Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute has developed a system to classify the programs, services, and activities of public charities, called the Nonprofit Program Classification (NPC) System. Designed to serve a wide range of potential users, the system has been used to code the activities of each organization, as reported in Part III—Program Service Accomplishments of its Form 990. Currently, codes from the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) system are used to classify nonprofit organizations according to their organizational purpose. Frequently, however, the questions that are asked by researchers, nonprofit organizations, and the public are focused on what an organization does rather than the type of organization. This article describes the development of the system and its strengths and limitations. Using both the NPC and NTEE systems, researchers will be able to develop a more complete portrait of nonprofit organizations and their activities.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agricultural Network Information Center. (2000). Hierarchical view of AGRICOLA subject category codes [Online]. Retrieved November 1, 2000, from: http://www.agnic.org/cc/hv.html

The alcohol and other drug thesaurus (2nd ed.). (1995). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

American Psychiatric Association . (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Art & architecture thesaurus (2nd ed.). (1994). New York: Oxford University Press.

Beers, Mark H. , & Berkow, R. (Eds.). (1999). The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy (17th ed.). Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck Research Laboratories.

California Resources Agency. (1994). CERES environmental information by theme [Online]. Retrieved November 1, 2000, from: http://ceres.ca.gov/cgi-bin/theme

Classification on instructional programs (final review draft). (2000). Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics.

Gerring, A. L. (Ed.). (1997). Research centers directory (22nd ed.). Detroit, MI: Gale.

Houston, J. E. (Ed.). (1995). Thesaurus of ERIC descriptors (13th ed.). Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

10.

Lampkin, L. M. , & Stengel, N.A.J. (1999, April). The North American Industry Classification System: Blurring the lines among the sectors. Paper presented at the INDEPENDENT SECTOR Research Forum. Alexandria, VA.

11.

Lampkin, L. M. , & Stengel, N.A.J. (2000, July). How much do non-governmental organizations matter? Differing views from different classification systems. Paper presented at International Society for Third-Sector Research Conference. Dublin, Ireland.

12.

Library of Congress. (1997). Legislative Indexing Vocabulary (LIV) [Online]. Retrieved November 1, 2000, from: http://lcweb.loc.gov/pmei/lexico?usr=pub-11990:0&op=frames&db=LIV

13.

Liu, Y. K. (1998). A quick and easy guide to national standard data fields. Washington, DC: National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

14.

Medical subject headings tree structures. (1999). Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine.

15.

National Center for Charitable Statistics . (1998). National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities—Core codes. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

16.

National criminal justice thesaurus. (1998). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

17.

100 Black Men of America Inc. (1999-2000). Retrieved November 2000 from: http://www. 100blackmen.org

18.

Romeo, S. , Lampkin, L. M. , & Twombly, E. C. (2001, November). The Nonprofit Program Classification System: Increasing understanding of the nonprofit sector. Paper presented at the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Washington, D. C.

19.

Sales, G. (1994). A taxonomy of human services (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: INFOLINE; Seattle, WA: AIRS.

20.

Sales, G. (1998). Taxonomy supplements: How to keep the AIRS/INFOLINE taxonomy updated for your resource file. AIRS Journal, 20, 75-75.

21.

Soergel, D. (1985). Organizing information. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

22.

Stevenson, D. R. , Pollak, T. H. , Lampkin, L. M. , Pettit, K.L.S. , & Stengel, N.A.J. (1997). State non-profit almanac 1997: Profiles of charitable organizations. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.

23.

Sumariwalla, R. D. (1986, March). Toward a national taxonomy of exempt entities. Paper prepared for Independent Sector. Washington, D. C.

24.

Thesaurus of psychological index terms (9th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

25.

A user’s guide to popline keywords. (1999). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs.

26.

United States, Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget . (1997). North American Industry Classification System. Lanham, MD: Berman Press.

27.

The World Bank Group thesaurus (internal ed.). (1999). Washington, DC: Information Solutions Group.

Introducing the Nonprofit Program Classification System: The Taxonomy We’ve Been Waiting for

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References