Birth and Mortality Rates of Arts and 

Cultural Organizations (ACOs), 1990-

2010 

A report prepared for the National Endowment for the Arts 

A project of the Initiative for Sustainable Arts in America at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society, 

Harvard University

Prepared by The Foundation Center and the National Center for Charitable Statistics, The 

Urban Institute 

This project was supported in part or in whole by an award from the Research: Art Works

program at the National Endowment for the Arts: Grant# 12-3800-7002. 

The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views 

of the Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA does not 

guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this report and is not 

responsible for any consequence of its use. 
© 2013 

ii
iii

Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 1

Introduction................................................................................................................................ 2

Overview of Methods ......................................................................................................................... 4

Key Findings .......................................................................................................................................5

Detailed Findings: Creation, Persistence, and Mortality of Arts and Cultural Organizations, 

1990-2010 ................................................................................................................................. 7

Change in the Number of ACOs by Metro Region ................................................................................ 7

Births of ACOs by Metro Region ........................................................................................................... 9

Persistence and Mortality of ACOs by Metro Region ........................................................................... 9

Newly‐reporting ACOs by Metro Region ............................................................................................ 12

Factors Affecting Survival or Failure of Arts and Cultural Organizations................................. 15

Revenues (H1).....................................................................................................................................15

Assets (H2) ..........................................................................................................................................16

Contributions as Share of Total Revenue (H3).................................................................................... 17

Organization Type (H4) ....................................................................................................................... 18

Location (Urban or Suburban) (H5)..................................................................................................... 20

Concentration or Density of ACOs within Region (H6) ....................................................................... 21

Conclusion............................................................................................................................... 22

Appendix: Detailed information by MSA/Region ..................................................................... 24

List of Tables, Graphics and Figures ....................................................................................... 30
1

Executive Summary 

Nonprofit organizations devoted to arts and culture can be found in nearly every community in 

the United States. The most well-known of these organizations are long-lived and financially 

stable, but turnover has been substantial within the nonprofit sector overall. While some 

institutions are perceived as permanent fixtures in each landscape, there is considerable churn, 

as well. 

This study focuses on key factors associated with the mortality and long-term survival of 

nonprofit arts and culture organizations (ACOs). The dominant factors associated with long-term 

survival relate to revenue and assets. This study represents the initial piece of a larger research 

effort, The Initiative for Sustainable Arts in America.

Drawing on National Center for Charitable Statistics data sets, based on IRS Form 990 data, 

this study includes comparative, statistical portraits of 20-year trends (1990-2010) in the 

numbers and types of nonprofit arts organizations present in 6 U.S. metropolitan areas: Atlanta, 

Boston, Chicago, Detroit/Ann Arbor, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Across these regions, several patterns emerge from the data: while the majority of ACOs active 

in 1990 were also active in 2010, each area also saw a substantial number of new ACOs 

originating within this time period. In fact, in 2010, for every ACO that existed in 1990 and 

survived until 2010, approximately 2.6 new organizations had been created since that time, on 

average across the six regions. The study also uncovers interesting differences within the group 

of ACOs located in these six regions. For example, Atlanta and Boston both saw a much higher 

percentage of organizations moving into their regions compared to the other four regions, 

especially Chicago and Detroit. 

Overall, the organizational survival rates are roughly comparable across the regions for all three 

time intervals (1990 to 2000, 2000 to 2010, and 1990 to 2010). Factors related to revenue and 

assets emerge as important correlates of organizational survival; both total revenue and net 

assets are strongly associated with continued operations. 

The right capitalization structure is also important for organizational survival: having some – but 

not too much – revenue from contributions is associated with a higher probability of continuing 

operations during the years studied. In this research, organizations that raised 30 percent to 40 

percent of their total revenue through contributions were most likely to survive, whereas those 

that raised 90 percent or more of their revenue from contributions were most likely to close. 

This analysis also considers the impact of non-financial factors on organizational survival, 

namely artistic discipline, geographic location, and total density of ACOs in any given 

ecosystem. Humanities organizations tend to have higher survival rates, while literary arts, 

dance, and multidisciplinary organizations tend to have lower survival rates in some years, but 

not all. 

Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that ACOs located in the suburbs might be more likely to 

survive than organizations located in urban areas. All told, this investigation uncovered critical 

new insights related to the survival of arts and culture organizations in major metropolitan areas. 

These results lay the foundation for a more comprehensive assessment in the future about how 

more fine-grained factors enable nonprofit ACOs not only to survive, but also to thrive in today’s 

dynamic operating environment. 
2

Introduction 

The following analysis of the birth and mortality rates of nonprofit arts and culture organizations 

(ACOs) represents an initial part of a larger effort - the Initiative for Sustainable Arts in America 

(Sustain Arts). Led by the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at Harvard University, Sustain Arts is 

a four-year effort to enhance the nation’s cultural infrastructure and empirically analyze the 

health of six urban cultural ecosystems across the county. 

Sustain Arts views “sustainability” as a community’s capacity to support the resiliency and longterm vitality of their unique cultural assets, contributing to a more vibrant cultural infrastructure 

for the nation as a whole. This work does not advocate for the arbitrary growth or contraction of 

any one organization, business model or discipline, but rather aims to understand how a more 

equitable distribution of resources and opportunities can strengthen the cultural ecosystem of 

each region on a collective scale. Sustinere is Latin for sustainability and means, “to hold up”. 

By mapping the range of organizations active within each region and the relationships between 

capitalization of the arts, urban demography, and historical patterns of audience participation, 

Sustain Arts will “hold up” or highlight organizational structures and practices that best support 

the arts. In ecological terms, the carrying capacity of an ecosystem equates to the size of the 

population that can be supported indefinitely given the available resources and services of that 

unique system. Living within the limits of an organizational ecosystem (culturally focused or 

otherwise) is greatly enhanced by a comprehensive understanding of the resources currently 

available, size and lifecycle patterns of the population and the resources each organization 

currently consumes. 

Within this context, “sustainability” does not mean simply maintenance of the status quo, nor is it 

an effort to thwart natural cycles. Rather, Sustain Arts encourages a broader conception of the 

term that supports the creation of more adaptive cultural ecosystems that support a diversity of 

cultural expressions that are responsive to the dynamic nature of today’s operating 

environment, sensitive to organizations’ lifecycle phase, and deemed relevant by the 

constituencies they serve. 

