What is the purpose of the survey?
Conducted annually by the Urban Institute in collaboration with American University and George Mason University, the National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts provides nationally representative insights about nonprofit programs and services, workforce, fundraising, donations, finances, government engagement, and more. Historically, nationally representative panel data on nonprofits have been limited to financial data from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990. These representative survey insights help nonprofit leaders build sustainable and effective organizations and inform policymakers, funders, and the public on how to best support the sector.
What nonprofits are included in the survey sample?
The National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts is a nationally representative survey of 501(c)(3) public charities with annual expenses and revenues of $50,000 or more that operate across a wide range of service areas (hereafter referred to as "nonprofits"). The survey includes nonprofits that engage in activities ranging from direct service provision to community building and advocacy, and primarily receive rather than provide funds. It excludes foundations, as well as 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, but it is otherwise representative of established service-providing nonprofits across the country. The data have been weighted to account for the sample design and nonresponse to ensure national representativeness, meaning the findings can be generalized to the categories of public charities included in the study. For more information on our data weighting and the survey’s national representativeness, see our survey methodology.
Beginning in 2026, an abridged version of the survey focusing on the nonprofit workforce was fielded to all types of 501(c)(3) public charities (including the categories excluded above) with one or more employees, and to 501(c)(3) private foundations that reported more than $50,000 in compensation or wages and positive grants paid on their most recent IRS Form 990-PF, excluding private operating foundations that fund a single related organization and pass-through or conduit foundations.
Who receives the survey?
Nonprofit leaders, defined as CEOs, executive directors, or equivalents, whose organizations are in the sample receive the survey.
What does the survey ask about?
The survey asks questions about nonprofit programs and services; staff and volunteers; fundraising, donations, and finances; and engagement with governments.
How long does the survey take to complete?
The survey takes about 30 minutes to complete. If needed, survey respondents can save their responses and come back to complete the survey at a later time.
What do you do with survey data?
Each year of the data will be used to tell the story of the nonprofit sector and made available in a public use format and a restricted use format for analysis by others. See Publications for the reports, briefs, and fact sheets, and Public Use Data Files for the datasets. For more information, contact us at [email protected].
I received the survey. Where can I learn more about it?
