Nonprofit Membership Organizations Directory 2003-2018

GALE's Encyclopedia of Associations provides information on approximately 100,000 nonprofit membership organizations. It covers regional, state, and local associations across the United States, with data available for editions from 2003 to 2018.

Use Cases

• Analyze the geographic distribution of organizations across regional, state, county, city, and local levels to map nonprofit density.
• Study organizational trends over the 2003-2018 time range using edition data to track sector growth.
• Categorize associations by their focus areas, such as business and management, using provided tags and descriptions.

Strengths

• Approximately 100,000 organization records provide a substantial sample for analysis.
• Covers multiple geographic scopes: regional, state, county, city, neighborhood, and local levels.
• Includes data spanning 15 years across three specific editions (2003, 2007, 2018).

Limitations

• Column structure and specific data fields are unknown, limiting immediate analytical use.
• Data is not continuous, with only three snapshots from 2003, 2007, and 2018, missing intervening years.
• Potential geographic bias towards U.S.-based organizations, as implied by 'state and local' focus.

Provenance

Source

GALE, published via MIT Libraries Dataverse.

Collection Method

Compiled directory information for nonprofit membership organizations.

Time Range

2003, 2007, 2018 (14th, 17th, and 30th editions).

Freshness

Most recent edition covers 2018; metadata updated in 2026.

Geography

United States (regional, state, county, city, neighborhood, and local levels).