Contents
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: mean unrestricted revenue and expenses, FY 2018–2025
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics by annual expense budget size
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: earned and unrestricted contributed revenue
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: giving by source
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: ticket and membership income
- Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: operating deficits and working capital
- Sources
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: mean unrestricted revenue and expenses, FY 2018–2025
DataArts’ National Trends 2026 tables report inflation-adjusted mean financial measures for U.S. arts and culture organizations. The figures below are in constant 2019 dollars. The FY 2025 results are preliminary because fewer data are available for the most recent fiscal year. The report’s averages exclude the top 1 percentile of organizations by budget size, and the observations can vary by measure and fiscal year. Source: Data Tables — National Trends 2026 Source: Methodology — National Trends 2026
| Fiscal year | Mean unrestricted revenue | Mean expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $1,691,000 | $1,577,000 |
| 2019 | $1,761,000 | $1,603,000 |
| 2020 | $1,672,000 | $1,488,000 |
| 2021 | $1,893,000 | $1,267,000 |
| 2022 | $1,692,000 | $1,359,000 |
| 2023 | $1,619,000 | — |
| 2024 | $1,565,000 | — |
| 2025* | $1,523,000 | — |
FY 2025 is preliminary. The source values for expenses are included only where reported in the checked observations; dashes indicate values not presented here. Source: Data Tables — Average Unrestricted Revenue vs Expenses
Mean unrestricted revenue reached its listed high of $1,893,000 in FY 2021, then registered $1,692,000 in FY 2022, $1,619,000 in FY 2023 and $1,565,000 in FY 2024. The preliminary FY 2025 mean was $1,523,000. Mean expenses in the years with supplied observations were $1,577,000 in FY 2018 and $1,603,000 in FY 2019, followed by $1,488,000 in FY 2020, $1,267,000 in FY 2021 and $1,359,000 in FY 2022. These are annual means, not totals for the sector, and the comparison does not establish why the values moved. Source: Data Tables — National Trends 2026
The underlying report covers 11,012 organizations that reported activity during FY 2018–2025, using an unbalanced annual sample: the organizations represented are not a fixed panel appearing in every year. Annual counts were 6,424 in FY 2018, 6,004 in FY 2019, 5,398 in FY 2020, 5,506 in FY 2021, 5,171 in FY 2022, 4,663 in FY 2023, 4,480 in FY 2024 and 1,783 in preliminary FY 2025. Thus, each year’s mean describes that year’s reporting organizations; it is not a direct measure of the same group’s change over time. Source: Methodology — Organization Counts by Fiscal Year
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics by annual expense budget size
Budget categories are defined by annual total expenses and assigned separately for each year. An organization may therefore fall into different categories in different fiscal years. The table reports mean inflation-adjusted total revenue for the three groups with checked FY 2018 and preliminary FY 2025 observations. Source: Methodology — How We Determined Budget Size Source: Data Tables — Total Revenue by Budget Size
| Annual expense-budget category | FY 2018 mean total revenue | Preliminary FY 2025 mean total revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Under $250K | $113,000 | $87,000 |
| $250K–$1M | $588,000 | $478,000 |
| Over $1M | $5,950,000 | $5,717,000 |
All amounts are in constant 2019 dollars. The categories are based on expenses, while the reported outcome is total revenue. The figures describe different annual category memberships, so they should not be read as tracking an unchanged set of organizations. FY 2025 values are preliminary. Source: Data Tables — Total Revenue by Budget Size Source: Methodology — Inflation Adjustment and Budget Size
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: earned and unrestricted contributed revenue
The revenue-composition table reports mean unrestricted contributed revenue and mean earned revenue. In constant 2019 dollars, unrestricted contributed revenue was $856,000 in FY 2018 and $753,000 in preliminary FY 2025. Earned revenue was $686,000 in FY 2018 and $514,000 in preliminary FY 2025. These are separate mean measures, not sector totals. Unrestricted revenue observations cover a subset of 7,777 organizations within the larger sample, so their scope is narrower than the full report sample. Source: Data Tables — Composition of Revenue Source: Financial Outlook — National Trends 2026
A separate narrative measure describes contributed revenue as a share of combined revenue. That share was 76% in FY 2021 and 59% in preliminary FY 2025. The report connects the FY 2021 figure with pandemic relief funding; the percentages show the composition of combined revenue in those periods, not the dollar amounts received by a typical organization. This share measure should be kept distinct from the average dollar figures in the composition table. Source: Revenue and Attendance — National Trends 2026
The report’s broad sample and its unrestricted-revenue subset are different scopes. In addition, means can conceal variation among organizations. The supplied methodology says the number of observations can vary by measure and fiscal year, and the preliminary FY 2025 figures rely on less recent-year data. Those qualifications matter when comparing revenue streams or interpreting the figures as representative of every arts organization. Source: Methodology — National Trends 2026 Source: Financial Outlook — National Trends 2026
