The Ongoing Research
The work is never finished. That's the invitation.
The Financial Forest grows with every new year of filings, every market that joins the dataset, and every conversation with a funder or a board member. The agenda below is where the work is headed now, and where a funder, researcher, or partner can help shape what comes next. If something here lives close to a question you already carry, I would like to hear from you.
Organizations analyzed across three years of IRS Form 990 data, 2022 to 2024.
Metropolitan markets in the dataset so far, each one open to go deeper.
Financial archetypes derived empirically from how organizations actually operate.
Financial dimensions behind every classification, from revenue concentration to reserves.
Metro Deep Dives
Become the local expert on your own market.
A custom ecosystem profile pairs the dataset with local interviews, co-designed with your institution to bring the financial story of your market to life with the texture a spreadsheet alone can't carry. The quantitative picture tells you where your nonprofit sector sits; the interviews tell you why, in the words of the leaders living it. Every metro already in the dataset can go deeper this way, and a new metro can join the research from scratch.
Open for a deep dive
New metros are welcome too, with priority given to regional hubs, where a deep dive carries influence across a wider surrounding area.
The quantitative base
Archetype distribution, stress concentration, and comparison against the markets already in the dataset.
Local interviews
Conversations with leaders in your market, brought to life with the storytelling that turns data into a narrative your community recognizes.
Co-design from the start
Built with your institution from the first conversation. What gets asked, and of whom, reflects what you actually want to understand about your region.
Standing with your community
Becoming the local expert is itself a signal: your institution invested in understanding the sector, not just funding it, and that's the kind of investment local leaders notice and trust.
Archetype Qualitative Studies
What it actually takes to lead each business model.
The seven archetypes describe how organizations are financially structured. This study asks what that structure demands of the people running it: the operational skills a leader needs, which funders genuinely fit the model, and the executive and board qualities that carry an organization through its particular systemic challenges while making the most of what the model does well. Each archetype is its own study, built on interviews, with a national scope rather than a single market.
What it takes to lead an organization still building its funding base: the operational discipline that turns early donor relationships into something durable, the funders suited to a young and growing organization, and the board posture that protects a founder from burning out before the model matures.
What it takes to run a generalist model without losing focus across many revenue lines at once: the operational skill of managing complexity, the funder relationships that reward breadth, and the board oversight that keeps a diversified organization coherent rather than scattered.
What it takes to lead a large-scale service operation: the operational rigor that scale demands, the funders and contract relationships that match an organization of this size, and the executive and board leadership that can manage growth without losing the mission underneath it.
What it takes to lead an organization built on in-kind and non-cash revenue: the operational skill of converting donated goods and services into mission impact, the funders who understand a non-cash model, and the board literacy needed to read financial health when so little of it shows up as cash.
What it takes to run a fee-for-service organization at boutique scale: the pricing and operational discipline that fee revenue requires, the funders who complement rather than compete with earned income, and the board governance suited to a nonprofit that behaves, in part, like a business.
What it takes to lead an organization built on government contracts: the operational skill of managing compliance and payment timing, the funder relationships that can buffer the gap between invoice and payment, and the executive leadership that keeps a contractor's mission intact under that pressure.
What it takes to steward an organization with real reserves and real assets: the operational discipline of putting capital to work rather than letting it sit idle, the funders suited to an established institution, and the board oversight that treats reserves and property as tools for the mission rather than as a safety net to leave untouched.
This is the study, open now. If you lead a nonprofit or serve on its board, the field study survey is where it starts: about fifteen minutes on how your funding actually runs day to day, the kind of texture a 990 filing never captures. Every answer feeds the profile for your archetype, and I'll only use your organization's name if you tell me to.
Bespoke Research Questions
If you're carrying a question of your own.
Metro deep dives and the archetype studies are where the research agenda is focused right now. Alongside them, the dataset keeps surfacing smaller, sharper questions, the kind that come up once you sit with the data long enough. A few examples:
Whether financial recovery, once it happens, holds over time or proves temporary.
What a reserve-rich organization gains, or loses, by leaving those reserves uninvested.
Whether revenue diversification creates stability, or stable organizations simply diversify because they can.
If you're holding a question like this, or one entirely your own, that's an invitation too.
Wherever you fit in this, let's talk.
A metro deep dive, an archetype study, or a question of your own: every conversation starts the same way, with what you're trying to understand and what you can bring to the work.
Start a conversation Already exploring the findings? Return to the research.