Stanford Social Innovation Review

Perhaps gathering data on Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts would be helpful. The Charitable Lead Trust (CLTs) shares many characteristics with the CPA, so data on the number and size of CLTs, the fee structure for CLTs, etc. may be helpful in coming up with ideas for pricing your product.

The first place I'd start is with Appendix A of this Nolo Press book: "How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation"

From what I read on other websites, there are state-to-state differences in non-profit regulation and costs. Appendix A contains a state-by-state listing of these rules.

I'm not an expert in your industry, so I'm likely to cover ground that you've already examined. Here are the results of a quick bit of research on market data:

There are resources such as the CDFI Data Project (CDP) that claim to have a large dataset on CDFIs. The CDP has datasets for the period FY2002 to FY 2004. The reports include industry trends, impact, and data breakdowns by industry sector:

• The CDP’s FY 2004 Report is based on their FY 2004 survey of 517 CDFIs.
• The CDP’s FY 2003 Report is based on their FY 2003 survey of 477 CDFIs.
• The CDP’s FY 2002 Report is based on their FY 2002 survey of 442 CDFIs.

Perhaps you could piece together information on bankruptcies for CDFIs by looking across reports for three years to find changes in organizational status.

As for nonprofits, Stanford did a survey of 1,000 nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area--the Stanford Project on the Evolution of Nonprofits. It may have some data that you would find helpful. In particular, there is data on the ages of nonprofits by size and activity. There may be a way to impute the rate of turnover of nonprofits from the data. Also, you could contact one of the authors to see if more detailed data on bankruptcies is available.

A few years ago, I worked on a pro bono consulting project for a local nonprofit gym. The gym was having trouble retaining lifeguards and thought that the problem was insufficient compensation. As part of the consulting work, the ACT team called up managers at similar but non-competitive organizations and asked about employee turnover rates and compensation plans. We found that our client was doing as well as other gyms in staff retention, and that paying more was unlikely to solve the problem. This was welcome news to the organization.

Thank you for your question. You're right that some other factor was making retention difficult. The client was a YMCA that offered swim classes in their pool. There was plenty of demand for classes, but not enough lifeguards to monitor the pool; the result was that classes were being cancelled for lack of staff. The client's hypothesis was that a pay raise would help recruit and retain lifeguards. Our ACT team investigated the experiences of other YMCA's facing similar situations. We found that other Y's paying higher wages in the same geographic area had the same problem. Further research revealed that the real problem was that the candidate pool of people certified to be lifeguards (or willing to go through lifeguard training) had shrunk substantially in recent years. My guess is that while plenty of kids swim competitively, few are willing to work for hourly wages at the YMCA when they could be training, studying, etc. Thus, our team informed the client that a few more dollars per hour was unlikely to make a big improvement in attracting applicants and retaining existing employees.

A 2005 survey of nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area found that close to half of the operating charities were less than 10 years old Doing a market analysis ensures that you use a systematic process to learn about recent changes in your organization’s external environment. It’s important for three reasons:

1. Donors, potential volunteers, and clients see the entire range of nonprofit organizations, so it’s important for you to understand that same perspective when you think about what makes your organization special. For example, if a funder suggests that your organization is just like “A”, it’s important that you be able to explain the similarities and differences between the two organizations.

2. Finding peer organizations gives you an opportunity to expand your network of supporters and advisors.

3. Market analysis gives you the information you need to support the strategic plan. For example, market analysis of the funding and earned income activities of your peer organizations will help support the assumptions you make in your own funding and earned income projections.