2026 National ASO Survey
The 2026 National ASO Survey is a first-of-its-kind effort to collect information on arts service organizations operating in the United States today. It is a part of our multi-phase research study Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem, which aims to understand the role, impact, and ongoing evolution of ASOs.
To start the survey, please review the items below and complete your informed consent.
THE BASICS
ASOs are essential connective tissue within the arts ecosystem—
Help us tell their story!
Thriving arts ecosystems require support, coordination, care, and sustained infrastructure—and though their work often takes place behind the scenes, research has shown that ASOs are essential connective tissue within those ecosystems. As we contend with the ongoing impact of the pandemic and a volatile societal, political, and economic environment, ASOs frequently provide benefits to the most under-resourced artists and groups.
The knowledge generated through this research will belong to and benefit the field, helping organizations, artists, and arts workers better find, understand, advocate for, and support one another. It will contribute to a growing open-source database of ASOs operating in the United States today, and in doing so strengthen the public data infrastructure for the arts.
Take this survey if you are:
Arts Service Organizations based in the United States or Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
What is an Arts Service Organization?
“Arts Service Organizations” or “ASOs” are organizations whose mission and/or programs are focused on serving the artists, arts workers and entities who deliver the arts as experiences, goods, services and meaning to communities of all types and geographic locations. They can be formally incorporated organizations, collectives, or informal groups and include regranting and intermediary organizations.
DO NOT take this survey if you are:
An individual artist and/or arts worker
An organizations based outside of the United States or Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
An ASO who has already closed and/or who will close by December 31, 2026.
A government arts agency (e.g., a state arts council or municipal arts council that receives 100% government funding)
Survey Content
The survey is divided into six sections:
(1) Survey eligibility questions
(2) Organization basics like address and operating information
(3) Audiences and disciplines served (4) Financials and fiscal health
(5) Leadership and staffing
(6) Evolution and needsQuestions are a combination of numerical, multiple choices, and open answers. Not every single question is required and not every question is applicable to every organization.
Depending on your responses, you may get different questions.
Prepare before you start
Read and/or download the full list of questions here.
You will need to reference your FY 2025 and FY 2020 financial records. Depending on your organizational structure, this may include your 990’s, P&L Statement, and/or other financial records that convey your actual income and expenses for FY 2025.
Make sure to read the Terms & Conditions and the FAQs below for more details on the survey and this research.
The survey may take 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
Taking the Survey
You can save a draft of your responses and return to it later by following the “save draft” prompts. The research team cannot see your draft responses.
To submit your data, you must select the green SUBMIT button at the end of the survey!
Submitted data cannot be changed. If you wish to change the data you will need to submit a new survey.
Organizations can rescind their survey submissions until October 15, 2026 by contacting research@consultingadc.com.
Data & Privacy
The survey is NOT anonymous. ASOs will be required to disclose their name and other details about their operating conditions.
The person completing the survey on behalf of an ASO will be required to provide their contact information.
Data collected will be reviewed, normalized and shared publicly in aggregate in a future report publication and through our open source database the National ASO List & Data Tool.
Only the ADC Consulting Research Team will have access to all the raw data.
The survey will collect responses from July 30, 2026 to October 9, 2026.
TAKE THE SURVEY
Informed Consent
As a matter of policy and best practice, ADC Consulting, LLC (ADC) seeks Informed Consent when conducting research and information gathering activities. By participating in this survey, I understand and agree to the following:
ADC is leading the national research study Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem Phase 2 National Scan
As a part of this study, ADC is gathering data on Arts Service Organizations (“ASO”) based in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
I am authorized by my ASO to provide the information requested in this survey about my ASO and agree to provide information that is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
The survey is not anonymous. ASOs will be required to disclose their name and other details about their operating conditions. Data collected will be reviewed and normalized and shared publicly in aggregate in a future report publication and in the National ASO List & Data Tool.
As the individual authorized to complete this survey on behalf of my ASO, I will be required to provide my personal contact information. My contact information WILL NOT be shared publicly and will only be used if I give ADC permission to reach out to me with questions regarding the data I provided through the survey. ADC reserves the right to share your contact information with the ASO you purport to represent should that ASO allege that you were not authorized to share its information.
The ASO has the right to rescind its survey submission through October 15, 2026.
I have read the terms and conditions for the completion of the survey and have reviewed the FAQs to address any pertinent questions I may have.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About the Survey
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The 2026 National ASO Survey is a first-of-its-kind effort to collect information on arts service organizations operating in the United States today. It is a part of our multi-phase research study Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem, which aims to understand the role, impact, and ongoing evolution of ASOs.
