Challenges in Assessing the Scope and Dynamics of the Nonprofit Sector

Authors

  • Tania L. Hernandez Ortiz Arizona State University
  • Mark A. Hager Arizona State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20899/jpna.9.1.91-106

Keywords:

Community Ecology, IRS Records, Administrative Data

Abstract

How many nonprofits operate in your community? How many closed during the pandemic? These questions are not as easy to answer as you might think. Production of demographic data for the nonprofit sector has been a challenge for nonprofit researchers. Scholars frequently rely on administrative records, but they sometimes make leaps without evaluating the shortcomings of their data. Our exploration documents the challenges researchers should confront when they seek to produce accurate demographics of the nonprofit sector. We compare administrative records and lists (core files, full Form 990 digitized, Business Master Files) with online footprints (news, websites, state records) to account for the variety of ways that living organizations get mislabeled as dissolved. We urge researchers to approach administrative lists critically when using them to paint pictures of community ecology.

Author Biographies

  • Tania L. Hernandez Ortiz, Arizona State University

    Tania L. Hernandez Ortiz is a Research Data Analyst at Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI). She received her PhD in Community Resources and Development from Arizona State University. She conducts research on organizational behavior of nonprofits in the U.S. and Mexico ([email protected]).

  • Mark A. Hager, Arizona State University

    Mark Hager is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, where he spent 14 years studying and teaching about management of nonprofit organizations. His first study in the field focused on closure of nonprofit organizations, so he has spent a quarter century considering how best to monitor their fates. This article provides an opportunity to lay out some of his long view and core musings on the topic ([email protected]).

Downloads

Published

2023-03-13

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2023)

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
     
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional, contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see, The Effect of Open Access).

Similar Articles

1-10 of 78

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>