Metric Construction

Definition & Interpretation

\[Debt\: Management \: Ratio = \frac{Total \: Liabilities}{Unrestricted \: Net \: Assets} \]

This metric measures how much an organization is relying on funding from lending entities and the amount of free, unrestricted cash it has to pay back those loans.

A high value in this metric could mean an organization is highly leveraged and thus that it has reduced ability to borrow more money in the future. Conversely, a low value indicates the organization may not be leveraging its assets to achieve the most growth and impact it could or that there is a dearth of credit available from lending entities.

Variables

Note: This data is available only for organizations that file full 990s. [Organizations with revenues <$200,000 and total assets <$500,000 have the option to not file a full 990 and file an EZ instead.]

  • Numerator: Total LIabilities

    • On 990: Part X, line 26B
      • SOI PC EXTRACTS: totliabend
    • On EZ: Part II, line 26B
      • SOI PC EXTRACTS: totliabend

  • Denominator: Unrestricted Net Assets

    • On 990: Part X, Line 27B -SOI PC EXTRACTS: unrstrctnetasstsend

    • On EZ: Not Available -SOI PC EXTRACTS: Not Available 



# TEMPORARY VARIABLES 
liabilities  <- ( core$totliabend)
unres_nassets <- ( core$unrstrctnetasstsend)

# can't divide by zero
unres_nassets[ unres_nassets == 0 ] <- NA

# SAVE RESULTS 
core$debt_mgmnt_ratio <-  liabilities / unres_nassets
                     
# summary( core$debt_mgmnt_ratio )

Standardize Scales

Check high and low values to see what makes sense.

x.05 <- quantile( core$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 0.05, na.rm=T )
x.95 <- quantile( core$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 0.95, na.rm=T )

ggplot( core, aes(x = debt_mgmnt_ratio ) ) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5) + 
  xlim( x.05, x.95 ) 

core2 <- core

# proportion of values that are negative
mean( core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio < 0, na.rm=T ) 
## [1] 0.1700142
core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio[ core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio < 0 ] <- 0

# proption of values above 200% 
mean( core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio > 50, na.rm=T ) 
## [1] 0.009332522
core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio[ core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio > 50 ] <- 50



x.05 <- quantile( core$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 0.05, na.rm=T )
x.95 <- quantile( core$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 0.95, na.rm=T )

core2 <- core

# proportion of values that are negative
# mean( core2$der < 0, na.rm=T ) 

# proption of values above 1% 
# mean( core2$der > 5, na.rm=T ) 

# WINSORIZATION AT 5th and 95th PERCENTILES

core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio[ core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio < x.05 ] <- x.05
core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio[ core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio > x.95 ] <- x.95

Metric Scope

Tax data is available for full 990 filers, so this metric does not describe any organizations with Gross receipts < $200,000 and Total assets < $500,000. Some organizations with receipts or assets below those thresholds may have filed a full 990, but these would be exceptions.

The data have been capped to those with values between 5% and 95% of the normal distribution to cut off outliers and exempt organizations with zero profitability (though negative values are allowed still).

Reference

Any cited works here…

Descriptive Statistics

Convert all monetary variables to thousands of dollars. Scale up metric (multiply by 100) for readability.


core2 %>%
  mutate( debt_mgmnt_ratio = debt_mgmnt_ratio * 100,
    totrevenue = totrevenue / 1000,
    totfuncexpns = totfuncexpns / 1000, 
    lndbldgsequipend = lndbldgsequipend / 1000,
    totassetsend = totassetsend / 1000,
    totliabend = totliabend / 1000,
    totnetassetend = totnetassetend / 1000 ) %>% 
  select( STATE,  NTEE1, NTMAJ12, 
          debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
          AGE, 
          totrevenue, totfuncexpns, 
          lndbldgsequipend, totassetsend, 
          totnetassetend, totliabend ) %>%

  stargazer( type = s.type, 
             digits=0, 
             summary.stat = c("min","p25","median",
                              "mean","p75","max", "sd"),
             covariate.labels = c("Debt Management Ratio (x100)", "Age", 
                                  "Revenue ($1k)", "Expenses($1k)", 
                                  "Buildings ($1k)", "Total Assets ($1k)",
                                  "Net Assets ($1k)", "Liabiliies ($1k)"))
Statistic Min Pctl(25) Median Mean Pctl(75) Max St. Dev.
Debt Management Ratio (x100) -610 2 31 55 120 773 281
Age 3 22 30 32 41 95 15
Revenue (1k) -5,377 259 909 4,522 3,672 408,932 14,286
Expenses(1k) 0 263 840 4,192 3,328 382,667 13,466
Buildings (1k) -4 79 824 3,504 2,868 513,509 13,210
Total Assets (1k) -7,552 778 2,446 9,262 7,477 672,021 27,039
Net Assets (1k) -178,870 156 1,094 4,553 4,079 531,068 15,470
Liabiliies (1k) -2,707 115 816 4,709 3,133 705,623 18,722

What proportion of orgs have debt management ratios equal to zero?

prop.zero <- mean( core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio == 0, na.rm=T )

In the sample, 3 percent of the organizations have debt management ratios equal to zero. These organizations are dropped from subsequent graphs to keep the visualizations clean. The interpretation of the graphics should be the distributions of debt management ratios for organizations that have positive or negative values.