Arts Service Organizations are entities whose mission and/or programs are focused on serving the artists, arts workers and entities who deliver the arts as experiences, goods, services and meaning to communities of all types and geographic locations. They can be formally incorporated organizations, collectives, or informal groups and include regranting and intermediary organizations.
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This survey is for Arts Service Organizations based in the United States or Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
In the context of this research, “Arts Service Organizations” or “ASOs” are organizations whose mission and/or programs are focused on serving the artists, arts workers and entities who deliver the arts as experiences, goods, services and meaning to communities of all types and geographic locations. They can be formally incorporated organizations, collectives, or informal groups and include regranting and intermediary organizations.
This research is NOT for:
Individual artists and/or arts workers
Organizations based outside of the United States or Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
ASOs who have already closed and/or who will close by December 31, 2026.
Government arts agencies (e.g., a state arts council or municipal arts council that receives 100% government funding)
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Item description
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Thriving arts ecosystems require support, coordination, care, and sustained infrastructure—and though their work often takes place behind the scenes, research has shown that ASOs are essential connective tissue within those ecosystems. As we contend with the ongoing impact of the pandemic and a volatile societal, political, and economic environment, ASOs frequently provide benefits to the most under-resourced artists and groups.
The knowledge generated through this research will belong to and benefit the field, helping organizations, artists, and arts workers better find, understand, advocate for, and support one another. It will contribute to a growing open-source database of ASOs operating in the United States today, and in doing so strengthen the public data infrastructure for the arts.
ASOs are essential connective tissue within the arts ecosystem— Help us tell their story!
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The 2026 National ASO Survey opened on Thursday, July 30, 2026 and will close on Friday, October 9, 2026.
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The survey is divided into six sections:
Survey eligibility questions
Organization basics like address and operating information
Audiences and disciplines served
Financials and fiscal health
Leadership and staffing
Evolution and needs
Questions are a combination of numerical, multiple choices, and open answers. Not every single question is required and not every question is applicable to every organization. Depending on your responses, you may get different questions.
Financial information requested includes 2025 revenue and expenses including breakdown into broad categories (i.e. personnel and non-personnel expenses and earned, contributed and other income.) The survey also asks about how revenue and expenses have changed in the last five years. You will need to reference your FY 2025 and 2020 financials.
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In the context of this research, “Arts Service Organizations” or “ASOs” are organizations whose mission and/or programs are focused on serving the artists, arts workers and entities who deliver the arts as experiences, goods, services and meaning to communities of all types and geographic locations. They can be formally incorporated organizations, collectives, or informal groups and include regranting and intermediary organizations.
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Yes! ADC Consulting is working with a wide range of individuals and organizations to make Phase 2 of this research possible. This includes ADC Consulting’s Research Team; an Advisory Cohort of arts workers; Voices for Creative New York as a Survey Research Partner; several Survey Communications partners; and a slew of independent consultants offering pro-bono services to ASOs.
To learn more about the ADC Consulting Research Team and the Advisory Cohort, please visit the Meet the Phase 2 Research Team section of the ASO website.
Learn more about the Survey Research and Communications Partners below.
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Item description
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Subject to change. As of July 16, 2026.
Taking the Survey
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To complete this survey, you will need to reference your FY 2025 and FY 2020 financial records. Depending on your organizational structure, this may include your 990’s, P&L Statement, and/or other financial records that convey your actual income and expenses for FY 2025.
We encourage all survey respondents to review the survey questions in advance and/or prepare responses.
You can access and download the full list of questions here.
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Yes! You can access the full list of survey questions here. This is a downloadable document that you can use to prepare your questions before you submit them directly to the survey form.
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Depending on your answers, the survey may take 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
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Anyone who has been authorized to represent an organization can submit on behalf of the organization. However, organizational leadership should be aware and said leadership should provide consent to the submission of their organization’s data to the survey.
ADC will not and cannot otherwise independently verify that the individual(s) responding to the Survey on behalf of their identified ASO are authorized to complete the survey on behalf of that ASO. If an authorized individual submitted data on behalf of your ASO without your consent please contact research@consultingadc.com.
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Only one submission is permitted per organization. If an organization accidentally submits more than one submission, the research team will use the most complete and/or recent submission.
