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How Nonprofits Get Really Big

Since 1970, more than 200,000 nonprofits have opened in the U.S., but only 144 of them have reached $50 million in annual revenue. Most of the members of this elite group got big by doing two things. They raised the bulk of their money from a single type of funder such as corporations or government and not, as conventional wisdom would recommend, by going after diverse sources of funding. Just as importantly, these nonprofits created professional organizations that were tailored to the needs of their primary funding sources. As the number of nonprofits and the scope of their ambitions explode, conversations such as this one have become commonplace in non-profit board meetings across the U.S. Almost to a person, all of the non-profit leaders with whom

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UNCF

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. UNCF provides operating funds for 37 member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), scholarships and internships for students at about 900 institutions and faculty and administrative professional training.

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How Nonprofits Get Really Big