What are the supports and services for the US social sector? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this infrastructure? How is it changing and how might it need to change in the years to come? The Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, in partnership with George Mason University’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise, launched a research project to better understand the infrastructure that provides the social sector these critical supports and services.

For this project, we developed an expansive definition that captures the full breadth of the social sector and its infrastructure. We then examined the state of that infrastructure and identified ways it might need to evolve for the future.

This project is committed to incorporating new voices in the social sector, emphasizing groups that have historically been marginalized and excluded, addressing racial inequities, and integrating the perspectives of diverse social sector infrastructure stakeholders.