If you wish to change the data on a survey that has already been submitted you will need to resubmit the survey with the new data and contact ADC Consulting at research@consultingadc.com to confirm your preferred submission. If you do not contact ADC Consulting about your preferred submission, ADC Consulting will select the most recent or most completed version of the data you submit. All other submissions will be destroyed.
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Yes, you can save a draft of your responses and return to it later.
To save a draft of your responses please select the SAVE button at the bottom of the survey page. When you select this button a pop-up may appear on your screen which will encourage you to create a Jotform account or to sign in to your existing Jotform account. You do not have to create a Jotform account to save the survey nor do you have to sign in to your existing jotform account if you do not wish to. Alternatively, you can select the SKIP CREATE AN ACCOUNT at the bottom of the pop up. Follow the prompts to email the link to yourself or select “ Get Draft Link” to copy the link immediately.
Your partial responses will not be submitted or visible to the research team. In order for us to receive any of your data, you must select the green SUBMIT button at the end of the survey.
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Item description
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While Jotform does not have a list of compatible browsers, their forms should work properly in any up-to-date computer or mobile browser. Jotform works on any browser that has Javascript enabled, and the company generally recommends Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer 11+, and Safari (on Mac).
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Item description
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If after reviewing the FAQ’s you still have questions, please contact us at research@consultingadc.com. A member of the ADC Consulting team will typically get back to you within 2-3 business days.
Please note some technical difficulties might be related to items that are not in ADC Consulting’s control including but not limited to Jotform’s technology or your browser, operating system, internet connection, and/or hardware. We will do the best we can to address your questions within our capacity.
Data & Privacy
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No, the survey is not anonymous. Organizations will be required to disclose their name and other details about their operating conditions. Data collected will be reviewed and normalized and shared publicly in aggregate.
The individual completing the survey will also be required to provide their contact information, however, their contact information WILL NOT be shared publicly and will only be used if you give us permission to reach out to you with questions.
Should an ASO inform ADC that an individual(s) responded to the Survey on their behalf without authority to do so, ADC reserves the right to disclose to that ASO the identity of the individual(s) who responded to the Survey.
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The 2026 National ASO Survey is the first deliverable of Phase 2 National Scan of the the mutli-phase research study Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem (ASO Research), which aims to understand the role, impacts and ongoing evolution of arts service, intermediary, and regranting organizations in the United States today.
Arts service organizations (ASOs) play a critical role in nourishing the United States arts ecosystem and have been doing so for generations. Primarily serving individual arts workers, including artists and collectives, as well as artmaking entities and the general public, ASOs frequently provide benefits to under-resourced artists and groups through capacity building, networking, advocacy, grantmaking, professional development, and/or industry research.
As the arts ecosystem contends with the ongoing impact of the pandemic and a volatile societal, political, and economic environment that is driving a new crisis, it has become necessary for individuals and entities across the arts industry to better organize and understand their role in contributing to and repairing the current conditions in order to mitigate future losses and to care for the future of the arts and its people.
This research focuses on the ways in which arts service manifests within the framework of art as “industry,” and more specifically within the nonprofit industrial complex.
It is national in scope, with a specific focus on ASOs and the individuals and entities who impact and drive their work. It is intended to serve as a starting point for sectoral organizing and provide insight into this segment of the field.
Phase 1 Background Research took place from May 2023 and concluded with the publication of findings in October 2024 which can be found by visiting the Resources & Tools section of the ASO website.
Phase 2 National Scan began in January 2026 and extends through June 2027. The 2026 National ASO Survey opens on Thursday, July 30, 2026 and will close on Friday, October 9, 2026.
For a detailed timeline of the research please refer to the ASO Research Overview.
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Item description
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Data collected will be reviewed, cleaned, and normalized.
Some of the data will be shared publicly via the National ASO List & Data Tool, a publicly available open-source database and made available for download. You can review a sample of how the tool will function by visiting the first iteration of the National ASO List & Data Tool from Phase 1 of this research.
Raw data will not be made available for public distribution and will only be accessible to ADC Consulting Research Team. Raw data for questions 3.1b, 3.4a, 3.6, 3.6a for New York State-based ASOs will be made available to our Survey Research Partner Voices for Creative New York.
The analysis of the data will also be published in the Phase 2 National Scan report in 2027.
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Primary research activities are led by Alejandra Duque Cifuentes of ADC Consulting and Senior Research and Planning Consultant Carrie Blake, in collaboration with and a team of research and administrative assistants and an Advisory Cohort of arts workers. To learn more about the people making this research possible please visit the Meet the Phase 2 Research Team section of the ASO website.
