Statistics on Nonprofit Organizations: Fulfilling the Public Right to Evaluate Their Performance?

• Activity Number: 197
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
• Author(s): Martin H. David*+
• Companies: Urban Institute
• Keywords: business demography ; tax-exempt organizations ; coverage

Abstract

Benefits and costs characterize nonprofit organizations. They provide many services, especially education, health, and social welfare. They are exempt from many taxes and contributors reduce their own tax liabilities. Data on nonprofits are collected through censuses with cut-off samples, surveys, and administrative records. Births of nonprofits and their subsequent reporting of finances are examined. We identify births of nonprofits from rulings that sanction exempt status. We calculate the rate at which organizations ever file annual information returns for periods that include the birth year. Analysis reveals that less than 20% of new charitable organizations ever file; the rate varies widely for subpopulations. Reliability of the filing rate is examined by investigating coverage and error rates in the annual information files and the approval rulings. Robustness is examined by estimating birth and death rates from aggregated data and making corresponding adjustments to the ever-filed rate. Thresholds and categorical exemption of religious organizations reduce filing rates.