The Ledger

Financial analysis drawn from the filings themselves.

Every article is anchored to a verified figure from public IRS Form 990 data, then cross-checked from a second, independent angle before publication. No estimates. No imputed values.

2,255

Clubs in corpus

FY24

Latest filing year

100%

Cited to source

Published analyses1 article

Financial Health Latest

35.3%

of clubs reported a deficit on their most recent Form 990

The Profitability Myth

Are country clubs profitable?

The typical club runs near break-even — a 3.8% median operating margin. But more than a third spend more than they take in, and for many the deficit recurs.

June 2026 · 8 min readRead

In the works3 forthcoming

The Capital Engine

What the initiation line on the 990 actually measures

$1.04Bcapital inflows

The Labor-Intensity Story

Why payroll is the single biggest expense line

~52%of expenses

The Shape of the Field

Why the median and the mean tell different stories

2,255clubs

Subscribers to The Quarterly get each analysis the week it publishes.

Financial analysis drawn from the filings themselves.

Are country clubs profitable?

The Capital Engine

The Labor-Intensity Story

The Shape of the Field

Read the filingsbefore the board does.

Read the filings
before the board does.