Archetype Workbooks
The research, in a form your team can work through.
Each workbook takes one of the seven financial archetypes and turns it into something you can sit down with: the pressures built into that business model, the patterns the data reveals, and a set of prompts your leadership and board can work through together. One archetype per workbook, because your organization runs on one financial model, not seven.
Part One
Reference Sheet
The financial engine of your archetype in one place: the pressures that come with the model, the benchmark ranges that describe where organizations like yours tend to sit, and how those numbers map back to the lines on a Form 990. Built to be read, kept, and returned to.
Part Two
Reflection Guide
Structured prompts that take your team from reading about the archetype to reasoning about your own organization inside it. Space to write, draw, and work the questions together, grounded in how this specific model raises and sustains money.
Part Three
Case Study
A short advisory case set inside a fictional composite organization that runs on your archetype's model. You watch a familiar misreading unfold, trace the numbers yourself, and write the sentence you would say in that room. Reflection becomes rehearsal for your next board or funder conversation.
A workbook names your financial pattern and gives your team language for it. It does not score you or rank you against a universal standard. Where you want to see your own organization measured against its archetype peers, that is what Bearings is for.
New here? Start with the free Primer.
The Primer introduces all seven archetypes and how to read them, so you can find the one that fits your organization before choosing a workbook.
Choose your workbook
Seven archetypes, seven workbooks.
Your organization matches one archetype. If you already know which, go straight to it. If you are not sure, the research explorer walks through all seven, and Classify in Bearings will confirm your archetype from your Form 990.
How buying a workbook works
Buying a workbook creates a free Bearings account and starts your 14-day trial of the full benchmarking tool, no credit card required. When the trial ends, your account moves to Classify, Bearings' free plan, at no cost, so you keep permanent access to every workbook you've purchased. See how Bearings pricing works →
Workbooks are delivered as standard PDFs. If you need an accessible version for a screen reader, contact us and we'll get you one.
For early-stage organizations that run almost entirely on contributed revenue, where the central question is building durable support before the founding energy runs out.
For mature organizations drawing on a mix of revenue sources, where the work is keeping that balance deliberate rather than letting it drift into fragility.
For organizations that move value largely through donated goods and in-kind support, where financial health looks different from a cash-first reading of the books.
For smaller organizations earning a meaningful share of revenue through program fees, where pricing, capacity, and mission stay in constant negotiation.
For organizations built on government contracts and reimbursements, where cash timing and contract terms shape financial health as much as the size of the funding.
For large organizations running substantial earned-income operations, where scale brings both stability and a different set of financial risks to manage.
For property-rich, community-rooted organizations, where buildings and long-lived assets are central to the mission and to the financial picture.
For your organization
One workbook, the one that fits you.
An executive director or leadership team works through the single workbook that matches their archetype. It is the most direct way to put the research to work without a subscription or a scheduled session. Most leaders start here, then bring the language into a board conversation.
Choose your workbook ↑For advisors, funders, and trainers
The complete set of seven.
Consultants, fractional CFOs, funders, and board trainers work across many organizations, so they need every archetype on hand. The full set collects all seven workbooks, ready to use with whichever organization is in front of you.
Already on an annual Professional plan? All seven workbooks are included, no separate purchase needed. See what's included →
This purchase licenses you or your firm to use all seven across your own client organizations. For a whole cohort — a funder distributing to grantees, a network to its members — that runs through a Community Orientation.
Not sure of your archetype?
Start with the research.
The research explorer walks through all seven archetypes, what distinguishes them, and how organizations within each one tend to perform. It is the fastest way to recognize your own.
Explore the research →Want your own numbers?
See where you land in Bearings.
A workbook gives you the language and the questions. Bearings gives you the measurement: your archetype confirmed from your Form 990, and a board-ready view of where you sit against your peers.
Explore Bearings →