Michigan Statewide Nonprofit Census

In 1957, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr told an audience in Mongomery, Alabama that "Life's most persistent question is 'What are you doing for others?'" Michigan’s nonprofit leaders are among those who have spent their lives and careers answering that clarion call.  

Nonprofit organizations play an important role in building healthy communities by providing vital services that contribute to both economic stability and mobility. Their combination of strong community relationships and deep local knowledge mean that nonprofits deeply understand—better than anyone—their communities’ needs and the best ways to meet them. Nonprofit leaders are often the voice of the people they serve.   

But in recent years, as America has been forced to face the serious racial and socioeconomic inequality that exists in the country, and ongoing onslaughts against personal freedoms—it is important that we also assess who is leading these organizations and how to best support and amplify their work.  

Further, it is important to recognize that disparities exist even within organizations that have the best intentions.  

"The last two years have shown us all how critical our existing networks of service providers, leaders, and doers are to our communities’ strength,” said Nellie Tsai, Social Innovation Officer of the Michigan Nonprofit Association. "Pinpointing where these networks exist and where there are gaps will enable the nonprofit sector and our partners to foster connections and boost resilience."

According to the  IRS’s Exempt Organizations Business Master Files  as of December 2021, Michigan boasts 53,012 nonprofit organizations. The organizations spend more than $90 billion in revenue each year and employ just over one in ten Michiganders.  

Given how vital nonprofits are to the economy in Michigan, the Michigan Nonprofit Association – in partnership with Data Driven Detroit (D3) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy – thought it was important to build the first comprehensive dataset regarding the demographics of nonprofit leadership across the state. 

We recognized that amidst a devastating global pandemic and racial reckoning—identifying, connecting, and supporting nonprofits, their leaders, and communities would be transformative. The first phase of this project focused on nonprofit leadership data from one area of the state – Detroit – via the Detroit Nonprofit Leadership Census survey, which was conducted in February 2021. Due to the success of this survey, the partners decided to expand the survey to collect statewide nonprofit data. 

This statewide survey was open to all nonprofits in Michigan and the results will be used to elevate the stories of community leaders statewide, with an emphasis on Black and Brown leaders, to better facilitate connections between community-based organizations, funders, corporations, and other resource and service providers who want to support them.  

The lack of diversity we have consistently seen in the nonprofit sector is a major concern for those organizations that provide services or advocacy primarily to communities of color and among those groups whose mission is aimed at promoting race equity. Since lack of diversity can interfere with communication and hamper efforts to address racial inequality, this mismatch can undercut trust among the communities' nonprofits serve.   

Further, the survey will also help the MNA identify the unique needs of rural Michigan and will help guide community-level engagement and understanding with these communities. We proudly support all organizations that are reflective of the communities that they serve.  

The survey also highlighted that there is one major issue that most Michigan non-profits identified as the most pressing in their community; one that crosses through rural and urban communities and among people of all ethnicities—housing. Identifying this most pressing issue may help organizations collectively influence policies that ensure housing security for all.  

The high level of engagement from Michigan’s nonprofit organizations shows that there is a desire for collaboration that benefits all Michiganders. Therefore, the results of the survey will drive convening, knowledge-sharing, and long-term network-building opportunities.  

Armed with this important data, we can work together to effect change, despite the barriers and fractured systems we inherited. 

 -Kelley Kuhn,President & CEO,  Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) 

This report presents findings from Michigan Statewide Nonprofit Leadership Census, a survey collaboratively conducted by  Data Driven Detroit  (D3),  The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy  at Grand Valley State University, and  Michigan Nonprofit Association  (MNA) through Spring 2022. Pushing forward from the research progress made by the  Detroit Nonprofit Leadership Census , this survey aims to build the first detailed dataset about the demographics of nonprofit leaders, board members, and staff, as well as their connections with the funders in Michigan. This report identifies BIPOC leaders (who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color) in the state, to provide a better understanding of the racial and ethnic composition of staff and boards at nonprofit organizations, and facilitate the additional connection between, and support for, these organizations. It also identifies equity issues facing different communities across the state, as the issues facing residents of the Upper Peninsula might differ from those in Metro Detroit.

This report presents the key findings by first revealing common trends by topic at the state level, and highlighting particular trends that stand out at the regional level. The six regions that this report focuses on are: Lakeshore/West Michigan, Metro Detroit, Mid-State/Central Michigan, Southern Central Michigan, Tip of the Mitt, and the Upper Peninsula. At the end of the report, there are more details provided for each of the regions to help guide community-level conversations and understanding.

