Money Matters: The Structure, Operations and Challenges of Nonprofit Funding

This paper is based on analysis of various sources of data pertaining to the financial status and capital flows of nonprofit organizations in the United States. It presents the results of the initial phase of a multi-phase project exploring the structure and function of the market for nonprofit funding. The paper argues that instead of funding organizations based upon domain (ie. the general programmatic area of nonprofits, such as education or the environment), we should provide capital to them based upon the developmental stage and actual activities (advocacy, program/service delivery, land/real estate asset development, etc.) in which they are engaged.