The raw data will be reviewed by the ADC Consulting Research Team which includes:
Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Project Lead
Carrie Blake, Research Consultant
Leonardo Figueiredo, Data Analyst
Maleni Palacios, Consultant - Operations & Client Services
Augustine Jimenez, Consultant - Administration
Yon Mi Kim, Consultant - Administration
Raw data for questions 3.1b, 3.4a, 3.6, 3.6a for New York State-based ASOs will be made available to our Survey Research Partner Voices for Creative New York.
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Submitted survey data cannot be changed. If you wish to change the data on a survey that has already been submitted you will need to submit a new survey with the updated information and contact ADC Consulting at research@consultingadc.com to confirm your preferred submission. If you do not contact ADC Consulting about your preferred submission, ADC Consulting will select the most recent or most completed version of the data you submit. All other submissions will be destroyed.
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Organizations can request to have their survey submission rescinded until October 15, 2026 by contacting research@consultingadc.com.
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Survey results will be available through the publication of Phase 2 National Scan report and the updated National ASO List & Data Tool in the spring of 2027.
For a detailed timeline of the research please refer to the ASO Research Overview.
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This study is anchored in ADC Consulting’s research values and principles. In practice, the application of these values across this phase of the research process, including the 2026 National ASO Survey includes:
Continuing a paid advisory cohort of members of the arts and cultural community. This includes a diverse group of individuals across lived experience, expertise, and geography, and who actively engage in the work of ASOs in different capacities.
Acknowledging the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the current rise of fascism and state-sanctioned violence. This includes its impact on the research process, the people who are a part of the process, and the cultural sector.
Acknowledging the ways in which capitalism, white supremacy, war, genocide, economic precarity, and climate change continue to impact the arts and culture sector and, therefore, the outcome of this study. This includes the roles members of the arts ecosystem including ASO’s, research leads, and research participants, play in benefitting from, exacerbating, upholding and/or being oppressed by these systems and their outcomes.
Engaging in a multi-phase research process that is iterative and considers multiple modalities, perspectives, and adapts to learning and contemporary contexts. This includes, adjusting timelines as needed, and pausing where necessary to address potential harms, new learnings, or additional approaches.
Exhausting all possible resources to ensure a large cross-section of members of the community are able to contribute to the research process. This includes sharing their stories, ideas, and areas of expertise through interviews and focus groups, and through that process, seeking their consent, compensating them for their time, and communicating transparently about the purpose and use of their information and/or contributions.
Providing a variety of accessible opportunities for participation in the data collection processes. This includes providing written and oral forms of digital data collection alongside closed captioning, ASL interpretation and/or other types of accommodations so research participants can engage in methods that best align with their access needs, time, and capacity.
Creating tools for the public to interact with, download, and analyze/interpret the data themselves. This includes providing access to normalized/clean data sets, and using a platform that allows for user-generated versions of the data to promote transparency and encourage additional analysis of the data.
Understanding that research alone cannot solve all of the problems it aims to observe, explore, or influence, including acknowledging our limitations as humans and researchers. This means working with institutions and individuals to spread the word of the study and to advocate for the application of its findings in ways that advance collective goals of liberation and well-being for arts workers, arts entities, and their communities.
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Learn more about the multi-phase research study this survey is a part of by visiting the ASO research web page.
SURVEY PARTNERS
ADC Consulting is working alongside several Survey Partners who are spreading the word about the 2026 National ASO Survey and helping us reach a broader and more representative community of respondents. Voices for Creative New York (VCNY) is the 2026 National ASO Survey Research partner. Survey Research Partners are entities and/or coalitions who partner with ADC Consulting to collect additional data on a subset of ASOs from within the study universe. As a result, entities based in the state of NY will answer additional questions specific to them, whose responses will be made available to VCNY. the research partner.
Survey Communications Partners include: Creative States Coalition, Creative West, Grantmakers in the Arts, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, New England Foundation for the Arts, Springboard for the Arts and South Arts. Additional Survey Communications Partners may be identified throughout the course of the data collection process.
FUNDERS
Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem is funded through direct investment by ADC Consulting and its collaborators and through the generous support of two philanthropic partners: Lead funding for Phase 1 from the Mellon Foundation and lead funding for Phase 2 from the Ford Foundation. Funding for Phases 3-4 of this research have not been identified. The research, its process, outcomes, and/or publications are independently led and created by ADC Consulting and are not commissioned by either funding entity nor do they represent their views. ADC Consulting is a fiscally sponsored project of IndieSpace.
