Week 9: What do nonprofits actually do? (Subsectors I)
Oct 19 & 21 · M5. The first subsector tour and NTEE introduction, then a TA-led peer search and B2 evidence clinic.
This week’s big question
What are the different fields nonprofits work in, and how do you find peer orgs in one? Monday introduces health, education, human services, and the NTEE classification system. Wednesday’s TA-led workshop uses that introduction to find peers and check your B2 evidence before Sunday’s deadline. Module 5 · builds LO2 (subsectors), LO5 (finding orgs by data) · thread: data/evidence.
Readings
| Reading | Focus & purpose |
|---|---|
| Core (Mon) · Jill R. Horwitz, “Charitable Nonprofits and the Business of Health Care”, ch. 17 of The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (Stanford, 2020). Read pp. 436–444, the section titled “Tax Exemption and Community Benefit” through the conclusion. 9 pp. | What a nonprofit hospital owes in return for its exemption, and whether it pays up. The earlier pages are there if you want the history and the sector’s shape. |
| Recommended · Jennifer E. Mosley, “Social Service Nonprofits: Navigating Conflicting Demands”, ch. 10 of the same handbook, pp. 251–261. 11 pp. | Read it if your site-visit organization is a human-service nonprofit. |
| Current · CRFB, “The Federal Tax Benefits for Nonprofit Hospitals” (2024). 11 pp. in the printable PDF, including appendix and notes. | Puts a federal dollar figure on the exemption Horwitz argues about. |
| Reference · NCCS, “National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities Codes”. | Skim before Monday’s introduction. For Wednesday’s hunt, use NCCS’s code list and its EIN lookup. |
Session 1 · Mon Oct 19: Subsector tour 1, the hospital bargain, and NTEE
The first of two subsector tours: health, education, and human services. Mosley’s figures show how big each field is and who pays for human services; Horwitz and the CRFB paper take up the bargain a nonprofit hospital strikes for its tax exemption. Arts, advocacy, and religion follow on Wed Oct 28.
We watch the first 4:20 of MedPage Today’s “Nonprofit Hospitals Took in Over $37 Billion in Tax Benefits in 2021” (2024, 4:56), in which study author Ge Bai of Johns Hopkins explains what the public gives nonprofit hospitals. Discuss these questions with your neighbours and note your answers on sheet 1:
- Who pays: a nonprofit hospital raises most of its revenue from payments for care. What does the public add through the tax exemption, and what does the hospital owe in return?
- The evidence: what would you count as the hospital giving back, and what would that count miss?
- Your organization: what does your Rail A organization give back, free or below cost, and where would you find the evidence? If the hospital’s bargain does not fit your organization, explain why.
After eight minutes, we compare your answers with two ways of counting in the CRFB paper and with Horwitz’s caution about what no count captures. The video’s figures are 2021 estimates of what the exemption is worth; the CRFB paper cites KFF’s 2020 estimate, made by another method.
Then put the same questions to your Rail A organization on sheet 2, with its 990 open: its size against its field’s median and who pays, compared with its field; one thing it gives back free or below cost, with your source; and one benefit that a count of what it gives back would not record. A neighbour checks the same three things and signs. Visit still ahead? It has to happen before A4 is due on Sun Nov 15. Until then, work from the filing and the website, and write what you will look for when you go.
We finish with an eight-minute NTEE introduction and search demonstration: what a letter and its digits record, why the code is a starting point rather than proof of the work, and how to search by category, name, and filing text. Skim the NCCS explainer before Monday; Wednesday puts these tools to work.
Keep both worksheets: sheet 2 feeds the first section of your final report. Before you leave, hand in a short individual exit slip with your name, one thing your organization gives back and its source, and one benefit a count would miss. Bring your organization’s 990 and your A3 table.
Session 2 · Wed Oct 21: TA-led NTEE hunt and B2 evidence clinic
The TA facilitates a workshop using Monday’s NTEE introduction, printed case notes, and peer-check criteria. You find organizations doing your team’s kind of work, then check the evidence in your B2 Funding lab. Each teammate still verifies a different real comparable.
The case is Beacon, a Bloomington nonprofit that runs a day center, meals, an emergency shelter, street outreach, and housing for people in extreme poverty. In class we read its own description beside its ProPublica record. Discuss these questions with your team and record brief notes on sheet 1:
- The work: what does Beacon do, and for whom? Which letter fits that work?
- The code: Beacon’s IRS code is B90, Educational Services and Schools - Other. Which ProPublica searches would find Beacon, and which would miss it?
- Your startup: which letter would you choose for your concept, and which search might miss your closest peers? If no code fits, explain why.
After eight minutes, read the printed worked interpretation and compare it with your answers. It sets four searches for Beacon side by side: category, a word in the name, words in its filings, and the city’s volunteer directory. Then ask where you would look for peers where you grew up if there were several labels, or no public register.
Then the hunt, on your own sheet 2. Write your team’s letter before you search; NCCS’s code list names every code. Find three Indiana peers by category, keyword, and filing text, and open each one: what it does, the category ProPublica gives it, its form, its revenue and year. If time permits, record three national peers with the state filter off. Name your B2 comparable and one practice your team could adapt. A teammate checks your sheet: same kind of work, a full 990 or 990-EZ, its own EIN and city, the year written, and not a teammate’s comparable. Keep the comparable you have already verified if it passes those tests and supports eight checkable claims; a replacement needs its own frozen summary and eight verified rows by Sunday.
The final 25-minute clinic uses sheet 4 to check your working B2 draft: the frozen prompt and output, at least eight claims with verdicts and exact locations, and the team’s funding sketch, with each share tied to a verified line and an explanation of what changes for your startup. Check the least-sure share’s assumption and the funder who could stop saying yes. Mark unfinished rows and revise them before Sunday; this peer check is practice, not a grade.
Keep the worksheets and the worked case on sheet 3 for B2 and Monday’s program studio. Before you leave, hand in an individual exit slip with your name, your comparable’s legal name and EIN, one claim’s verdict and exact source location, and your next revision. Bring a laptop, your team’s concept in one sentence and one keyword, your comparable’s downloaded filing, and a working B2 draft with at least eight claims numbered, even if some rows still need checking.
What’s due / prep
- Rail B · B2, Funding lab (10 pts, credit, assessed per member) due Sun Oct 25: your own verified comparable (at least eight rows, verdict and exact location each) plus the team’s illustrative funding-model sketch. See Startup Plan & Pitch.
- Visit done? Volunteer for a three-minute site-visit debrief on Mon Oct 26. Confirm the four speakers with the TA by Wednesday; the format is on Week 10.
Looking ahead
- Mon Oct 26 is the TA-facilitated program studio and four site-visit debriefs. Bring your NTEE worksheet and read Suárez, pp. 491–503, and the Candid piece on arts revenue before Monday.
- Wed Oct 28 brings the second subsector tour (arts, advocacy, religion), then governance and the starter-board studio. Bring Monday’s program sketch; the board needs to oversee that program.