Therefore, for our purposes, “sustainable” cultural ecosystems share many if not all of the 

following characteristics: 

• Promotes “bio” diversity and contains a broad mix of organizational models: Large, 

small, formal, informal, for profit, and / or nonprofit that inspire engagement and longterm stewardship; 

• Acknowledges and accommodates each phase in an organization’s life cycle through 

flexible support structures; 

• Provides equitable access to a dynamic range of cultural experiences for a 

demographically evolving population; 

• Facilitates opportunities for stakeholders to work together to identify shared goals, 

mobilize resources and develop tactics to advance the collective health of arts and 

culture in any given region; 

• Demonstrates a commitment to data driven learning and decision making by making use 

of the rich range of information available about organizations, funding, participation, and 

demographics; 
3

                                                           

• Celebrates the creative potential of all communities, communicates the range of values 

produced by arts and cultural experiences in compelling ways and to diverse audiences; 

and attracts ongoing engagement with and support for arts and culture; 

• Encourages adaptive leaders able to leverage changes in the operating environment 

and bridge organizational and sector-wide goals. 

Given our objectives, one of the key gaps in data integral to understanding the efficacy of 

existing business models, arts policies and funding practices is the lack of comprehensive 

statistics and related causation analyses regarding the creation and mortality rates of nonprofit 

ACOs. To fill this gap, the present study uncovers statistically significant factors that can serve 

to either help or hinder the creation of more resilient ACOs over time. Our analyses pose four 

inter-related research questions across six geographic areas from 1990 to 2010: 

1. How has the cultural ecology of six key metropolitan areas in the US changed over the 

past 20 years, as measured by creation and mortality rates for arts and cultural 

institutions? 

2. What do creation and mortality rates begin to tell us about the resource needs of 

nonprofit arts and culture organizations? 

3. What might these creation and mortality rates say about the long-term sustainability of 

arts and culture in the US? 

4. What further research questions does the data suggest we consider as part of the 

broader research efforts associated with Sustain Arts? What other data is needed to 

evaluate the sustainability of cultural ecosystems more comprehensively? 

Within the context of this analysis, “birth” refers to the number of newly created ACOs in any 

given period as determined by their IRS “rule date”. In the course of conducting this research a 

sub-category of organizations were identified and defined not in that they were newly formed but 

that their finances increased to at least $50,000, the size required by the IRS to begin filing a 

990. “Death” and/or “mortality” signifies an ACO that has terminated (or appears to have 

terminated) as demonstrated by consistently not filing IRS Form 990.1

 Organizational 

“persistence” or “survival” simply means the organization continues to exist across the years 

examined, as demonstrated through regularly filing IRS Form 990.2

1

 The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) notes that prior to this research the birth and mortality rates of arts 

organizations had not yet been compiled or analyzed, as it is difficult to measure. Organizations registered with the IRS are 

supposed to notify the IRS when they formally dissolve. However, many organizations fade away gradually and do not formally 

notify the IRS. Some organizations may be inactive for a number of years but eventually secure new funding or volunteers and 

become active again. The IRS periodically mails postcards to organizations that haven't filed a Form 990 for several years. 

However, many of these postcards cannot be delivered due to outdated addresses. 

2

 The IRS Business Master Files include a field (RULEDATE) indicating when registered nonprofit organizations obtained formal 

recognition of their tax-exempt status by the IRS. NCCS typically uses this as a proxy for when an organization was created. The 

authors of this research understand the limitations of this designation and the reality that some organizations begin informally 

without any formal legal structure. Thus, depending on one's definition of "founding," the ruling date may or may not be adequate as 

a proxy 
4

Overview of Methods 

This report examines data about ACOs drawn from IRS Forms 990 filed in 1990, 2000, and 

2010. ACOs are identified as nonprofits that are coded with an NTEE code “A” as Arts, Culture 

or Humanities public charities in 1990, 2000, and 2010. The authors recognize that this narrow 

sample group does not include the full range of nonprofit organizations involved with arts and 

culture, for example those coded in education. Furthermore, this group deliberately excludes the 

wider range of organizational models found within the cultural ecosystem, for example forprofits, unincorporated and/or traditional entities, in favor of gaining greater control of the 

independent variables examined within this discrete piece of research. 

Six geographic areas that represent diverse demographics, challenges, opportunities and 

economies; as well as differences in the general size and scale of cultural organizations were 

identified by the Project Directors at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society including: 

1. Atlanta metropolitan area 

2. Boston metropolitan area 

3. Miami metropolitan area 

4. Chicago metropolitan area 

5. San Francisco, Bay Area 

6. Detroit (Southeastern Michigan)3

The core files used in this analysis represent the most recent return for each organization that 

filed within the last three calendar years and that covered one of the last three fiscal years. As 

such, they include forms filed for previous years by late filers and organizations with filing 

extensions. Thus, they do not represent distinct fiscal years, but instead show the best general 

idea of the nonprofit financial world in that given year. There may be discrepancies in the data 

(e.g. errors, omissions, or inconsistencies) due to filing errors, coding errors or other reasons. 

Please review the NCCS Data Guide for a discussion of the limitations of the data: 

(http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/kbfiles/468/NCCS-data-guide-2006c.pdf). Data sources are files 

maintained by the National Center for Charitable Statistics based on IRS Forms 990 

supplemented with the USDA’s 2013 “Rural-Urban Continuum Codes” (popularly known as 

“Beale Codes”). 

The taxonomy of organizational “types” or in this case artistic disciplines used in this analysis is 

drawn directly from the schema adopted by the Sustain Arts initiative, which includes: music, 

theater, dance, visual arts, literary arts, film & electronic media, multidisciplinary, arts education 

and humanities. The larger research effort associated with Sustain Arts will aggregate 

approximately sixteen additional datasets in an effort to generate a comprehensive portrait of 

the cultural ecosystems found in these six regions. These data add complementary detail to our 

assessment of cultural organizations (for and nonprofit, unincorporated / alternative and/or 

fiscally sponsored), capitalization (via public and private sources as well as earned revenue), 

demography and cultural engagement trends. In preparation for processing these data, the 

Sustain Arts research team, which includes staff from the Hauser Institute, Foundation Center 

and Fractured Atlas, constructed a project taxonomy that synthesizes the range of categories 

and coding schemas employed by each data set and complement those most consistently used 

in practice by arts councils, service organizations, fellow researchers and funders. 

