Research Results:
Paper Abstracts

Evaluating Nonprofit Databases

Kirsten A. Grønbjerg.

American Behavioral Scientist 45 (June-July, No. 11): 1741-77. Copyright © 2002 by Sage Publications, Inc. Abstract reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc. Revised version of paper presented under slightly different titles at the Annual Meetings of ARNOVA, Miami, FL., November 29-December 1 and at Conference on Data Resources and Research Opportunities, Social Science Research Council. Washington, D.C. October 4.

Abstract

The nonprofit sector's increasing size, mounting political relevance, and growing visibility to social scientists, have put a premium on securing good data on the sector's scope, characteristics, and trends. A variety of national and state-wide data initiatives have responded to these developments. Most of the resulting databases, however, are problematic, especially at the level of local communities, and our knowledge about the sector is therefore likely to be incomplete and/or biased. This paper reports on an effort to create and assess a comprehensive nonprofit database, using Indiana as a test case. Three institutional databases (IRS-registration, state incorporation, and phone listings) were combined and supplemented from local listings in eleven communities across the state. An alternative sampling strategy, a hyper-network approach, was also included for comparison. The results show major gaps in both the IRS and state incorporation databases and a surprisingly small overlap between the two. The databases, and various definitions of the sector, differ in their portrait of the sector and these differences in profiles are not consistent from one community to the next.

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