Nonprofit & human services — Wylie Performance Partners

INDUSTRIES · NONPROFIT & HUMAN SERVICES

Every dollar recovered is a dollar
that stays in the mission.

We analyzed the reported spending of 1,725 nonprofit organizations to understand where indirect spend actually sits in this sector. What follows is what those figures show — not sector commentary, and not our opinion.

THE FINDING

The average nonprofit holds eleven supplier
relationships above six figures.

Across 1,725 organizations, the average is 10.7 contractors paid more than $100,000 in a single year. 501 hold ten or more. 223 hold twenty or more. One holds 378.

In an organization spending $40M a year, eleven six-figure relationships is not unusual — it is what happens when programs grow one grant at a time. Each may have been entirely reasonable when established. The question is who has looked at all eleven together since.

CATEGORY	SHARE WITH FILED SPEND ABOVE 1.5× PEER MEDIAN
Travel		53%
Marketing services		40%
Software & SaaS		37%
Fleet management		35%
Payroll & HR services		34%
Office supplies		33%
Professional services		33%

Method note. Share of organizations whose reported spend exceeds 1.5× the peer median. Peer groups of 50 or more, same reporting period. Above median is not overspending — it is a reason to ask why.

What makes this sector structurally different

Growth arrives by program, not by plan

A new grant means a new site, a new vehicle, a new phone line, often a new vendor. Contracts accumulate one program at a time, and no single program owns the whole.

The overhead ratio cuts both ways

Funders scrutinize administrative cost, which discourages investing in the function that would manage it. Recovery moves the ratio in the right direction without adding headcount.

Restricted funds and allowable cost

Some spend carries funder allowability rules. Recovery has to respect them, and in federally funded organizations it interacts with the indirect cost rate.

Access is not the same as use

Many organizations can buy through an association program. Whether they actually do, and in which categories, is a different question — and usually an unanswered one.

Where a conversation usually starts

Travel and fleet

The single most variable category in this sector, and usually bought as several separate arrangements.

Marketing and outreach

Agency, print and media spend that grew alongside programs rather than being consolidated.

Insurance and professional fees

Long-standing relationships that may not have been independently benchmarked recently.

WHERE WE WOULD NOT START

Anything grant-restricted where the funder specifies the arrangement, and anything that would reduce service capacity. If the data points to something we should leave alone, we would rather say so.

WHAT THE WIDER RESEARCH REPORTS

Two things shape how indirect cost is treated in this sector.

Two things shape how indirect cost is treated in this sector, and neither is about purchasing.

The de minimis indirect cost rate allowed on federal grants was raised from 10% to 15% in the 2024 uniform guidance revision.

US Office of Management and Budget, 2024

Indirect categories are commonly estimated at 20% to 40% of an organization’s total spend.

McKinsey & Company

62% of respondents across sectors named budget pressure as their leading concern, against 31% the year before.

RS Indirect Procurement Report, 2025

These figures describe ranges observed across an industry, drawn from samples that may or may not resemble your organization. We publish the source and the sample size for each one because a range is useful for orientation even when it cannot be a conclusion. None of them describe you. The analysis above this section, by contrast, comes from the reported figures of 1,725 organizations in this sector.

CONTINUE

See how cost recovery works

The four stages, the categories, and the fee model.

Read →

Other sectors

How the pattern differs elsewhere, and why.

Read →

The research behind this

What we publish, and what we are building next.

Read →

A 45-minute working session.
Your numbers. Your operating model. No assumptions.

We will talk through which of your major supplier relationships are worth revisiting, and which are grant-restricted or recently tested and should be left where they are.

No fee for the conversation, and no cost unless verified value is recovered.

Start a conversation See how cost recovery works