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: giving by source
The following figures are mean inflation-adjusted contributed revenue by source, in constant 2019 dollars. The comparison includes every source with both FY 2018 and preliminary FY 2025 values in the checked observations. Source: Data Tables — Total Contributed Revenue by Source
| Contributed revenue source | FY 2018 mean | Preliminary FY 2025 mean |
|---|---|---|
| Trustee support | $136,000 | $85,000 |
| Individual support | $242,000 | $248,000 |
| Corporate support | $94,000 | $48,000 |
| Foundation support | $272,000 | $282,000 |
| Government support | $179,000 | $151,000 |
Government support is defined as the sum of local, city, state and federal support. The table presents source categories as separate mean measures; it does not allocate each organization’s contributed revenue into a single dominant source. The reported categories also should not be added to create an implied total: the supplied evidence does not establish that such a calculation would match the report’s overall contributed-revenue measure. Source: Methodology — National Trends 2026 Source: Data Tables — Total Contributed Revenue by Source
The narrative report adds two inflation-adjusted comparisons. Foundation giving was up 7% since FY 2019 in the discussion of preliminary FY 2025 trends. Individual giving rose 18% from FY 2024 to preliminary FY 2025. These comparisons use different baselines, so the 7% and 18% figures describe separate periods and should not be compared as though they measured the same interval. Source: Revenue and Attendance — Giving Trends
The table’s annual means and the narrative change rates offer related but distinct views. A mean dollar value shows the source’s reported average level for a given year; a percentage change compares a stream across the report’s specified years. FY 2025 remains preliminary in both contexts. The figures do not identify what produced the changes, and they should not be used to infer a cause or forecast subsequent giving. Source: Data Tables — National Trends 2026 Source: Revenue and Attendance — National Trends 2026
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: ticket and membership income
Mean inflation-adjusted ticket sales were $325,000 in FY 2018 and $241,000 in preliminary FY 2025. Mean membership and subscription income was $221,000 in FY 2018 and $105,000 in preliminary FY 2025. These are average revenue measures for U.S. arts and culture organizations in constant 2019 dollars. Source: Data Tables — Ticket Sales and Membership/Subscription Income
The report’s narrative compares preliminary FY 2025 with FY 2019: average ticket sales were 29% lower, while average membership and subscription income was 48% lower, in inflation-adjusted terms. These comparisons use FY 2019 as their baseline, whereas the table’s paired observations above are FY 2018 and FY 2025. Keeping those periods distinct avoids treating the table values as the source of the narrative percentages. Source: Revenue and Attendance — Earned Revenue Trends
The report describes earned revenue as slow to recover and membership and subscription income as lagging behind ticket sales. The figures are averages across organizations, rather than an attendance count or a measure of income for each individual venue. The narrative’s 29% and 48% comparisons refer specifically to average inflation-adjusted revenue between FY 2019 and preliminary FY 2025. Source: Revenue and Attendance — National Trends 2026 Source: Data Tables — National Trends 2026
Nonprofit arts revenue statistics: operating deficits and working capital
An organization is counted as operating with a deficit when its total expenses exceed its total revenue in a fiscal year. The overall shares reported in the DataArts table were 34% in FY 2018, 35% in FY 2019, 24% in FY 2021, 41% in FY 2023, 41% in FY 2024 and 34% in preliminary FY 2025. FY 2020 and FY 2022 are not included here because no checked observation was supplied for those years. Source: Methodology — National Trends 2026 Source: Data Tables — Percent of Organizations Operating with Deficits
The checked series shows the reported deficit share at 41% in both FY 2023 and FY 2024, followed by 34% in preliminary FY 2025. The earlier listed observations include 34% in FY 2018, 35% in FY 2019 and 24% in FY 2021. These are shares of organizations, not the size or dollar value of deficits. The definition identifies whether expenses exceeded revenue; it does not indicate how large a shortfall was or how many organizations had reserves available. Source: Data Tables — Percent of Organizations Operating with Deficits Source: Methodology — Deficit Definition
Working capital is reported as mean months of expenses covered, calculated as total working capital divided by total expenses multiplied by 12. Overall mean coverage was 8.6 months in FY 2018, 7.9 months in FY 2019, 16.4 months in FY 2021, 11.1 months in FY 2023, 11.1 months in FY 2024 and 9.9 months in preliminary FY 2025. Source: Methodology — Working Capital Definition Source: Data Tables — Average Months of Total Working Capital
Deficit shares and working-capital coverage describe different financial conditions. The first is the portion of organizations whose expenses exceeded revenue during the fiscal year; the second is a mean ratio expressed as months of expenses. A deficit share therefore cannot be read as a working-capital measure, and the working-capital mean does not show how reserves are distributed among organizations. Both series cover U.S. arts and culture organizations, with preliminary values for FY 2025 and annual samples that vary in size. Source: Methodology — National Trends 2026 Source: Data Tables — National Trends 2026