Live rankings and performance data for 257+ for-impact YouTube channels across New York City Metro.Updated weekly
How New York City nonprofit YouTube channels compare to national nonprofit and industry benchmarks — and where the biggest opportunities for growth are hiding.
The typical New York City nonprofit has 1.2K subscribers, on par with the 1.0K national median for small nonprofits.
The typical New York City channel gets 634 views per video, well above the 400 national median.
New York City's typical 1.25% engagement trails the 2.5% national median. Adding CTAs, responding to comments, and posting Shorts can boost this significantly.
The typical New York City nonprofit uploads 4 videos per 90 days vs. 4 nationally. 183 of 257 channels are active — solid consistency.
With a median of just 1.2K subscribers, most New York City nonprofits have small audiences — but that's typical for local organizations. The average (44.3K) is higher because a few large channels pull it up. Even reaching 1K subscribers puts a channel in the top quartile locally.
We use medians because a few large channels (avg: 44.3K subs) skew the average 37× higher than the median (1.2K). The median represents what the typical New York City nonprofit actually looks like — and what you should benchmark against.
New York City channels are relatively active, but engagement rates lag national benchmarks. Focus on Shorts, community engagement, and YouTube SEO to close the gap.
Where most channels fall — the majority have under 5K subscribers
Data-backed priorities ranked by potential impact — where New York City nonprofits should focus to close the gap with national benchmarks
New York City's 1.25% median engagement is below the 5.4% national average for small channels. Quick wins: add a CTA in the first 30 seconds, pin a comment with a question, and respond to every comment within 1 hour to boost algorithmic ranking.
The median New York City channel gets 634 views/video vs. 2,000 nationally for similar-sized channels. Optimize titles for search (use keywords your audience Googles), create custom thumbnails with faces and text, and use 8-12 relevant tags per video.
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Channels selected by AI for exceptional content quality and impact

None Can Run Away: War crimes and crimes against humanity in Burkina Faso
155.0K subscribers
Despite a massive 155k subscriber base, Human Rights Watch struggles with a dormant audience, yielding a view-to-subscriber ratio of just 0.8%. While their investigative storytelling is top-tier and upload consistency is strong (42 videos in 90 days), a glaring 2% caption coverage rate is a major accessibility failure for a global rights organization.

“Teachers Really Took Interest in Me” — Imani’s First Year at Great Oaks Legacy
342 subscribers
Great Oaks Charter School maintains a healthy upload cadence (12 videos in 90 days) and excels at mission storytelling through strong, student-centric titles like 'Newark Made Them.' However, a severe lack of accessibility (2% caption coverage) and zero average comments suggest the audience is passive, with overall metrics heavily skewed by a single outlier video.

Engineers change the game with their Desktop Waterjet
123.0K subscribers
ASME excels at mission storytelling, using compelling titles like 'The Risky Gamble That Built The Jet Age' rather than generic organizational updates. While they maintain a consistent upload schedule of about 2 videos per month, their recent audience resonance is low, with new videos averaging only 2K views despite a 123K subscriber base. Their overall metrics are heavily skewed by a single viral video with over 350K views.
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How New York City nonprofits structure their YouTube content — from long-form storytelling to quick Shorts
Best avg views per video
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc
586 videos · 11.0M total views
The Carnegie Hall Corporation
2051 videos · 43.3M total views
Saint Peters University
305 videos · 6.7M total views
Manhattan Theatre Club Inc
868 videos · 24.6M total views
Sesame Workshop
1306 videos · 2206.0M total views
Most YouTube Shorts produced
Channels sparking the most conversation — ranked by average comments per video
Contenido en Español
Original Spanish-language videos from nonprofits — a critical gap in markets with large Hispanic populations

Democracy Prep New York Charter Schools · 49 Spanish videos

Hispanic Federation Inc · 39 Spanish videos

Community Healthcare Network Inc · 27 Spanish videos
5%
of tracked channels have any Spanish content
12
channels with Spanish videos out of 257 tracked
0
channels with Spanish as primary language
🌐 Bilingual · 49 Spanish videos · 2.6K subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 39 Spanish videos · 1.1K subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 27 Spanish videos · 280 subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 9 Spanish videos · 73.5K subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 5 Spanish videos · 186 subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 2 Spanish videos · 12.7K subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 2 Spanish videos · 6.1K subs
en español
🌐 Bilingual · 1 Spanish video · 46.4K subs
en español
Explore channels by mission area — click a category to see top performers
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top channels and videos in that area
💎 Could your channel be a Hidden Gem?
Small channels making outsized impact get featured. See how your content scores.
Distribution and trends across all tracked channels
Bubble size = total views · Log scale on subscribers · Outliers top-left = high engagement, small audience
About RiseWorks: We produce monthly video, photo, and series content for nonprofits on a flat subscription. The Benchmark is how we give back to the sector.
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Data sourced from the YouTube Data API. Last updated 7/7/2026. Rankings reflect publicly available channel statistics.