                                                           

3

 The geographic area of interest for the San Francisco, Bay Area was defined in consultation with local partners as including 

Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Monterey, and Santa Cruz 

counties. The geographic area of interest for Detroit was defined in consultation with local partners as including Macomb, Oakland, 

Wayne and Washtenaw counties. The other four areas are defined according to the US Census Bureau’s listing of “Primary 

Metropolitan Statistical Areas” (PMSA), accessible at http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/99mfips.txt
5

To test a set of hypotheses about the factors influencing ACO persistence and mortality, we 

used simple cross tabulations. As in the charts displayed throughout the report, we considered 

three dependent variables: whether an organization that was active in 1990 was still active in 

2000, whether an organization from 2000 was active in 2010, and whether an organization from 

1990 was active in 2010. The independent variables were coded to divide the sample of 

organizations into groups of roughly equal size, to increase the power of the hypothesis tests. 

We used the overall model chi-square to test whether an observed relationship is statistically 

significant. When the independent variable is directional (the constructed categories are ordered 

in some way), we use Kruskal’s gamma to measure the strength of the observed association. 

Cell residuals – adjusted and standardized – are also used to determine whether individual 

groups of organizations have survival rates that are statistically distinct from the overall sample. 

  

Key Findings 

Key factors for sustainability relate to revenue and assets. Both total revenue and net assets are 

strongly associated with continued operations. Having some – but not too much – dependence 

on revenue from contributions is also associated with a higher probability of continuing 

operations during the years studied. 

Less clear are the impacts of location (urban or suburban) and the total number or concentration 

of arts organizations in a region. This is a subject for further research, as these initial analyses 

suggest that suburban arts organizations had a slightly higher rate of survival than did urban 

groups in all three periods. A related finding was that counties with 151 to 300 arts organizations 

saw a greater share of those groups remain in operation than did areas with more than 300 arts 

groups. Urban and suburban areas were examined in unison. Future research will analyze what 

the optimal population size is in each type of geography. The correlation between discipline type 

and greater survival rates is statistically significant for humanities groups and with lower survival 

rates – in some years though not all – for literary arts, dance, and multidisciplinary 

organizations.

In all six regions, approximately 60 percent of the organizations that existed in 1990 continued 

to operate in 2010, meaning they filed an IRS Form 990 with revenue of $50,000 or above in 

1990 and again in 2010. The other 40 percent disappeared from the record, either closing, 

merging, or having revenues fall below the filing threshold of $50,000. This finding begins to 

suggest a potential ‘carrying capacity’ for the nonprofit cultural ecosystem, though additional 

research is needed to understand the weight and impact of other environmental forces such as 

policy, funding and engagement trends. 

In addition to sharing approximately the same percentage of surviving organizations, all six 

areas saw a substantial increase in the number of ACOs in the period 1990 through 2010, with 

the greatest net increase experienced between 1990 and 2000. The rate of growth in new 

ACOs slowed in the 2000-2010 period. 

In all six regions studied, 49 percent or more of ACOs filing 990s circa 2010 were newly formed 

since 1990. Boston and Detroit also saw relatively high rates of growth resulting from 

organizations formed before 1990 but new to the financial record in 2010 (suggesting revenue 

increases compared with earlier years). 

When testing hypotheses about what factors are linked with survival, three factors emerge as 

clearly and positively associated with organizational persistence. 
6

1. Gross revenue. Using gross revenue from all sources as a measure of organizational 

size, there is a strong association between size and survival across all three time 

periods (1990 to 2000, 2000 to 2010, and 1990 to 2010). Descriptive statistics show that 

organizations with total revenue less than $500,000 were more likely to fail in all three 

time periods. 

2. Net assets. Looking at net assets as a measure of organizational size instead of total 

revenue, organizations with greater net assets are also more likely to survive, across all 

three time periods. This relationship between net assets and survival is somewhat 

stronger than the relationship between gross revenues and organizational longevity. 

Building assets while meeting operating expenses is one possible strategy to increase 

the probability of survival. 

3. Having a moderate percentage of contributions revenue as share of total revenue.

Organizations with a moderate dependence on contributions (between 30% and 40% of 

gross revenues) are more likely to survive than organizations in general, especially 

between 2000 and 2010. Conversely, organizations that are heavily dependent on 

contributions (where contributions are over 90% of revenues) are less likely to survive. 

o Note that organizations that have less than 30 percent of their total revenue from 

contributions are not more or less likely to survive compared to other ACOs. The 

largest revenue source other than contributions is program service revenue, 

although some organizations enjoy investment related income and other types of 

revenue, such as rents or sale of property. Having high program service revenue 

is not a detriment to survival, nor is it associated with increased survival rates. 

4. Urban location is not necessarily an advantage over suburban location. This 

particular dataset demonstrates that between 1990 and 2010, the mortality rate for urban 

ACOs was slightly higher than the mortality rate for suburban organizations. This 

analysis is, with the exception of Detroit and the San Francisco, Bay Area, limited to 

Combined Statistical Metropolitan Areas so does not include rural areas. This 

contradicts the hypothesis that urban ACOs are more likely to endure. 

In testing our hypotheses, two other characteristics are associated with organizational 

persistence at least some of the time but are not clearly important in all periods or for all 

organizations. It is difficult to interpret these results without conducting further research on the 

causal links and environmental factors that might also be at play. Specifically: 

1. Type or artistic discipline matters sometimes. Literary arts and dance organizations 

were less likely than ACOs overall to persist (i.e., continue to file an IRS Form 990) in 

the 1990-2010 period. Meanwhile humanities organizations (a comparatively broad 

category) and music organizations had a greater-than-average survival rate from 1990-

2010. 

o The results for the separate decades show that between 1990 and 2000, dance 

and multidisciplinary organizations were less likely to survive than ACOs in 

general; while humanities focused organizations had a greater-than-average 

survival rate. 

o From 2000-2010, the only difference with statistical significance is that literary 

arts were more likely to fail than were ACOs generally. 
7

2. ACO concentration matters sometimes. In 2000-2010, an era marked by two 

recessions and two “slow recoveries,” ACOs located in counties with a medium to large 

number of arts organizations (between 151 and 300) were less likely to fail than arts 

organizations overall. By contrast, ACOs in counties with a very large number of arts 

organizations (over 300) were more likely to fail in the 2000-2010 era. An identical 

analysis of 1990-2000 produced statistically insignificant results. 

o Note the relationship is not linear (increasing numbers of arts organizations 

always associated with increasing rate of failure), nor is it consistent over time. 

