Financial Vulnerability among Arts Organizations: A Test of the Tuckman-Chang Measures

In the past decade, nonprofits scholars have given increased attention to the topic of vulnerability and organizational demise. An early contribution to this literature was Tuckman and Chang’s elaboration of four financial ratios that they believe could be used to predict financial vulnerability. These measures have largely escaped empirical tests. This research note describes a test of the Tuckman-Chang financial vulnerability measures among a population of nonprofit arts organizations. The article concludes that although the Tuckman-Chang measures do not have utility for all types of arts nonprofits, the measures nonetheless show substantial promise for predicting the closure of some nonprofit organizations.