Our Vision and Mission
Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) is an independent nonprofit media organization that equips nonprofit leaders, workers, and funders to gather insights, challenge dominant narratives, and drive change in the nonprofit sector and the systems that shape it.
Our journalism is bold, never passive. Contributors interrogate how power, race, and equity shape outcomes, and centering the practitioners, organizers, and movement leaders doing the work. We’re both a convener and a catalyst for shared sense making—a place where ideas get tested, tensions get surfaced, and insight becomes something you actually can use.
We exist for people who refuse to take the nonprofit sector at face value — and who know that improving organizations and transforming systems aren’t separable goals. We want you to feel less alone in the hard work, and more equipped to do it.
Our mission is to advance conversations and practice in civil society, as manifested in nonprofits, social movements, and philanthropy. We envision an active democracy grounded in racial equity, human rights, and economic justice, one built by a nonprofit sector that has the stories, the analysis, the solidarity, and the nerve to make it real.
Our Contributors
Unlike many media outlets, we rely heavily on the wisdom of nonprofit, philanthropy, and movement field leaders, who contribute to NPQ as writers, webinar leaders, and advisers. We believe in centering the voices of workers, leaders, and communities doing the work of advancing nonprofit, philanthropy, and social movement policies and practices.. This firsthand knowledge makes NPQ a trusted source for millions of practitioners every year.
Our History
NPQ launched as a national print journal in the winter of 1999. It provided research-based articles for nonprofits about nonprofit management and governance to advance active democracy. As a quarterly magazine, it became the leading journal of the nonprofit sector. Its reporting connected nonprofit researchers, leaders, and workers, improving both research and practice.
Over time, NPQ has broadened the issues it covers that impact nonprofits. This includes equity-centered leadership, philanthropy, racial equity, economic justice, and nonprofit advocacy and public policy.
Today, NPQ is known for its grounded understanding and courageous coverage of nonprofits, civil sector movements, and philanthropy.
Our Finances
To learn more about how the NPQ uses its finances, please refer to our 2023 Financial Statement. We also want to thank our funders and donors and contributing writers.
Our Recent Updates
- January 2025: Board of Directors Expansion
- December 2024: End of Year Reflections from our Interim CEO
- November 2024: Emergent Strategy: Our Bold Next Chapter
- July 2024: Organizational Leadership Update