The sections in this report are:

• Key Takeaways
• Our Process
• Key Findings: Leadership and Staff Composition
• Key Findings: Organizational Characteristics
• Interactive Tool: Network Map
• Get Engaged!

Here are the links to regional reports:

1. The distribution of responses generally matches the overall distribution of nonprofits in Michigan. In other words, the respondents are representative of the state’s nonprofits at the state level.
2. Michigan nonprofit organizations that responded to the survey tend to have only one executive director, who is more likely to be at least one of the following characteristics: White, woman, aged  45-64 years old, and who has served in the leadership role for no more than five years.
3. About 20% of the executive directors are also the founders of the responding nonprofit organizations. 
4. Reporting at least one BIPOC executive director is associated with more organizations reporting multiple executive directors, younger directors, as well as a higher percentage of BIPOC members on its board and staff. 
5. The budget range for most responding nonprofit organizations reported is concentrated in two groups: more than $50,000 but less than $250,000 or one million dollars to less than five million dollars.
6. In Michigan, Housing is recognized as the most pressing equity issue. Notably, BIPOC-led organizations are much more likely to choose Race and Ethnicity as one of their community’s most pressing equity issues.

Throughout the end of 2021, the project team engaged two statewide groups of nonprofit leaders: The Advisory Committee and The Outreach Taskforce. The Advisory Committee provided input on the survey instrument, ensuring the survey was relevant to organizations across the state. The goal was to ensure that the data collected would be reflective of the many different leadership and community demographics across the state. The Outreach Taskforce helped with crafting the messaging about the survey as it launched. Both groups were instrumental in our efforts for broad data collection across the whole state. More detailed information is available about the taskforces from the Johnson Center's report.

The project team learned several lessons through the work of the  Detroit Nonprofit Leadership Census . Foremost among these was that surveys of any kind can place a substantial time burden on nonprofit organizations, particularly one focused on information as sensitive as people’s identities. For this leadership census, the survey team provided a  toolkit  to help organizations more easily, systematically, and regularly collect this information so that they can use it for fulfilling other requests they may receive.

Another lesson that informed our process was the importance of a participatory analysis process. In Detroit, the survey team engaged participants in analyzing the results and was able to uncover insights that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. For this project, we the project team invited nonprofit leaders who completed the survey to review the data, share their insights, and have their feedback incorporated into this final report.

In the first part of the survey, the questions focus on the staff and leadership demographics of the organization, such as the total number of executive directors, their race/ethnicity, age, gender identity, length of service, whether they are the first BIPOC executive director(s), and how they were hired, as well as the race/ethnicity of their board members and staff. The second part of the survey focuses on the nature of the organization, which includes questions about the sector that the organization serves, its budget, the demographics of its primary audience, and the most pressing justice and equity issues facing the population that the organization serves.

When closed on April 1, 2022, the survey received a total of 589 responses from every region and 89% of counties in Michigan, 587 of which were valid responses. Valid responses for each question are noted in the tables and charts since not every organization provided a complete answer to every question. Respondents were also able to opt into a directory of nonprofits, which is displayed in an interactive map described in the next section. In this report, 6% of the respondents chose not to be included in the survey directory; therefore, their data is only included at the aggregate level. 

It is important to remember that the addresses provided are for the organization’s headquarters and don’t necessarily take into account organizations with multiple field offices spread across regions. 

The demographic data in this section is based on each organization's chief executive officer (or officers) survey responses. While respondents may represent a variety of titles including "Executive Director", "President", or "CEO", for the purposes of this report, all of these individuals are referred to as executive directors. Each organization could identify more than one executive director.

Comparison Groups

In this report, the survey respondents are divided into two groups: BIPOC-led organizations, and White-led organizations. Our findings focus on comparing these two groups.

BIPOC-led Organization: An organization that has at least one executive director who identified as any other race/ethnicity aside from White, as well as those who identified as Bi- or Multi-racial.

White-led Organization: An organization where all executive director(s) are only identified as White, which excludes those who are identified as Bi- or Multi-racial.

There are 58 organizations (10%) that did not report any board members, thus, they are not included in this part of the analysis. This might indicate a need for additional support in collecting and recording demographic data for board members among the responding organizations, especially in those regions with higher rates of undisclosed board member demographics, since nonprofits are legally required to have boards.