For example, for 1990-2010, the only significant differences were for counties 

that have very low concentration (less than 50 ACOs) and very high 

concentration (more than 300 orgs). Counties in-between did not have survival 

rates that were very different from the overall average over this time period. 

Comparing the periods 1990-2000 and 2000-2010, the overall “death rates” for 

ACOs increased, but the increases were larger in very low-concentration 

counties (14.6% in 1990-2000, 27.9% in 2000-2010) than they were in highconcentration counties (23.7% to 29.5%). This suggests that the overall 

landscape might change more in areas where the prevalence of ACOs is low, but 

a full account of these changes must be left for future research. 

Detailed Findings: Creation, Persistence, and Mortality of Arts and Cultural 

Organizations, 1990-2010 

Change in the Number of ACOs by Metro Region

This study focuses on changes in the number of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations 

(ACOs) in the following six metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2010. In descending order by 

total number of reporting ACOs in 1990, the areas studied were: San Francisco Bay Area (594 

nonprofit ACOs in 1990), Boston (364), Chicago (315), Detroit (148), Atlanta (122), and Miami 

(70). 

Across all six metropolitan areas, the number of "reporting" nonprofit ACOs grew significantly 

between 1990 and 20104

. Except for Detroit, the number of ACOs more than doubled in each of 

the other five cities. Miami experienced the highest rate of net growth over that 20-year period 

(163 percent), followed by Atlanta (144%), Chicago (141%), Boston (140%), and the San 

Francisco Bay Area (117%). The number of ACOs in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area grew by 89 

percent from 1990 to 2010. 

In all six cities, the number of nonprofit ACOs increased most rapidly during the 1990s and 

slowed during the 2000s, in keeping with overall economic trends in the country during those 

decades. Except for Detroit, rates of increase during the 1990s varied between 63 percent 

(Miami) and 77 percent (Chicago). Detroit experienced a 42 percent increase during that 

decade. 

In the decade of the 2000s, Miami and Atlanta experienced the greatest increases in the 

number of nonprofit ACOS (61 and 49 percent respectively). The other four cities (including 

Detroit) saw growth rates of between 31 and 37 percent. 

                                                           

4 Reporting nonprofit ACOs are those that filed an IRS Form 990 in the year specified. Organizations with revenues

below $50,000 are not required to report.  
Figure 1: Total number of nonprofit arts and culture institutions (ACOs) by metro area, 1990, 

2000, and 2010 

Figure 2: Rate of change in the number of ACOs by metro area, 1990-2000 and 2000-2010

122 

364 

594 

315 

148 

70 

200 

640 

984 

556 

210 

114 

298 

873 

1,289 

759 

279 

184 

Atlanta Boston San Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

1990

2000

2010

64%

76%

66%

77%

42%

63%

49%

36%

31%

37% 33%

61%

Atlanta Boston San Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

1990-2000 2000-2010

The net increases in the total number of nonprofit ACOs in each city between 1990 and 2010 

were the result of the following factors, each of which we will consider in turn: 

1. The formation of new ACOs 

2. ACOs persisting over time (from 1990 to 2010) 

3. ACOs moving into the metropolitan area 

4. Older ACOs whose revenues increased sufficiently to require filing with the IRS 

5. ACOs that closed, merged, or whose revenues decreased below the IRS filing threshold 

8
Births of ACOs by Metro Region

As suggested by the findings above, a record number of nonprofit ACOs have been established 

since 1990. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone (home to 1,289 ACOs in 2010), 721 new 

ACOs were created between 1990 and 2010. In Chicago, 434 new ACOs were created, and 

Boston followed with 426. In all six metropolitan areas, nonprofit ACOs born after 1990 

accounted for around half of all ACOs active in 2010, led by Miami (60 percent), Atlanta (59 

percent), and Chicago (57 percent), and followed by San Francisco (56%), Boston (49%), and 

Detroit (49%). 

By metro region, the rate of formation ranges from 49 percent of organizations reporting in 2010 

in Detroit to 60 percent of organizations reporting in 2010 in Miami. 

Figure 3: Number of ACOs by region, as of 2010 

9

175

426

721

434

137 110

123

447

568

325

142

74

Atlanta Boston San

Francisco,

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

All other ACOs

New ACOs

Persistence and Mortality of ACOs by Metro Region

Across regions, there is very little difference in the percentage of organizations that persisted 

over time, either when looking at 1990 to 2000 or from 1990 to 2010. Approximately 75% of the 

ACOs in existence in 1990 persisted through 2000, while an average of 62% of ACOs remained 

active from 1990 through 2010. 

Atlanta and Detroit showed the lowest rates of ACO persistence during the 1990s, at 70 percent 

and 71 percent respectively, compared with 77 percent to 79 percent in the other four metro 

areas. Similarly, those two areas showed the lowest rates of persistence from 1990 to 2010, at 

59 percent each. Chicago also dipped a bit in the second decade so that the rate of persistence 

there, at 61 percent, is below the 64 percent to 66 percent experienced in the other three 

geographic areas. 

 
Figure 4: Percentage of ACOs that filed IRS Form 990 in 2000 and in 2010 

When organizations did NOT continue reporting in later years, there were four primary reasons 

why. In order of occurrence, they are that the organization: 

70%

77% 78% 77%

71%

79%

59%

65% 66%

61% 59%

64%

Atlanta Boston San Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit + Ann 

Arbor

Miami

Still reporting in 2000 Still reporting 2010

1. Merged with another organization or closed completely so that the EIN was no longer 

active; 

2. The organization’s revenue decreased enough to fall below the threshold required for 

reporting ($50,000). They may have remained active but did not report; 

3. They may have relocated outside of the geographic region examined or altered their 

mission so much so that they were no longer classified as an ACO and thus eligible for 

this analysis, or; 

4. Lost private charity status.5

 

By far the most dominant reason for not continuing to file an IRS Form 990 in 2010 was closure 

or merger (the records do not permit us to determine which). 

