Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-13-2010
Abstract
Nonprofits receive funding from multiple revenue sources, including private contributions and earned program revenues. In this article, we hypothesize that the composition of revenues is a result of the nature of services provided—specifically whether services are public, private, or mixed in the nature of their benefits. Using subfields from three major fields in the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE), this study divides nonprofits according to service type and estimates the impact of service character on particular revenue streams and overall revenue diversification. Generally, we find that the proportion of revenues generated by earned program revenues is lowest for the category deemed public, highest for those with mostly private benefits, and midway for those classified as mixed. Similarly, the more public a nonprofit’s services, the greater its reliance on donations. We also identify some puzzling results that suggest the need for continued investigation.
Keywords
public goods, nonprofit revenue, income portfolio, diversification, nonprofit finance
Publication Title
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Volume
40
Issue
4
First Page
662
Last Page
681
Rights
© The Author(s) 2011. This article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference. Contact publisher for permission to reuse.
Recommended Citation
Fischer, R. L., Wilsker, A., & Young, D. R. (2011). Exploring the Revenue Mix of Nonprofit Organizations: Does It Relate to Publicness? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(4), 662-681. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764010363921
Comments
This is a peer reviewed Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Sage in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, available at: 10.1177/0899764010363921