Data from the National Survey of Nonprofit Trends and Impacts are not only nationally representative. They’re also representative of each state we have data for, allowing us to paint a robust picture of a state’s nonprofit landscape.
With funding from the Barr Foundation, we used survey data from 2019 to 2025 to understand the financial health and workforce of Massachusetts nonprofits.
Our tailored analyses of the commonwealth’s nonprofit workforce, funding streams, and fiscal health can help Massachusetts funders and policymakers understand how local nonprofits are adapting to change and identify evidence-based strategies to strengthen the sector’s resilience over time.
The State of Massachusetts Nonprofits
Our analyses of data on Massachusetts nonprofits’ government grants and contracts, indicators of fiscal health, receipt of charitable giving and philanthropy, and workforce revealed the following key insights.
Leading into 2025, expanded staffing and diverse funding streams contributed to the resilience of Massachusetts nonprofits. From 2019 to 2024—a period including the COVID-19 pandemic—the share of nonprofits with full-time staff increased from 73 to 82 percent. And in 2023, the average Massachusetts nonprofit received 51 percent of its revenue from charitable giving and philanthropy, 26 percent from government agencies, 17 percent from fees for services, and 6 percent from other sources.
Fiscal vulnerabilities could leave the Massachusetts nonprofit sector less prepared to withstand financial downturns. Leading into 2025, Massachusetts nonprofits were already dealing with rising expenses and limited cash reserves, strain on their largest funding source (charitable giving and philanthropy), and a greater reliance on government funding.
Building on these analyses, we examined early 2025 data to understand how the onset of government funding disruptions began to affect nonprofits in Massachusetts.
In early 2025, government funding disruptions—including losses of funding, funding delays and freezes, and stop work orders—may have contributed to dampened hiring outlooks for Massachusetts nonprofits. About 30 percent of Massachusetts nonprofits reported experiencing a loss of government funding (compared with 33 percent nationally). And while 62 percent of Massachusetts nonprofits anticipated hiring new staff at the end of 2024, by early 2025 that share had dropped to 45 percent.
Advisory Committee
We are grateful to the members of our Massachusetts Nonprofit Trends and Impacts Study Advisory Committee, who helped us increase our survey response rate in Massachusetts and develop this research. Members include Kelton Artuso from Philanthropy Massachusetts, Ellen Dickenson from United Way of Massachusetts Bay, Jim Klocke from the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, Carlos Muñoz-Cadilla from the Boston Foundation, Elaine Ng from TSNE, Rory Neuner from the Barr Foundation, Leah Parker-Moldover from the MetroWest Nonprofit Network, Elena Sokolow-Kaufman from the Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition, and Liana Toscanini from the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.
Partner with Us
This work shows what’s possible when Urban’s Nonprofit Trends and Impacts Study is paired with targeted outreach and state or local partnerships. If you’re interested in an in-depth look at your state’s nonprofit fiscal health, workforce, and funding dynamics, and more, we’d love to help. Contact us at [email protected].