 

10

                                                           

5

 Some public charities are required to raise one-third of their revenue from public sources, either donors or government grants. 

Organizations that fail to do that lose their status as public charities and are treated as private foundations, even though they do not 

make grants. This is a relatively rare occurrence. 
Figure 5: Of the ACOs that filed an IRS Form 990 in 1990, filing status in 2010, by percentage 

The geographic region with the highest percentage of 1990 organizations still filing an IRS Form 

990 in 2010 was the San Francisco Bay Area, where two-thirds (66%) of organizations persisted 

over the two decades. At 34 percent, Atlanta experienced the highest share of organizations 

that closed (or possibly merged), while the lowest rates were experienced in Detroit at 25 

percent. However, ACOs located in and around Detroit were more likely than in other regions to 

see revenue in 2010 drop below $50,000, with 11 percent in that category, compared with as 

low as 3 percent in Chicago. 

59% 65% 66% 61% 59% 64%

34% 26% 27% 31%

25%

27%

5% 5% 6% 3%

11%

6%

2% 3% 1% 4% 3% 3%

0.3% 0.7%

Atlanta Boston San Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

Lost Private Charity 

status

Moved out of region 

or changed mission 

(out of scope)

Revenue below 

$50,000

Closed or merged 

(EIN not in record)

Still reporting

In each region, between 1 and 4 percent of ACOs moved beyond the scope of this analysis, 

either leaving the geographic regions examined or changing the organization’s mission 

sufficiently that it no longer was classified by an NTEE code A. Just one percent or less lost 

private charity status in each region. 

When looking at 10-year intervals in the twenty-year span, we see remarkable consistency 

across the regions. In Figure 6, we identified the ACOs that filed an IRS Form 990 in 1990 and 

tracked the filing status of those same organizations as of 2000. The second column for each 

city is based on the ACOs that filed an IRS 990 in 2000 and tracks their filing status in 2010. 

 

11
Figure 6: Persistence of ACOs in 1990-2000 by filing status compared with 2000-2010 

 

Note: These are distinct periods and are not intended to have the same values as shown in Figures 3 and 4, which 

cover the entire span from 1990 through 2010. 

70% 66%

77%

70%

71%

67%

77%

64%

71% 67%

79%

68%

21% 26%

17%

18%

15%

21%

18%

26%

22%

17%

10%

22%

9% 9% 6% 11% 7% 9% 4% 10% 7%

17% 11% 11%

Other reason 

for not filing

Closed

Persisted

Atlanta Boston San Franciso, Chicago Detroit + Miami 

Bay Area Ann Arbor

A higher percentage of organizations persisted from 1990 to 2000 than did from 2000 to 2010. 

Closure rates increased in every city, with the largest jump in Miami (from 10 percent in the 

1990-2000 period to 22 percent in the 2000-2010 interval). There was less change in the 

alternative reasons for not filing, although in Detroit, that increased from 7 percent in the 1990-

2000 period to 17 percent in the 2000-2010 interval. As shown in Figure 5 above, Detroit also 

saw a large share of organizations slip below the $50,000 filing threshold in 1990 to 2010. 

Newly‐reporting ACOs by Metro Region

Figures 7 and 8 illustrate the extent to which arts organizations in 2010 are made up of new 

organizations formed since 1990, as compared to persisting organizations, including those not 

captured in the baseline dataset because of revenues below the IRS filing threshold. New 

organizations dominate in four of the six metropolitan areas, forming around 60 percent of all 

organizations filing an IRS Form 990 circa 2010. 

 

12
Figure 7: Percentage of all ACOs by filing and formation status, 2010 

13

59%

49%

56% 57%

49%

60%

23%

27%

31% 25%

32%

24%

7%

12%

8% 11% 13% 10%

6% 6%

5% 6% 5% 6% 6% 4%

1% 1% 1% 2%

Atlanta Boston San

Francisco,

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

Moved in to region

Formed before 1990; financial record

shows revenue < $50,000 before then

Ruling data before 1990 but does not

appear in financial record until after

that time

Persisting from 1990

Formed since 1990

Figure 8: ACOs that filed an IRS Form 990 in 2010, showing new and newly-reporting 

organizations 

175

426

721

434

137 110

22

104

103

82

36

19

17

48

59

46

16

7

15

55

12

4

2

3

Atlanta Boston San 

Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

Moved in to region

Formed before 1990; 

financial record shows 

revenue < $50,000 

before then

Ruling date before 1990 

but does not appear in 

financial record until 

after that time

Formed since 1990
Small numbers of existing ACOs relocated into each of the six metropolitan areas between 1990 

and 2010. This trend was particularly noticeable in Atlanta and Boston (Figure 9). 

In each metropolitan area, there were also many ACOs formed before 1990 that did not file with 

$50,000 or more in revenue circa 1990 but did so by 2010 (Figure 10).6

Figure 9: Percentage of all newly reporting organizations since 1990 that relocated to the 

region, as of 2010 

Figure 10: Percentage of all newly reporting organizations since 1990 that filed with revenue of 

$50,000 or above in 2010 but had not done so circa 1990 

6.6%

8.7%

1.3%

0.7% 1.0%

2.2%

Atlanta Boston San

Francisco,

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

Moved in to 

region

6.6% 8.7%

1.3% 0.7% 1.0% 2.2%

10%

16%

12% 14%

19%

14%

Atlanta Boston San 

Francisco, 

Bay Area

Chicago Detroit +

Ann Arbor

Miami

Ruling date before 1990; does not 

appear in financial record until 

after that time

Formed before 1990; financial 

record shows revenue < $50,000 

before then

14

                                                           

6 The base year calculation includes organizations that filed an IRS Form 990 with over $50,000 in revenue. Setting

the minimum for inclusion at $50,000 for all base years (1990, 2000, and 2010) circumvents potential discrepancies

in comparisons across periods, as the IRS changed the minimum threshold for filing a Form 990 from $25,000 to

$50,000 for returns filed during the period covered by this study
Factors Affecting Survival or Failure of Arts and Cultural Organizations

Many factors could be associated with the rates at which nonprofit arts and culture 

organizations (ACOs) survive or fail. Among them are: 

1. Revenues 

2. Assets 

3. Contributions as share of total revenue 

4. Organization type 

5. Location 

6. Density of ACOs in a given region 

In this section, we present the results of analyses that tested hypotheses related to the impact 

of each of these factors on the persistence and mortality of ACOs between 1990 and 2010. As 

there were only small differences by region, these statistics are presented for the overall dataset 

of the six metropolitan regions. 

