NEW ENGLAND’S CREATIVE ECONOMY:

THE NONPROFIT SECTOR

nefa has collected and analyzed data on the
cultural nonprofit organizations of new
england for over 30 years. 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). A web version of this handout is
available at www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts. Additional
data will be added as it becomes available.
Table of Contents
p. 2  Chart 1: Number of Cultural Nonprofits by State
p. 3  Chart 2: Cultural Revenue/Expense by State
p. 4  Chart 3: Number of Cultural Nonprofits by Discipline & Type
p. 5  Chart 4: Cultural Revenue by Discipline
p. 6  Chart 5: Cultural Expense by Discipline
p. 7  Appendix, Citation, and Contact Information

Methodology used by Greg Wassall for this analysis was developed with Doug DeNatale in New England’s Creative Economy: The december 2009
State of the Public Cultural Sector – 2005 Update (available on NEFA’s website; see the Appendix on page 7 for a direct link).
 Chart 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
2,311 nonprofits is that which is not
required to report financial data to
the IRS (Registered Non-Filer).

To learn more about the four different

nonprofit types (Registered Filers,
3,590 Registered Non-Filers, Embedded,
and Unincorporated), see the
Appendix on page 7.

1,062
569

932
1,820

450 1,439
430 387
1,328 706 383 680
570 127
335
342 260
335 414 185
193 269

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 2 december 2009

 Chart 2: Cultural Revenue/Expense by State
(in dollars)

1,233,677,898

»» Income (both contributed

and earned) is tracked next to
spending including salaries for
393,832,660 a single fiscal year. All types of
cultural nonprofits are included
for each state.
»» The total revenue for all cultural
1,738,507,097
nonprofits in New England is
$4.5 billion.
1,455,177,717 »» The total expense is $3.6 billion.

414,188,456
152,090,789

495,061,503 45,840,491
44,293,793 126,932,982
327,299,334 26,015,192 27,672,069
143,943,414 270,722,882
110,093,311 239,655,842
164,381,003 107,406,352
144,976,754 145,551,020
113,572,232 96,259,956 90,700,328

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 3 december 2009

 Chart 3: Number of Cultural Nonprofits by Discipline & Type

»» The total number of cultural nonprofits in New

England is 19,183.
»» More than half of these are historical societies,
libraries, or performing organizations that are part of
the Registered Non-filer group. 1181

To learn more about the four different nonprofit types

(Registered Filers, Registered Non-Filers, Embedded,
and Unincorporated), see the Appendix on page 7.
2,241

744

645
1,899

385
586
709
510 366
1,089
396 302
254 903 195
216 347 446
174 522 378
533 441
16 241 140
127 277 93
93 66 71 48 146 124 19 343 158
241 313 282 233
143 146 114 179
108

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 4 december 2009

 Chart 4: Cultural Revenue by Discipline
(in dollars)

565,871,417
»» The total revenue for all cultural nonprofits in New
England is approximately $4.5 billion.
»» The Registered Filers of all of these disciplines
account for 91% of this revenue.

150,837,001 429,768,344
599,872,522
281,794,551
520,191,672
400,163,061

275,126,520
117,883,663
229,621,613

142,431,113 62,147,673
84,094,419 63,581,362
66,873,175 70,305,380
91,645,787
29,345,363 71,939,754 60,293,150
28,899,141 26,564,026 49,790,910 39,865,905

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 5 december 2009

 Chart 5: Cultural Expense by Discipline
(in dollars)

»» The total expense for

all cultural nonprofits
in New England is
approximately $3.6
531,700,028
billion.
»» Museums lead all
disciplines in both
512,813,961 484,671,994
expenses and revenue,
though they aren’t
the highest in number 394,147,564
(see Chart 3).
»» Salaries make up
around 20% of all
expenses on the 385,755,518

whole.

177,618,308
125,782,027
141,443,905 124,596,106
14,412,294
12,983,350 100,171,620 120,942,778 103,570,172
97,346,788 79,279,453
3,980,579 71,084,277
45,627,539
39,078,374
21,661,270 18,683,924 25,604,044 15,989,380

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 6 december 2009

 Appendix

non-profit organization types

»» Registered Filers have a budget above $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 990: 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.

resources
NEFA research publications may be found at www.nefa.org/who_we_are/publications#creative_economy.

Citing NEFA’s Work

NEFA provides this information as a free service to the public; please credit the New England Foundation for the Arts when citing this research.

Contact
If you have questions about this research, email research@nefa.org.
Post your comments on this study on the NEFA Network (www.nefa.org/research_arts_culture_sector/nefa_nonprofit_charts)

www.nefa.org/nefanonprofitcharts 7 december 2009