What types of communities do nonprofit organizations serve? How much of a nonprofit’s funding comes from individual donations versus foundations or government? Who leads and works at nonprofits?
These are the types of questions the Nonprofit Trends Tracker can answer.
Using representative data from the National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts, the tracker paints a holistic picture of US nonprofits’ experiences that can be generalized for similar nonprofits at the national and regional levels, in select states, across nonprofit subsectors and sizes, and in urban and rural areas. It offers nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and funders rigorous insights on a range of topics and downloadable visualizations they can customize to better understand nonprofits in their communities.
Data Categories
Dive into the data by selecting a category below.
Demand for services and service provision
Geographic reach and demographics
Individual donations, foundations, corporations, government, and earned revenue
Total revenue, total expenses, cash reserves, and fundraising
Staff and volunteers and demographics for paid staff, CEOs, and boards
What Does the Tracker Offer?
The Nonprofit Trends Tracker’s greatest strength is that its data are representative and robust.
The tracker uses data from the National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts, a nationally representative survey of US 501(c)(3) public charities with annual expenses and revenues of $50,000 or more. The survey data include nonprofits that primarily receive rather than provide funds and that engage in a wide variety of activities, including offering programs and supports that meet community needs (e.g., food banks and youth programs) and advocating for causes and groups (e.g., environmental nonprofits and veteran-serving organizations). The data exclude foundations, hospitals, higher education institutions, schools, churches and other houses of worship, and other nonprofits with unique business models and contexts. For simplicity, we use “nonprofit” as a catchall for the organizations included in the data. Read more about the data below.
In addition to being nationally representative, all data are weighted to be representative of the types of nonprofits that responded to the survey. That means the data can be generalized to all similar nonprofits across the US, within a region, in select states, in urban and rural areas, and to all nonprofits in the same subsector or of the same size.
Our data also cover a wide variety of topics—including nonprofits’ revenue and fiscal health, their programming, the communities they serve, and their workforce and boards of directors—and are released quickly. By providing timely, diverse information together in one place, the tracker is a one-stop shop for understanding current trends in the nonprofit sector.
How to Use the Tracker
Below, dive into the data by selecting a category. Then explore subcategories and the metrics within them nationally, regionally, or in available states. You can break down the data to compare metrics by nonprofit size, subsector, urban or rural designation, and all available states or all regions to understand how nonprofits’ experiences differ across these characteristics. You can also hover over the charts to see historical data from previous survey years.
Watch our videos for additional instructions and help interpreting the charts.
About the Data
The data in the Nonprofit Trends Tracker come from the National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts, which is administered annually by the Urban Institute, George Mason University, and American University. It is a nationally representative survey of 501(c)(3) public charities with annual expenses and revenues of $50,000 or more that primarily receive rather than provide funds and engage in a wide range of activities (hereafter called “nonprofits”). The survey excludes foundations, hospitals, higher education institutions, schools (day cares, preschools, and K–12 schools), churches and other houses of worship, and other nonprofits with unique business models and contexts. The data are reported by the leaders (defined as CEOs, executive directors, or equivalents) of nonprofits that meet the survey criteria and are randomly selected to receive the survey.
The data in this tracker have been weighted to account for the sample design and nonresponse and to ensure they are representative. That the data are representative means they do not only represent the nonprofits that responded to the survey. Instead, the data can be generalized to all similar nonprofits nationally, regionally, in available states, in urban and rural areas, and to all nonprofits in the same subsector or of the same size. For some combinations of variables in the dropdowns, we may not have sufficient data to generate a chart. In addition, some data may be missing in a specific year because of variation in the survey questions asked year to year. For more information, see our survey methodology.
Regions and urban or rural designations are defined by the US Census Bureau. Each nonprofit in the sample is sorted into a region and categorized as urban or rural based on its address in the June 2024 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Exempt Organizations Business Master File. “Survey year” refers to the year when the survey was administered to nonprofit leaders, though the survey also asks questions about periods outside the survey year. The time frame for each metric is in the chart title. When no time frame is given, the metric reflects the survey year. “Size of annual expenses” is based on nonprofits’ total annual expenses as reported on the most recently available IRS Form 990 (from 2020 to 2022). We define nonprofit subsectors using organizations’ National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities codes, as listed on the June 2024 IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File. Note the “education” subsector excludes higher education institutions and schools, and the “health” subsector excludes hospitals. Metrics that include “estimate” reflect survey questions for which nonprofits could respond with an estimate.
Project Credits
This data tool, and the 2024 National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts, were funded by the Fidelity Charitable® Catalyst Fund. The Barr Foundation partially supported the 2024 survey and supported all of the 2025 survey. Funders that have supported the Nonprofit Trends and Impacts study since its launch in 2020 are available on the study’s website. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts.
PRODUCT LEADERSHIP Catherine Harvey and Laura Tomasko
RESEARCH Hannah Martin, Thiya Poongundranar, Christina Prinvil, Mirae Kim, Lewis Faulk, Elizabeth T. Boris, and Katie Fallon
DATA VISUALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT Jeff MacInnes (Decimal Point) and Rachel Marconi
DESIGN Brittney Spinner
EDITING Zach VeShancey
PRODUCTION Samantha Cressman
WRITING Rachel Kenney
Work with Us
Are you interested in tracking rigorous nonprofit data? Do you want to help nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and funders make more informed decisions about the nonprofit sector? We’d welcome the opportunity to collaborate. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more.
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