Revenues (H1)

We hypothesized that revenue would be positively associated with persistence or survival. The 

statistical tests support this hypothesis. Figure 11 illustrates this finding using revenue ranges. 

The actual analysis used revenue levels, not ranges. 

Figure 11: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2010, by total revenue range in 1990 

15

44%

52% 52%

67%

74% 74%

86%

92%

Dashed oval indicates that organizations in this category were less likely to persist 1990-2010 than ACOs in general. 
Tests show that organizations with higher total revenue are more likely to persist over time. The 

ranges developed for convenience and used in the figure suggest that the chances for 

sustainability improve when total revenue in a year is at least $500,000 to $999,999, but that 

level itself was not found in analysis to be a “tipping point.” Future research is advised to 

examine whether there is a threshold that needs to be met and whether that changes from yearto-year or across an organization’s lifecycle. 

Assets (H2)

The analysis supports the hypothesis that having a higher level of assets is associated with a 

greater probability of remaining a functioning ACO. Some organizations reported negative 

assets. However, over the three years studied, the distribution of reporting organizations by 

asset range was remarkably consistent. Future research will examine the composition of each 

budget range by geography and artistic discipline, in an effort to enrich localized capitalization 

strategies. 

Figure 12: ACOs by asset range, by year 

16

13% 9% 8%

12%

8% 9%

12%

10% 10%

12%

11% 10%

12%

12% 12%

13%

16% 15%

8%

10% 10%

7%

9% 9%

7%

11% 11%

4% 6% 6%

1990 2000 2010

$5 million and up

$1 million to $4.99

million

$500,000 ‐ $1 million

$250,000 to $499,999

$100,000 to $249,999

$50,000 ‐ $99,999

$25,000 ‐ $49,999

$10,000 ‐ $24,999

$1 to $9,999

Negative assets

Assets reported on Form 990

 
Figure 13: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2010, by range of total assets in 

1990 

17

56% 56%

64%

69% 70%

76%

84% 87% 85%

Note: The asset ranges used in this figure were defined for the sake of convenience to illustrate the point. There is no 

measurement of difference by RANGE, only by total assets. 

Generally speaking, organizations with high assets were more likely to survive in each of the 

three periods, 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 1990-2010. This relationship was among the 

strongest found and was consistent over time, in direction, and in strength as measured by the 

gamma statistic. Smaller asset ranges were associated with greater drops in survival rates from 

the 1990-2000 period to the 2000-2010 period, suggesting that economic conditions of the 

1990s enabled less wealthy organizations to survive that did not fare as well under adverse 

conditions of the 2000s. 

Contributions as Share of Total Revenue (H3)

For each year in the core file records, analysts took reported contributions revenue and divided 

it by total revenue for each organization. By range, contributions could be 90 percent or more of 

total revenue, 80 to 89.9 percent, 70 to 79.9 percent and so on down to “less than 20 percent”, 

which is not shown below.

 
Figure 14: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990 filers as of 2000 and 2000 filers as of 

2010, by percentage of total revenue from contributions in 1990 and 2000 

18

                                                           

52% 52%

80%

72% 77%

67%

83%

68%

75% 74%

85%

78% 83%

76% 81% 80%

1990‐2000 (N = 157)

2000‐2010 (N = 449)

1990‐2000 (N = 101)

2000‐2010 (N = 199)

1990‐2000 (N = 96)

2000‐2010 (N = 181)

1990‐2000 (N = 127)

2000‐2010 (N = 213)

1990‐2000 (N = 138)

2000‐2010 (N = 230)

1990‐2000 (N = 164)

2000‐2010 (N = 225)

1990‐2000 (N = 157)

2000‐2010 (N = 213)1990‐2000 (N = 158)

2000‐2010 (N = 220)

1. CONT 90%

of TOTREV

2. CONT 80%

of TOTREV

3. CONT 70%

of TOTREV

4. CONT 60%

of TOTREV

5. CONT 50%

of TOTREV

6. CONT 40%

of TOTREV

7. CONT 30%

of TOTREV

8. CONT 20%

of TOTREV

Dashed oval indicates that organizations in this category were less likely to persist 1990-2010 than ACOs in general. 

Organizations that were heavily dependent on contributions, at 90 percent or more of their 

revenue, were among the most likely to be lost to the record. Mortality rates among all other 

levels of contribution (less than 90% of total revenue) were generally similar, though ratios 

between 60% and 79.9% were associated with somewhat lower levels of survival from 2000 to 

2010 than were other ratios below 90%. 

Organization Type (H4)

Using the taxonomy employed by the Initiative for Sustainable Arts in America, we analyzed the 

rate of change by organizational type. Humanities organizations outnumbered other types in 

each city and in each year. Over the three periods studied, there was very little change in the 

percentage of organizations by type except from 1990 to 2000. In 2000, the share of “other” was 

7 percent, compared with 16 percent in 1990, whereas the share of humanities-type 

organizations rose in 2000 to 33 percent, up from 27 percent in 1990.7

 This mostly likely 

represents a shift in coding rather than a dramatic change in the ecosystem’s composition. This 

increase could reflect national initiatives launched during the 90’s such as Save our Nation’s 

Treasures or funding strategies that resulted in a blossoming of history and humanities focused 

programs and organizations. 

The consistency of the results in Figures 12 and 15 is striking, but breakout results by region 

(not shown here) reveal that the percentage of ACOs by type and by budget remains relatively 

consistent within all six regions across all three time periods. Although these results will be 

7

 “Other” refers to organizations typically formed to serve temporary, often supportive functions such as: fundraising for specific 

organizations, membership associations, etc. 
further explored in subsequent research, this finding may suggest the role cultural identity 

(whether actual or aspirational) plays in shaping the overall composition and character of any 

given arts ecosystem. Future research could explore this phenomenon using strategies such as 

contingent valuation. 

