Explaining Demise Among Nonprofit Organizations reports on a study of closure of nonprofit organizations in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area from 1980 to 1994. The theoretical literature focusing on the behavior of individual and populations of organizations suggests eight reasonably distinct theoretical explanations why nonprofit organizations close. These theories include the liabilities of newness and small size, the inability to reproduce commitment, intraorganizational conflict, inability to mobilize human resources, lack of legitimacy, inability to compete for scarce or depleted financial resources, lack of connections to other organizations, and the completion of the organization’s mission. Longitudinal data collected by Joseph Galaskiewicz on organizational characteristics provide the opportunity to determine which theories have the most fidelity in terms of explaining the closure of nonprofit organizations. Of a random sample of 229 public charities interviewed in 1980, 73 had exited the panel by the end of the study period in 1994. Of these, 37 closed their doors. This study focuses on those 37 organizations that closed. Several kinds of data contribute to a final accounting of which theories are supported in the sample studied. Exit interviews with representatives from 31 of the closed organizations yield factors that interviewees believe were most important in explaining the closure of their organizations. Formal analyses of the organizational narratives provide initial insights into the reasons that organizations closed. In addition, the dissertation presents an analysis of longitudinal survey data. Rather than analyzing cause on a case-by-case basis, this approach yields probabilistic explanations about the relationships between variables hypothesized to vary with organizational closure. Results from the various analyses show consistent support for the liabilities of small size and youth, as well as the liability of competing in a sparse resource niche. Analysis of the open