A Whole Whale Project
A daily health barometer for the US nonprofit sector — built from hiring activity, fundraising signals, and layoff data.
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The monthly reading on the 1–4 tier scale. This is the view that shows movement: the raw index sits inside a narrow band because every source is log-compressed, so month-level tier is where a change of direction actually becomes visible.
Each band is a tier. The scale is deliberately not zero-based — the index moves within a narrow range, and a zero baseline would flatten fifteen months of real change into a straight line. Breaks in the line are days with no data, not zeros.
Raw postings and ad counts per source, on a log scale so all six are readable at once — Glassdoor runs around 120,000 while Idealist runs around 2,500. This is where the movement lives; the weighted contributions barely budge because of the log transform.
Each source is scored as
ln(count) × weight × factor. The log transform compresses enormous swings in
the underlying counts into very small moves in the score.
| Source | Count swing | Score swing |
|---|---|---|
| 171.5× | 1.88× | |
| Meta · nonprofit | 14.6× | 1.32× |
| Meta · charity | 7.0× | 1.22× |
| Meta · donate | 2.8× | 1.10× |
| Idealist.org | 2.6× | 1.14× |
| Glassdoor | 2.0× | 1.06× |
| Source | Count | Contribution | Share | Status |
|---|
Most nonprofit sector reporting arrives annually, months after it could have been useful. It's hard to drive using only the rearview mirror. The Index reads the signals that move first — job postings, donation ad spend, layoff filings — and turns them into one number you can track day to day.
See whether the wider sector is hiring before you commit to a role.
Spot when competition for donor attention is rising, and plan campaigns around it.
Give your board objective sector context instead of anecdotes.
One email a month: where the Index landed, what moved it, and what it means for nonprofit teams. No spam.
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