Guidestar is Wrong: Half of U.S. Nonprofits are NOT on Financial Precipice
Guidestar announced in January 2018, “Around 50 percent of the nation’s nonprofits are operating with less than one month’s cash reserves.” That headline makes it sound like a half million charities could close if people stopped giving for a month. Oliver Wyman and SeaChange Capital Partners analyzed Guidestar’s archived 990s from 2010-2014 to make this claim. Suzanne Coffman, Guidestar’s editorial director, summarized the data from this study of nonprofit financials in a simple article (admittedly designed to market a Nonprofit Quarterly webiner): “Half of U.S. Nonprofits on Financial Precipice, New Report Finds.” That’s scary news. The good news is that Guidestar’s information is both old and incorrect.
