10.1177/0899764005275379 Grønbjerg, Clerkin The Landscape of Indiana’s Nonprofit Sector Examining the Landscape of Indiana’s Nonprofit Sector: Does What You Know Depend on Where You Look? Kirsten A. Grønbjerg Richard M. Clerkin Indiana University The authors examine technical aspects of surveying nonprofits to determine whether inferences about characteristics of the sector depend on how samples are selected. Using a stratified sample drawn from a comprehensive nonprofit database, they analyze how major profile features of the nonprofit sector vary by sampling source and by how broadly researchers define the sector. The results reveal significant differences in the accuracy, completeness, and response rates associated with alternative sampling sources. Non- profits found on multiple listings respond at higher rates and are more formalized than those found on only one sampling source, and sampling sources vary in the profiles they generate for the nonprofit sector. The authors conclude that researchers who wish to gen- eralize their findings to the full nonprofit sector should consider the list of incorporated nonprofits as a sampling frame—it is among the most efficient and produces the fewest distortions in nonprofit profile features. Keywords: nonprofit databases; sampling frames; research methodologies Recent years have seen growing recognition of the need for better, timelier, and more comprehensive information about the nonprofit sector, as the sec- tor’s increasing size, along with its mounting political relevance, places a pre- mium on securing good data on the sector’s scope, characteristics, and trends. Indeed, the nonprofit sector now plays a central and visible role in delivering a Note: We express our deep-felt gratitude to the many Indiana nonprofits that completed our sur- vey. Without their cooperation, we would have nothing to report. The survey is part of an ongoing project, “Indiana Nonprofit Sector: Scope and Community Dimensions,” made possible by a grant from the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector Research Fund and by support for the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy by the Indianapolis Foundation at the Central Indiana Commu- nity Foundation and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy’s Indiana Research Fund, supported in part by Lilly Endowment, Inc. Additional funding and in-kind support has been Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, June 2005 232-259 DOI: 10.1177/0899764005275379 © 2005 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action 232