Data on the Nonprofit Sector

The National Council of Nonprofits collects and synthesizes data from various government and public sources to help nonprofits create a framework for telling our collective story as a nonprofit sector. Data is critical both to individual nonprofits, who need solid information to be persuasive ambassadors for their mission, and collectively nonprofits need data to tell the story of the nonprofit sector to policy makers and donors. Despite the importance of data to our sector, no single government agency, at either the federal or state levels, consistently tracks comprehensive data about the nonprofit sector.  Unfortunately, too often much of the data that would be helpful to have is simply not available.

Several nonprofit infrastructure groups, including the National Council of Nonprofits and state associations of nonprofits, conduct surveys and collect and synthesize research and make it available to everyone:

Read the National Council’s Special Reports
Find research on the sector published by other organizations and Universities

Data Sources on America’s Nonprofits

There are two primary sources for data on the nonprofit sector, the Internal Revenue Service, which collects data through the annual filing process when tax-exempt organizations submit their Form 990s, and the National Center for Charitable Statistics, which serves as the national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States.

• Internal Revenue Service
  • Statistical information about exempt organizations available from the IRS
  • Instructions on requesting data from the IRS Master Files
• National Center for Charitable Statistics (“NCCS”) 
  • US Nonprofit Sector Overview
  • Quick Facts About Nonprofits includes statistics on the numbers of nonprofits by type, breakdown of revenue by sources, and statistics on volunteering and charitable giving.
  • Nonprofit Almanac 2008 Annual publication on the size and scope of the nonprofit sector, it includes trends and the latest statistics on giving and volunteering.