Arts Midwest – Data on Arts Nonprofits from the IRS BMF

This dataset is drawn from the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (BMF), a regularly updated record of all nonprofit organizations registered with the Internal Revenue Service.

For this visualization, we filtered the data to focus on arts-related nonprofits and summarized key indicators by each organization. Specifically, we choose structural indicators for each organization, including total revenue, total income, total assets and ruling year (using 2025 as the base year). These metrics provide insight into the financial capacity and longevity of individual arts nonprofits, and allow for comparisons with the broader nonprofit sector across states.

This analysis was developed in partnership with Arts Midwest to better understand the landscape of creative labor across the Midwest. A data brief highlighting findings is available on the Arts Midwest website.