Figure 15: Types of ACOs by discipline, by year 

Further analysis considered whether specific types of ACO were more or less likely to survive or 

die over the 1990-2010 time period. The results show that humanities organizations, which 

range from groups for preservation of cultural or ethnic heritage to historical societies and 

humanities councils, and music organizations were more likely to survive over this time period. 

Dance organizations were the most likely to fail, with a survival rate of only 55%. 

27% 30% 28%

6%

7% 7%

4%

3% 2%

6%

6% 6%

4%

3% 3%

6%

6% 6%

11% 10% 11%

16% 16% 16%

5% 5% 5%

16% 14% 15%

1990 2000 2010

Arts Education

Other

Music

Theatre

Dance/Ballet

Multidisciplinary Arts and Arts 

Centers

Visual Arts and Art Museums

Literary Arts

Media, Film, Broadcast, Video

Humanities

Media, film, broadcast and video organizations saw a greater drop in their survival rates across 

the two decades than any other organization type, changing from 85% in the 1990s to 70% in 

the 2000s. Dance was the only type to show a lower survival rate from 1990-2000 (66%) than 

from 2000-2010 (75%). 

 

19
Figure 16: Percentage of Organizations Filing IRS Form 990 1990-2010 by Type of Arts 

Organization 

20

78%

63% 69% 64% 65%

55%

68% 74% 68%

Solid oval indicates that organizations in this category were more likely to persist than ACOs in general. 

Dashed oval indicates that organizations in this category were less likely to persist than ACOs in general. 

Location (Urban or Suburban) (H5)

Using codes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to track whether a county is predominantly 

urban or suburban, this analysis finds that the hypothesis that urban organizations were more 

likely to survive is not supported. Urban ACOs ceased operating at a slightly higher rate than did 

suburban organizations in the same time period. Future Sustain Arts research will examine 

demographic, psychographic and cultural engagement trends more broadly to gain a deeper 

understanding of how these forces impact organizational longevity on an individual and 

collective scale. 

 
Figure 17: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2010, by urban or suburban county 

21

68%

75%

Urban county (N = 1,854) Suburban county (N = 198)

Concentration or Density of ACOs within Region (H6)

For the period of 1990-2010, being located in a region with a small number of arts organizations 

(1 to 25) was associated with a higher likelihood of survival. In 2000-2010, an era with two 

recessions and two “slow recoveries,” ACOs located in counties with a medium-large number of 

arts organizations (between 151 and 300) were less likely to fail than arts organizations overall. 

By contrast, ACOs in counties with a very large number of arts organizations (over 300) were 

more likely to fail in the 2000-2010 era. 

Figure 18: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2010, by total concentration of ACOs 

within each region in 1990 

78%

71%

64% 68% 71%

66% 64%
22

Conclusion

This study of nonprofit arts and culture organizations (ACOs) revealed several general trends 

that were persistent across all six metropolitan areas selected for the study: Atlanta, Boston, 

Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit (with Ann Arbor included), and Miami. Of all the 

organizations that reported in 2010 across all six regions, roughly half were newly formed since 

1990. Others were formed before that time but saw revenue increase to a level where reporting 

was required ($50,000 or more by 2010). Even though new organizations formed significant 

parts of the landscape across the six regions, most of the older ACOs continued on throughout 

the twenty-year period: approximately 60 percent of the organizations that existed in 1990 were 

still reporting on IRS Form 990 by 2010. 

Across all six regions, several distinct patterns emerged about the types of organizations that 

are most likely to survive for extended periods of time. Nonprofit ACOs formed and ceased to 

operate at relatively consistent rates between 1990 and 2000, 2000 and 2010, and 1990 and 

2010. Over the twenty-year period examined, ACOs located in the San Francisco Bay area had 

the highest survival rate (66 percent). Slightly less than 60 percent of the ACOs located in 

Atlanta and Detroit regions remained in operation over the same twenty years. Furthermore, in 

each region, the total number of new organizations– including organizations that grew large 

enough to require filing IRS Form 990 – that emerged between 1990 and 2010 outstripped the 

number of organizations that stayed in business throughout this entire period. In fact, in 2010, 

for every ACO that existed in 1990 and survived until 2010, about 2.6 new organizations had 

been created since that time, on average across the six regions. 

One of the key factors most strongly associated with survival was net assets. Organizations 

with greater stability as a result of having higher levels of assets (including property) were more 

likely to endure through the period examined. Another attribute positively associated with 

survival is overall revenue (as defined by total gross revenue). Organizations with higher 

amounts in revenue were more likely to persist over time. Lastly, organizations that received a 

moderate level of their funding from contributions were more likely to persist than were 

organizations with a heavy reliance on contributions (90% or more of gross revenue). Taken 

together these findings highlight the important role fiscal stability and financial independence 

play in enabling long-term organizational sustainability. Future research will examine the way 

different types of investments, for example risk capital or general operating grants, enable 

organizations to adapt with greater resiliency. 

The rich variety of artistic disciplines found within each of the six nonprofit cultural ecosystems 

examined remained relatively consistent across each year analyzed, even with new entities 

being formed and others leaving each community. When analyzing the data by discipline type 

the one clear finding is that humanities organizations showed the highest rates of survival (and 

are the most numerous in each region). Meanwhile other types of organizations, including 

literary arts, dance, and multidisciplinary organizations, were generally less likely to persist over 

time. Furthermore, over the three years studied the distribution of reporting organizations by 

asset range was remarkably consistent as was the percentage of organizations by discipline 

type. 

Contrary to expectations, organizations in urban areas were not more likely to survive than their 

suburban counterparts. This finding deserves further research, for example by applying a more 

finely grained coding system of what constitutes urban versus suburban than the county-level 

codes provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture allow for. In addition, future research will 
23

integrate demographic data for each geographic region to examine how different population 

segments engage with each culture ecosystem. 

The total concentration of arts organizations in a region produced mixed results. There were no 

statistically significant differences for 1990-2000 and 1990-2010 for when a region had a 

comparatively small number of arts organizations. However, for the 2000-2010 period, two 

significant findings emerged. When a region had a medium-large number of ACOs (151 to 300) 

those entities were more likely to survive. Entities in regions with 300 or more ACOs were less 

likely to survive in the 2000-2010 era. This finding also warrants further research, as there 

might be larger economic trends at work in that period that did not affect arts organizations in 

the 1990-2000 period. Future research will examine specific nuances and attributes of the arts’ 

operating environment in this particular decade to gain a deeper understanding of the logic 

behind this, for example looking at how economic trends at work in that period that did not affect 

nonprofit arts organizations in the 1990-2000 period. 