Please note: a BIPOC-led or White-led organization is determined by the racial/ethnic identity distribution of its executive director(s).

There are 75 organizations that did not provide a response to the staff question and aren’t included in the analysis. Also, there are 113 organizations that reported no staff members.

Five hundred sixty-eight organizations (97%) provided the year their organizations were established. Organizations reported a wide age range, from less than one year to 190 years. Six percent have existed for more than a century. Over half of the responding organizations (53%) have existed for no more than 30 years, and 23% have existed for less than 10 years.

Perhaps due to the rapidly changing cultural landscape in the U.S., many new organizations were founded in the past decade. Fifteen percent of these new organizations were founded in 2019 and survived the pandemic that started in 2020. Of the 130 new organizations this decade, 38% are BIPOC-led. Future surveys can start to measure the survival rate of organizations over time if we continue to build robust data collection processes for nonprofit organizations.

BIPOC-led organizations report a much higher percentage of younger organizations (41%) than White-led organizations (18%). The percentage of organizations more than a century old is remarkably similar between BIPOC-led (7%)and White-led (5%) organizations.

There appear to be some regional differences in organizational age.  Metro Detroit  tends to report younger organizations with 59% of the organizations having existed for 30 years or less. Both  Mid-Central Michigan  and  Southern Central Michigan  have a higher percentage of organizations that are reported to have existed for more than 50 years.

Five hundred twenty organizations (89%) identified their sectors. The survey asked the respondents to select only one sector out of the 28 options where their organizations perform most of their work. All sectors were represented by the survey responses. 

In Michigan, the top 5 most frequently cited sectors are: 

• Human Service (12%)
• Art Culture and Humanities (11%)
• Education (10%)
• Community and Economic Development (9%)
• Child and Family Service (7%)

Future research in this area could include a comparison of sectors served to sectors where the need is greatest according to residents and nonprofit organizations serving the community.

Overall, the majority of organizations reported an annual budget under $500,000. However, nearly a quarter of responding organizations report a budget of one million dollars to five million dollars. About 3% of the organizations reported a budget exceeding $25 million.

BIPOC-led organizations are more likely to report a lower budget than White-led organizations. Most BIPOC-led organizations report a budget of $50,000 or less, while most White-led organizations report a budget ranging from $50,000 to less than $250,000.

We asked nonprofits to select their primary populations served to get a better understanding of whether nonprofits’ programming is matched to the communities that they serve. Overall, we found that most responding nonprofits are providing services to a wide range of residents in their communities. In the future, it would be helpful to compare these organizations geographically to the demographics of their service areas, but we don’t have sufficient data to do that well at this time.

The last question of the survey asked to select the most pressing equity issues facing the population they serve. Sixteen options were listed, and respondents were also encouraged to write in other most pressing issues if they didn’t appear on the list. Additional equity issues identified by respondents covered a wide variety of topics, such as information accessibility and transparency, marketplace ethics, voting rights, military and veterans, mental health, securing the basic needs for living, racial wage equity, legal services, human trafficking, child abuse, infrastructure, unexpected pregnancies, etc. Four hundred eighty-six organizations responded to this question.

In Michigan, housing is identified as one of the most pressing equity issues among all respondents, whether by BIPOC-led organizations or White-led organizations.

BIPOC-led and White-led organizations generally agree on the most pressing equity issues facing their communities. However, looking at the top five issues for the comparison groups, BIPOC-led organizations elevated race and ethnicity as the Top Five pressing equity issues, while White-led organizations elevated healthcare as their fifth most important issue.

On average, a BIPOC-led organization selected five (4.8) equity issues facing the community it serves, and a White-led organization selected three (3.3). This leads to many cases where BIPOC-led organizations really drive the statewide rankings, especially with education, race and ethnicity, and carceral systems. The inverse is rarely true, with the largest White-led versus BIPOC-led gap in an equity issue being aging and older adults (1.2%). Overall, there is general consensus on a variety of issues such as housing, transportation, and food.

This interactive report is the first step in building a more robust dataset about nonprofit leadership in Michigan, but it is by no means the last! Here are some ways that you can help us build out this resource even more:

Want to share data for the foundation/grantee network map? Reach out to us at  AskD3@datadrivendetroit.org .

Let us know if you are interested in being kept in the loop about convenings, knowledge-sharing, and network-building opportunities as this work continues to grow!