Survey

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NFF’s 2022 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey collected data, stories, and advice from over 1,100 nonprofit leaders across the nation about the impact of the past two years, from the pandemic to events that activated calls for racial justice.  

• 88% of nonprofits changed the way they work, 51% think changes are permanent

When times got tough, government, philanthropy, and community members turned to nonprofits; 71% of survey respondents saw an increase in service demand during the pandemic. Nonprofits organized food drives and distributed other necessities for people in their communities who were sick or at risk, or who had lost jobs due to the pandemic. Many government, foundation, and individual supporters recognized that nonprofits were on the frontlines for our physical and mental well-being, and quickly made flexible or unrestricted funding available to support these essential community services.

Imagine our wonder to be able to relay in this moment that nonprofit survey respondents report being in a stronger financial position than they were pre-pandemic. At the same time, the majority of our survey respondents reported that they continue to face financial challenges: achieving long-term financial sustainability, covering the full costs of their operations, and raising unrestricted funding foremost among them. While we should celebrate nonprofits’ relative strength in the present, we must also take action to ensure these gains are preserved well into the future.

COVID-19 upended the traditional funding practices in the sector, and the changes were both welcome and needed. We hope the sector will learn from and build on this moment, rather than reverting to the practices of a broken funding/financing system to support nonprofits. But we wonder: Can nonprofits expect this level of flexible or unrestricted funding to continue?

Events of the last two years also accelerated a racial reckoning in this country. The murders of innocent Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked widespread calls for racial justice. The anti-Asian attacks in places like Atlanta and San Francisco ignited the Stop Asian Hate movement. As with the COVID-19 response, nonprofits were on the frontlines of these movements for racial justice and equity. We asked survey respondents: Is your organization working toward advancing racial equity? We also asked questions to understand: Is the sector more broadly moving forward on racial equity? Did these racial reckonings translate to more equitable funding for BIPOC-led organizations?

In a sector with such a large power imbalance between who controls the money and who uses it, there are always financial challenges and inequities. We gathered data to compare the experiences of BIPOC-led (Black, Indigenous, and person of color) organizations with those of white-led organizations. Despite the many commitments to racial equity and to diversity, equity and inclusion, long-standing inequities persist in the nonprofit funding system that favor white-led organizations. For example, BIPOC-led organizations had less access to unrestricted funding and corporate donations than their white-led counterparts.

We also can’t help but wonder about “survivorship bias”: What about the organizations that closed their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic? Who were they? Were financially strong nonprofits more likely to take our survey? While these questions remain, we are pleased to be able to share the survey responses of 1000+ strong, dedicated, and resilient nonprofits across the country.

Key Findings 

• The Impact of COVID-19 and Racially Motivated Violence
• A Focus on Racial Equity
• What Funders Can Do

NFF also took a deeper look at the experiences of the Los Angeles community to understand our work in this dynamic community – especially for BIPOC-led (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and serving nonprofits.

Watch a series of three videos with more highlights about what we learned from the 2022 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey.

Webinar Discussion Series

In this four-part webinar series, NFF staff take a deeper dive into the national results of the Survey. 

• Part 1: High-level findings (click here for slides), including a current financial picture of US nonprofits and an overview of how nonprofit leaders responded to COVID-19 and promoted racial equity (recorded June 9, 2022) 
• Part 2: Experiences of BIPOC-led organizations (click here for slides), taking a closer look at racial equity in the sector, including the experiences of BIPOC-led versus white-led organizations (recorded June 22, 2022)
• Part 3: What funders can do (click here for slides), including how nonprofit leaders can advocate for what they need from funders (recorded September 22, 2022)
• Part 4: What funders should know (click here for slides), with insights from Shaady Salehi, Executive Director of Trust-Based Philanthropy Project (recorded September 28, 2022)