###
### ADD QUANTILES
###
###   function create_quantiles() defined in r-functions.R

core2$exp.q   <- create_quantiles( var=core2$totfuncexpns,   n.groups=5 )
core2$rev.q   <- create_quantiles( var=core2$totrevenue,     n.groups=5 )
core2$asset.q <- create_quantiles( var=core2$totnetassetend, n.groups=5 )
core2$age.q   <- create_quantiles( var=core2$AGE,            n.groups=5 )
core2$land.q   <- create_quantiles( var=core2$lndbldgsequipend,    n.groups=5 )

Debt Management Ratio Density

min.x <- min( core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio, na.rm=T )
max.x <- max( core2$debt_mgmnt_ratio, na.rm=T )

ggplot( core2, aes(x = debt_mgmnt_ratio )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
  xlim( min.x, max.x  ) +
  xlab( variable.label ) +
  theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
         axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
         axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Debt Management Ratio by NTEE Major Code

core3 <- core2 %>% filter( ! is.na(NTEE1) )
table( core3$NTEE1) %>% sort(decreasing=TRUE) %>% kable()
Var1 Freq
Housing 2837
Community Development 1585
Human Services 1102 

t <- table( factor(core3$NTEE1) ) 
df <- data.frame( x=Inf, y=Inf, 
                  N=paste0( "N=", as.character(t) ), 
                  NTEE1=names(t) )

ggplot( core3, aes( x=debt_mgmnt_ratio ) ) + 
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5) + 
  # xlim( -0.1, 1 ) +
  labs( title="Nonprofit Subsectors" ) + 
  xlab( variable.label ) + 
  facet_wrap( ~ NTEE1, nrow=1 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 15 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank(),
           strip.text = element_text( face="bold") ) +  # size=20 
  geom_text( data=df, 
             aes(x, y, label=N ), 
             hjust=2, vjust=3, 
             color="gray60", size=6 )

Debt Management Ratio by Region

table( core2$Region) %>% kable()
Var1 Freq
Midwest 1444
Northeast 1368
South 1610
West 1088 
t <- table( factor(core2$Region) ) 
df <- data.frame( x=Inf, y=Inf, 
                  N=paste0( "N=", as.character(t) ), 
                  Region=names(t) )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(Region) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    xlab( "Census Regions" ) + 
    ylab( variable.label ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ Region, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() ) + 
    geom_text( data=df, 
             aes(x, y, label=N ), 
             hjust=2, vjust=3, 
             color="gray60", size=6 )

table( core2$Division ) %>% kable()
Var1 Freq
East North Central 1038
East South Central 289
Middle Atlantic 904
Mountain 303
New England 464
Pacific 785
South Atlantic 900
West North Central 406
West South Central 421 
t <- table( factor(core2$Division) ) 
df <- data.frame( x=Inf, y=Inf, 
                  N=paste0( "N=", as.character(t) ), 
                  Division=names(t) )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(Division) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    xlab( "Census Sub-Regions (10)" ) + 
    ylab( variable.label ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ Division, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() ) + 
    geom_text( data=df, 
             aes(x, y, label=N ), 
             hjust=2, vjust=3, 
             color="gray60", size=6 )

Debt Management Ratio by Nonprofit Size (Expenses)

ggplot( core2, aes(x = totfuncexpns )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
  xlim( quantile(core2$totfuncexpns, c(0.02,0.98), na.rm=T ) )

core2$totfuncexpns[ core2$totfuncexpns < 1 ] <- 1
# core2$totfuncexpns[ is.na(core2$totfuncexpns) ] <- 1

if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2
}

jplot( log10(core3$totfuncexpns), core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Nonprofit Size (logged Expenses)", 
       ylab=variable.label,
       xaxt="n", xlim=c(3,10) )
axis( side=1, 
      at=c(3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), 
      labels=c("1k","10k","100k","1m","10m","100m","1b","10b") )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(exp.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5) + 
    labs( title="Nonprofit Size (logged expenses)" ) + 
    xlab( variable.label ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ exp.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Debt Management Ratio by Nonprofit Size (Revenue)

ggplot( core2, aes(x = totrevenue )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
  xlim( quantile(core2$totrevenue, c(0.02,0.98), na.rm=T ) ) + 
  theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

