Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing series, we invite a nonprofit expert to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice.

Government funding hovers on the edge of a fiscal cliff. The economy and housing markets continue to tremble. And true natural disasters are sowing human tragedy across the globe.

We depend on the nonprofit sector to help alleviate these problems. Yet, in a time of so much uncertainty and such great need, many struggle to respond. How are our fellow nonprofits doing it? We want to know, and we want to share this knowledge with the world.

Nonprofit Finance Fund is conducting its fifth annual State of the Sector survey to find out what nonprofits and the communities they serve need most. This anonymous survey asks nonprofit leaders about the management and financial challenges they’re facing as they work tirelessly on mission. In a sector that often lacks data, this survey illustrates real-time financial and operational trends.

We share the aggregated results of the survey with foundations, government entities, media, associations, advocacy organizations and nonprofits themselves. The results improve grantmaking practices, help shape conversations on the needs of the social sector, and provide a rich source of data.

Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing weekly series, each Friday we invite a nonprofit expert to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice.

In our professional and personal lives, we are all asked to take a dozen or more surveys every year. At work, I receive email surveys on everything from how we use social media to how we like the services of our vendors. At home, I get opinion questionnaires from organizations ranging from political parties to movie ticket vendors.

Being the recipient of so many surveys, I pick and choose which I respond to. No doubt you do as well. As the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) embarks on its fourth annual nonprofit State of the Sector Survey, I hope you will choose to spend a few minutes of your valuable and busy work time responding to ours. Here’s why.