The Financial Forest
Field Notes
Each edition follows one finding carefully: what the data shows, what it means by archetype, and where the questions are taking the work next. Subscribers receive every issue first; the archive opens after.
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05 September 2026
Four Kinds of Root Rot
Of the 672 organizations in the study carrying a financial stress flag, 68% carry exactly one, and which one depends on how the organization is funded. Cash is the leading flag for government contractors and fee-for-service groups; the top line leads for young donor-funded organizations, where a cash check misses most of the trouble.
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SE Special Edition · Sept 2026
Four New Ways to Put the Research to Work
A free webinar with EBCFO on September 23, the Archetype Field Study now open through November 11, the seven Archetype Workbooks, and Bearings. Four ways to take three years of Form 990 filings from 1,648 nonprofits and put the findings to work inside your own organization.
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04 August 2026
What a Mission Category Does Not Tell You
Fourteen mission categories in the study have at least 40 organizations. All fourteen contain at least six of the seven financial archetypes. A shelter and a housing developer file a few digits apart on the IRS taxonomy and get benchmarked together, when their business models have almost nothing in common.
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03 July 2026
Why “Normal” Overhead Isn’t One Number
Organizations reporting almost no overhead are the most financially stressed of any band, 46% versus a 41% dataset average, while typical overhead itself runs from 9.3% to 19.4% depending on archetype. A close look at the near-zero group, the executive-pay objection, and why a single 15% benchmark can't judge every business model fairly.
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02 June 2026
The Cash Timing Problem in Government-Funded Nonprofits
Plains Cottonwood organizations (government contractors, workforce developers, social service providers) carry a 51.8% financial stress rate, eleven points above the dataset average. A close look at the government revenue hump, the cash timing problem, and what the 42 organizations that were never stressed have in common.
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01 May 2026
What the Diversification Data Actually Shows
The four revenue groups (ranked most to least diversified) landed at 13.8%, 16.8%, 15.4%, and 14.2%, in no consistent order. The most diversified archetype in the dataset carries a financial stress rate above the average. Across 1,248 organizations, there is essentially no relationship between revenue diversification and growth.
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