core2$totrevenue[ core2$totrevenue < 1 ] <- 1

if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2
}

jplot( log10(core3$totrevenue), core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Nonprofit Size (logged Revenue)", 
       ylab=variable.label,
       xaxt="n", xlim=c(3,10) )
axis( side=1, 
      at=c(3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), 
      labels=c("1k","10k","100k","1m","10m","100m","1b","10b") )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(rev.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    labs( title="Nonprofit Size (logged revenues)" ) + 
    xlab( variable.label ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ rev.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Debt Management Ratio by Nonprofit Size (Net Assets)

ggplot( core2, aes(x = totnetassetend )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5) + 
  xlim( quantile(core2$totnetassetend, c(0.02,0.98), na.rm=T ) ) + 
  xlab( "Net Assets" ) +
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

core2$totnetassetend[ core2$totnetassetend < 1 ] <- NA

if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2
}

jplot( log10(core3$totnetassetend), core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Nonprofit Size (logged Net Assets)", 
       ylab=variable.label,
       xaxt="n", xlim=c(3,10) )
axis( side=1, 
      at=c(3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), 
      labels=c("1k","10k","100k","1m","10m","100m","1b","10b") )

core2$totnetassetend[ core2$totnetassetend < 1 ] <- NA
core2$asset.q <- create_quantiles( var=core2$totnetassetend, n.groups=5 )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(asset.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    labs( title="Nonprofit Size (logged net assets, if assets > 0)" ) + 
    xlab( variable.label ) + 
    ylab( "" ) + 
    facet_wrap( ~ asset.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Total Assets for Comparison

core2$totassetsend[ core2$totassetsend < 1 ] <- NA
core2$tot.asset.q <- create_quantiles( var=core2$totassetsend, n.groups=5 )

if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2
}

jplot( log10(core3$totassetsend), core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Nonprofit Size (logged Total Assets)", 
       ylab=variable.label,
       xaxt="n", xlim=c(3,10) )
axis( side=1, 
      at=c(3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), 
      labels=c("1k","10k","100k","1m","10m","100m","1b","10b") )

ggplot( core2, aes(x = totassetsend )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5) + 
  xlim( quantile(core2$totassetsend, c(0.02,0.98), na.rm=T ) ) + 
  xlab( "Net Assets" ) +
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(tot.asset.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    xlab( "Nonprofit Size (logged total assets, if assets > 0)" ) + 
    ylab( variable.label ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ tot.asset.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Debt Management Ratio by Nonprofit Age

ggplot( core2, aes(x = AGE )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5 )  

core2$AGE[ core2$AGE < 1 ] <- NA

if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2
}

jplot( core3$AGE, core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Nonprofit Age", 
       ylab=variable.label ) 

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(age.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    labs( title="Nonprofit Age" ) + 
    xlab( variable.label ) +
    ylab( "" ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ age.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Debt Management Ratio by Land and Building Value

ggplot( core2, aes(x = lndbldgsequipend )) +  
  geom_density( alpha = 0.5 )  

core2$lndbldgsequipend[ core2$lndbldgsequipend < 1 ] <- NA
if( nrow(core2) > 10000 )
{
  core3 <- sample_n( core2, 10000 )
} else
{
  core3 <- core2


jplot( log10(core3$lndbldgsequipend), core3$debt_mgmnt_ratio, 
       xlab="Land and Building Value (logged)", 
       ylab=variable.label,
       xaxt="n", xlim=c(3,10) )
axis( side=1, 
      at=c(3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), 
      labels=c("1k","10k","100k","1m","10m","100m","1b","10b") )
}

core2 %>% 
  filter( ! is.na(land.q) ) %>% 
  ggplot( aes(debt_mgmnt_ratio) )  + 
    geom_density( alpha = 0.5 ) + 
    labs( title="Land and Building Value" ) + 
    xlab( variable.label ) +
    ylab( "" ) +
    facet_wrap( ~ land.q, nrow=3 ) + 
    theme_minimal( base_size = 22 )  + 
    theme( axis.title.y=element_blank(),
           axis.text.y=element_blank(), 
           axis.ticks.y=element_blank() )

Save Metrics

core.debt_mgmnt_ratio <- select( core, ein, tax_pd, debt_mgmnt_ratio )
saveRDS( core.debt_mgmnt_ratio, "03-data-ratios/m-10-debt-management-ratio.rds" )
write.csv( core.debt_mgmnt_ratio, "03-data-ratios/m-10-debt-management-ratio.csv" )









Metrics generated by Jesse Lecy and Nathan Dietz
Content licensed under Creative Commons: (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Source code is available on GitHub

The work is supported by the
National Center for Charitable Statistics
at the Urban Institute