the portrait's seven measures illuminate the intersection of arts, culture, and community well-being.

Posted: December 15, 2006

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Survey Research Expert Rob Santos Returns to the Urban Institute as Senior Methodologist (Press Release)
Author(s): The Urban Institute

Rob Santos, a partner and executive vice president with NuStats Research & Consulting in Austin, Texas, has rejoined Washington, D.C.'s Urban Institute as institute senior methodologist and director of its Statistical Methods Group.

Posted: August 30, 2006

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Getting On, Staying On, and Getting Off Welfare (Policy Briefs/ANF:Issues and Options for States)
Author(s): Gretchen Rowe, Linda Giannarelli

Congress reauthorized TANF in February 2006 as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The changes included under reauthorization will require most states to greatly increase work participation among their caseloads in order to avoid financial penalties and could cause many states to rethink their current welfare policies overall. This marks a good time to review states' current rules, which provides a benchmark against which future changes can be assessed. This brief reviews the multiple ways a family can get on welfare, stay on, and leave (or lose) assistance. It uses the Urban Institute's Welfare Rules Database (WRD) to examine the variation in key policies as of 2003.

Posted: July 27, 2006

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U.S. Government Funding of International Nongovernmental Organizations (Policy Briefs)
Author(s): Janelle Kerlin

Since the 1970s, U.S. government funding of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) has risen dramatically, however, there is little research examining this trend. This analysis of U.S.-based INGOs uses the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics/GuideStar National Nonprofit Database to provide new insight into the government funding of these organizations. Analysis finds that despite a steady increase, government funding is still limited to a relatively small percentage of INGOs and federal dollars only contribute about a fifth of the overall revenue for the sector. Also, government funding varies across different types of INGO activities and regions. Findings additionally show that changes in foreign policy after 2001 affected foreign assistance funding for INGOs.

Posted: May 30, 2006

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Investing in Creativity (Research Report)
Author(s): Maria Rosario Jackson, Florence Kabwasa-Green, Daniel Swenson, Joaquin Herranz, Kadija Ferryman, Caron Atlas, Eric Wallner, Carole E. Rosenstein

The report presents the overall findings of Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists. A major contribution of the study is a new comprehensive framework for analysis and action, which views the support structure for artists in the U.S. as a system made up of six key dimensions of the environment in which an artist works. This builds on previous and ongoing Urban Institute work to measure characteristics of place that make a culturally vibrant community. The study provides information on the status of various dimensions of the artists' support structure--both nationally and in specific sites.

Posted: May 02, 2006

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2002 NSAF Data Editing and Imputation (Methodology Report)
Author(s): Timothy Triplett

This report focuses on the data editing techniques and imputations that were unique to the 2002 NSAF data processing steps. It is a supplement to the 1997 and 1999 NSAF data editing reports (No. 10 in both series), and does not reiterate the data editing techniques, data processing, and coding guidelines documented in these prior reports.

Posted: July 29, 2005

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Modeling Income in the Near Term 4 (Research Report)
Author(s): Karen E. Smith, David Cashin, Melissa Favreault

This final report presents the retirement income projections from Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT4) data system. Key findings include that the 1996 SIPP panel has lower-than-average lifetime earnings compared with the 1990 to 1993 SIPP panels, but the variance is within the bounds of the sampling error. Retirement income will become increasingly unequally distributed as both the top of the distribution rises and bottom falls. Aged poverty rates decline as retirement income grows faster than prices through years of positive real wage growth.

Posted: April 19, 2005

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