New Web Tools from NCCS Linda Lampkin & Tom Pollak Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute ARNOVA Annual Conference Denver November 2003

National Center for Charitable Statistics -- NCCS Founded 1980; moved to Urban Institute in 1996 from Independent Sector What we do: –Nonprofit data –Classification systems –Research Work with IRS and other partners to develop and maintain high quality data on the nonprofit sector

NCCS Files 140 different data files available All tax exempt organizations -- Business Master Files from IRS Based on IRS Forms Core Files, GuideStar- NCCS Database, IRS Statistics of Income Samples Others –Unified Database of Arts Organizations; Individual Taxpayer Charitable Giving Data; List of “501(h) electors”(those that report advocacy expenses under special IRS rules)

NCCS Data Goals Produce cleaned, checked, organized datasets Make them easy to access and use Promote research and encourage use of data Provide assistance to researchers

How to Achieve? Simple way for researchers to access and acquire data Use what you want, when you want, in the format you need Serve range of research questions –“How many nonprofits are there?” –“What are the differences in sources of revenues among various types of nonprofits?”

Answer : The Web Use technology to ease access for the simpler questions that are more frequently asked Create web-based tool that will enable researchers to answer more complex questions and create their own datasets

At http//:nccs.urban.org Available to all: –Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) –Information on all databases (public charities, private foundations, other tax exempt orgs) –Current projects (research on administrative costs at efforts to improve data quality at and e-file Form 990 at

New at nccs.urban.org New tools for use of National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) –Key word search –Manual –Clusters of codes Similar tools for Nonprofit Program & Beneficiary Classification System (NPC) to analyze nonprofit activities

Links, IRS Forms and Instructions Guide to NCCS Data and KnowledgeBase Fact Sheets and Geographic Profiles of the Nonprofit Sector The DataWeb Additional Web Resources

Answers to standard questions –How many nonprofits and where? –What are total revenues, expenses, assets? –By type of nonprofit (NTEE) –By size grouping (revenues, expenses, assets) Aggregate tables, not individual records Fact Sheets

Geographic Distribution –By state, county For public charities, private foundations, other tax exempt organizations Aggregate tables, not individual records Geographic Profiles

DataWeb –Find answers to more detailed inquiries –Combine multiple data files –Download individual organizational records DataWeb creator Tom Pollak will show you how! For Those Who Need More

Choose up to 3 row or cross-tab grouping fields Recode categorical with value labels Recode continuous variables by ranges Choose from a wide variety of summary calcuations: means, medians, quartiles… Create custom calculated fields Create custom filters – “Rural orgs in New England that lost money last year” Customize headings, load easily into Excel Report Builder Tool

Complex Filters MySQL SQL database is behind the scenes: Hundreds of functions available.

Quick summary of univariate statistics Choose a single variable and specify a filter Means, medians, non-zero values Standard deviation, variance Minimum, maximum Quartiles, quintiles, and deciles Statistics Tool

Display a single record Show variable labels and contents Record Viewer Tool

Display records in an “Excel-like” grid Drill down to view individual records Customize the fields you view Apply a filter Single-click sorting by any displayed field (largest to smallest) Table Browser

Select and view individual records Shows full variable names Correct errors, improve classifications on the fly subject to NCCS review and approval All changes saved in the “Data Change Log” where they can be reversed or incorporated into subsequent versions of the files Record Editor

Download data in the format of your choice Download all records or apply a filter Select a few variables, variable groups, or all variables Formats include Excel, SAS, Stata, SPSS, dBase, and a variety of ASCII formats (e.g., for Microsoft Access) Compressed (gzip) file produced for quick download No clog: customized data dictionary & link to data Extract Data

Link multiple data sets Use in other tools Feels like Microsoft Access “Relationships” Create a panel comparing variables across years Link to special lookup files (NAICS, SIC) Compare data for same orgs from different sources Select specific variables, variable groups, or all variables Data Views

Input Tools Classification Review interface (NTEE, NPC, and National Standard) Record Editor for making changes to individual records NCCS Approval Process required before changes become effective Semi-automated posting of “batches” of new or updated records by researchers and other partners

Got Data?

Getting Started Become a registered user at or One-Minute Tours on the Data Web Guide to Using NCCS Data We wish we could provide for free, but… Pricing –Free for scholarly use, except for extracts –Extracts $ (1-10 files) –Negotiable