Methodology
How the benchmark is built.
The benchmark measures how mission-driven organizations perform on YouTube. This page states what is in the population, how the data is collected, how often it refreshes, where it stops being reliable, and how to cite it.
At a glance
Figures read live from the benchmark tables, so this page and the dataset always agree.
5,139
Channels tracked18
Distinct metro values15
Metros with a city page33,799
Channel snapshots1,731
Active in last 90 daysAugust 6, 2026
Latest snapshotWhat counts as in the population
A channel enters the cohort when its organization type is a nonprofit, foundation, university, or healthcare organization, and its sector is anything other than for-profit. Commercial channels are held separately and are used only for the nonprofit-versus-for-profit comparison.
Each channel contributes exactly one row: its most recent snapshot. A channel captured fifty times over a year still counts once in every median, percentage, and ranking, so long-tracked channels carry no extra weight.
How the data is collected
Channel and video statistics come from the public YouTube Data API. Each pull records subscribers, total views, total videos, uploads in the trailing 90 days, average views per video, and an engagement rate derived from public views, likes, and comments. Snapshots accumulate over time, which is what makes trend comparisons possible.
Everything published here is aggregate. Medians, percentages, and distributions describe the population. Per-channel rows stay out of the public extract, because the benchmark is built from public data about named organizations that never opted into a ranking.
The site refreshes its cached figures every 24 hours.
Known limits
Where the data stops being reliable. Read these before citing any figure.
This is a curated cohort, not a census
The benchmark tracks a compiled list of mission-driven channels in selected US metros. It does not claim to cover every nonprofit on YouTube, and organizations absent from the list are absent from the figures.Metro is the organization's primary location
A channel is assigned to one metro based on where the organization is based. National organizations headquartered in a tracked metro appear in that metro, which lifts its totals.Findings are associations, not causes
Channels that publish weekly have far more subscribers than channels that publish occasionally. That relationship runs in both directions, and nothing here establishes that posting more causes growth.Dormancy is measured over 90 days
A channel with no upload in the trailing 90 days counts as dormant. Organizations that publish seasonally — around a gala or a single annual campaign — can read as dormant in an off month.Figures are point-in-time snapshots
Each pull captures public counts as YouTube reported them that day. Numbers move between pulls, and any citation should carry the snapshot date shown below.Engagement uses public counts only
Engagement rate is derived from publicly visible views, likes, and comments. It has no access to watch time, retention, or anything else that lives inside a channel's own analytics.Use it, and cite it
The aggregate extract is published openly under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Use it in reporting, in a grant application, or in a board deck. Attribution is the only condition.
Download
Metro aggregates (CSV) — one row per metro with channel counts, median subscribers, active share, and average engagement.
Full aggregate extract (JSON) — national activity bands, engagement by channel size, caption coverage, sector comparison, and mission-category breakdowns.
How to cite
RiseWorks Nonprofit YouTube Benchmark, RiseWorks Media, PBC — https://www.storyos.org/benchmarks. Snapshot August 6, 2026.
Working on a story that needs a cut of the data this extract does not cover? Ask us.