New England's Creative Economy: The Nonprofit Sector (December 2009)

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NEFA has collected and analyzed data on the cultural nonprofit organizations of New England for over 30 years (see NEFA's Publications page). In 2002, NEFA created CultureCount as a data warehouse for this information, and added data for individual artists and creative businesses.  

NEFA periodically expands upon the CultureCount data through surveys and commissioned analysis. The following charts demonstrate the most recent data available (from 2007, before the changes of the economic downturn of the latter part of 2008).  Additional data will be added as it becomes available.

Table of Contents 

1. Number of Cultural Nonprofits by State
2. Cultural Revenue/Expense by State
3. Number of Cultural Nonprofits by Discipline & Type
4. Cultural Revenue by Discipline
5. Cultural Expense by Discipline

1. Number of Cultural Nonprofits by State

The total number of cultural nonprofits in New England is 19,183. For all New England states but Maine, the largest group of nonprofits is Registered Non-Filer.  

Learn more about these four different nonprofit types (Registered Filers, Registered Non-Filers, Embedded, and Unincorporated). 

2. Cultural Revenue/Expense by State

Income (both contributed and earned) is tracked next to spending including salaries for a single fiscal year. All types of cultural nonprofits are included for each state. The total revenue for all cultural nonprofits in New England is $4.5 billion. The total expense is $3.6 billion.

>> CONTINUE TO CHARTS 3-5 >>

Nonprofit Organization Types: 

• Registered Filers have a budget above the $25,000, file a Form 990 and represent the most formally organized cultural non-profits.
• Registered Non-Filers have a budget below $25,000 and appear within the official list of federally registered non-profits (Internal Revenue Service Business Master File), but would not be expected to file a Form 990.
• Embedded Organizations are housed within a larger parent organization and are not registered as a separate entity. 
• Unincorporated Organizations are organizations that either do not meet the legal requirements or fall below the revenue threshold for filing as a federally registered nonprofit.

Data Sources:
Fiscal Year 2007 – Information extracted and prepared from IRS Form 990 filings by the National Center for Charitable Statistics, The National Center for Education Statistics Library Survey, and the nonprofit cultural organizations listed in CultureCount: New England’s Cultural Database.

DEFINITIONS: Using the NCCS IRS Form 990 data extract, total expenditure is the sum of program, fund-raising, management and general expenses, as well as payments to affiliates, plus the following expenses which are deducted from revenues on the Form: expenses incurred while earning rental income, selling assets, staging special events, and selling goods (i.e., cost of goods sold); total revenue is gross receipts from all sources of income with no expense deductions made.