This summary is related to the sixth national census of community-based development organizations.

Nonprofit community-based development organizations, or CBDOs, work to improve living conditions and opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color through housing and facilities development, community lending, and services and advocacy. There are an estimated 6,225 such organizations across the country.

To better understand the recent achievements of and contemporary challenges facing CBDOs, we conducted the sixth national census survey of the field, the first survey of its kind in almost 20 years (the previous national census survey of CBDOs was fielded in 2005). The survey focused on the period from 2019 to 2021 and assessed CBDOs’ organizational characteristics, activities, funding, leadership, and barriers.

This summary highlights the following survey data about CBDOs:

• employee and leader demographics
• housing, commercial, and community facilities development accomplishments
• community lending and financial assistance activities
• advocacy efforts and services provided
• community characteristics, such as the race and income of households served
• funding sources
• activities to advance racial equity
• differences in organizations’ financial characteristics in relation to the race of their executive directors