The Sustain Arts research team will use these insights to design a subsequent set of research 

questions and will conduct exploratory interviews with key stakeholders in all six metropolitan 

areas. These interviews will be designed to help us develop additional hypotheses regarding the 

factors that influence ACO creation and mortality, and here we will begin to look at causation. 

Likely interviewees might include leaders of newly created ACOs, local cultural councils, or 

leaders of ACOs whose levels of support from either private or public sources have changed in 

significant ways within the past decade. Because we are interested in learning about the causes 

of ACO mortality, we would also attempt to contact (former) leaders or trustees of ACOs that 

appear to have terminated, based on available IRS data. 

Analyzing birth and mortality rates of nonprofit arts and culture organizations establishes binary 

trends (to live or die) across time, diverse geographies, organizational size and discipline types. 

However to ‘live’ does not always equate to living well, nor does this classification shed 

sufficient light on the types of adaptive capacity organizations benefit from over time. This work 

does set the stage for a more comprehensive assessment of what constitutes a vibrant cultural 

organization and by extension ecosystem in today’s operating landscape. If the arts and culture 

sector is to become more resilient over time then greater appreciation must be paid to the 

natural paradox of sustainability, that is to live you have to allow for death. Most natural systems 

progress through an ongoing cycle of change from emergence and new growth, to a stage of 

sustained character, decline and eventually new growth. The data examined in this study 

demonstrates the disproportionate role growth and maintenance have played in the nonprofit 

arts sector over the two decades. This work revealed multiple pathways for future research that 

can refine our understanding of how practitioners can best support the field’s strategic evolution. 

Many of these themes will be incorporated by the Initiative for Sustainable Arts in America in the 

years to come. 
Appendix: Detailed information by MSA/Region 

122

85 85

‐26

69

‐6

37

‐5

9

1990 2000 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Atlanta, 1990‐2000

2000 status of 1990 filers

200

131 131

‐51

126

‐12

26

‐6

16

2000 2010 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Atlanta, 2000‐2010

2010 status of

122

72 72

-41

175

-6

39

-3

Moved out/in 15

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Atlanta, 1990-2010

2010 status of 1990 filers

24
364

280 280

-61

173

-18

136

-5

49

1

1990 2000 filers with 

"new"

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Boston, 1990-2000

2000 status of 1990

filers

640

450 450

-117

287

-56

101

-16

30

-1

Lost or Gained PC 4

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Boston, 2000-2010

2010 status of 2000 filers

364

238 238

-94

426

-20

152

-11

55

‐1

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Boston, 1990-2010

2010 status of 1990 filers

25
26

594

464 464

-91

356

-36

153

-3

10

1990 2000 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

San Francisco, Bay

Area, 1990-2000

2000 status of 1990 filers

984

688 688

‐210

472

‐63

111

-20

15

-3

2

2000 2010 filers with 

"new"

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

San Francisco, Bay 

Area, 2000-2010

2010 status of 2000 filers

594

393 393

-159

721

-34

162

-8

12

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

San Francisco, Bay

Area, 1990-2010

2010 status of 1990

filers
315

244 244

‐57

207

‐12

104

‐2

3

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Chicago, 1990-2000

2000 status of 1990 filers

556

356 356

‐143

301

‐32

86

‐25

13

3

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Chicago, 2000-2010

2010 status of

2000 filers

315

192 192

‐98

434

‐11

128

‐14

4

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Chicago, 1990-2010

2010 status of 1990 filers

27
148

105 105

‐32

58

‐11

41

0

6

1990 2000 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Detroit, 1990-2000

2000 status of 1990

filers

28

210

140 140

‐35

91

‐24

40

‐9

8

‐2

1

2000 2010 filers with 

"new"

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Detroit, 2000-2010

2010 status of 2000 filers

148

88 88

‐37

137

‐17

52

‐5

2

‐1

1990 2010 filers with 

"new"

Lost or Gained PC 

status

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Detroit, 1990-2010

2010 status of 1990

filers
114

77 77

‐25

84

‐8

21

‐4

2

2000 2010 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Miami, 2000-2010

2010 status of 2000

70

55 55

‐7

39

‐8

19

0

1

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Miami, 1990-2000

2000 status of 1990 filers

70

45 45

‐19

110

‐4

26

‐2

3

1990 2010 filers with 

"new"

Moved out/in

Crossed $50,000 

threshold

Closed/Opened

Still filing

Miami, 1990‐2010

2010 status of 1990

29
List of Tables, Graphics and Figures

Figure 1: Total number of nonprofit arts and culture institutions (ACOs) by metro area, 

1990, 2000, and 2010 

Figure 2: Rate of change in the number of ACOs by metro area, 1990-2000 and 2000-

2010 

Figure 3: Number of ACOs by region, as of 2010 

Figure 4: Percentage of ACOs that filed IRS Form 990 in 2000 and in 2010 

Figure 5: Of ACOs that filed an IRS Form 990, filing status in 2010, by percentage 

Figure 6: Persistence of ACOs in 1990-2000 by filing status compared with 2000-2010 

Figure 7: Percentage of all ACOs by filing and formation status, 2010 

Figure 8: ACOs that filed an IRS Form 990 in 2010, showing new and newly-reporting 

organizations 

Figure 9: Percentage of all newly reporting organizations since 1990 that relocated to the 

region, as of 2010 

Figure 10: Percentage of all newly reporting organizations since 1990 that filed with 

revenue of $50,000 or above in 2010 but had not done so circa 1990 

Figure 11: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2010, by total revenue range 

in 1990 

Figure 12: ACOs by asset range, by year 

Figure 132: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2000, by range of total 

assets in 1990 

Figure 14: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990 filers as of 2000 and 2000 

filers as of 2010, by percentage of total revenue from contributions in 1990 and 2000 

Figure 15: Types of ACOs by discipline, By Year 

Figure 16: Percentage of organizations filing IRS Form 990, 1990-2000, by type of arts 

organization 

Figure 17: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2000, by urban or suburban 

county 

Figure 18: Percentage of ACOs that remained in file, 1990-2000, by concentration of 

ACOs within region

30