US charity revenue by size, FY2024: three quarters of charities share 2% of the money

Key findings

How is US charity revenue spread across charity sizes?

US charity revenue is concentrated in a small group of very large organisations. The two smallest size bands hold three quarters of all filers but 2.1% of the money, and the band of USD 100 million and above holds almost three quarters of it on its own. Every charity above USD 1 million in revenue filed the full Form 990; the 990-EZ filers all sit in the two smallest bands.

US 501(c)(3) public charities that filed Form 990 or 990-EZ for FY2024 with total revenue above zero, one filing per charity. FY2024 filings published so far; data snapshot 21 October 2026. Shares do not add to exactly 100% because of rounding.

How concentrated is US charity revenue?

Ranked from largest to smallest, the largest 1% of filing charities report three quarters of all revenue, and the smaller half of filers together report about half a percent. The median US public charity that filed for FY2024 reported USD 222,645 in revenue: half of filers reported more, half reported less.

Same population as Finding 1: US 501(c)(3) public charities that filed Form 990 or 990-EZ for FY2024 with total revenue above zero. FY2024 filings published so far; data snapshot 21 October 2026. The largest 1% is the first 1% of the ranking, rounded up.

How much of US charity revenue do hospitals and universities hold?

Hospitals as coded by the IRS are 0.9% of filers and report 39.0% of all US charity revenue. Counting outpatient health care as well raises that to 47.4%, and adding higher education brings it to 45.4% (hospitals as coded) or 53.9% (hospitals and outpatient health care). Sector-wide averages therefore mostly describe these organisations, not a typical charity. All of these shares are lower bounds, because some large health systems are coded outside these ranges or have no NTEE code at all.

Same population as Finding 1, 357,916 filers. FY2024 filings published so far; data snapshot 21 October 2026. NTEE codes are matched on their first three characters. The groups overlap: each row is measured against all filers, so rows do not add up.

"Reported revenue" is not the same as donations. It includes fees for services, government contracts and investment income. That is why hospitals and universities, which earn most of their revenue from patients, students and contracts, dominate the top of the distribution.

How we measured this

Every figure comes from IRS e-file data as held in the GiveRadar database on 21 October 2026. We counted organisations only; no individual charity is named or ranked here.

• Source. IRS Form 990 and Form 990-EZ e-file returns. Revenue is total revenue as reported on the return (Form 990 Part I line 12, Form 990-EZ line 9).
• Population. US organisations that filed Form 990 or 990-EZ for FY2024 with total revenue above zero. Private foundations (Form 990-PF) are not included. Organisations GiveRadar has excluded as not being charities are left out.
• 501(c)(3) check. Status was checked against the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (files eo1 to eo4, published 13 October 2026). 12 organisations the IRS lists under another subsection of 501(c) were removed. 2,245 filers that are no longer in the current master file were kept: they filed as public charities for FY2024, and their status usually ended after filing.
• One filing per charity. Where a charity has more than one FY2024 filing, the filing with the highest total revenue is used.
• Fiscal year. A fiscal year is labelled by the calendar year in which it ends, so FY2024 covers financial years ending at any point in 2024.
• Size bands. Each charity is placed in one band by its FY2024 total revenue: under USD 100,000; USD 100,000 to under 1 million; USD 1 million to under 10 million; USD 10 million to under 100 million; USD 100 million and above.
• Concentration. All filers are ranked by total revenue. The largest 1% is the first 1% of that ranking, rounded up (3,580 charities); the smaller 50% is the bottom half (178,958). Each group's share is its total revenue divided by the total for all filers.
• NTEE codes. NTEE codes are assigned by the IRS and come from its Exempt Organizations Business Master File; where that field was empty, the code in the e-filed return is used. GiveRadar does not assign NTEE codes. Codes are matched on their first three characters. Hospitals as coded by the IRS are E20 to E24; hospitals and outpatient health care are all E2x and E3x codes; higher education is B40 to B43. Code E03 (health professional societies and associations) is not counted. Some large health systems are coded outside these ranges or have no code, so all NTEE-based shares are lower bounds.

What this does not mean

A small charity is not a weaker charity, and a large one is not a better one. These figures describe how revenue is distributed across the sector. They say nothing about the impact, effectiveness or conduct of any organisation.

• Revenue is not donations. Reported revenue includes fees for services, government contracts and investment income as well as gifts. Do not describe these shares as shares of giving.
• Nothing here says where revenue comes from. GiveRadar stores total revenue per filing but not yet the individual revenue lines (contributions, program service revenue, investment income), so this note cannot split revenue by source.
• The smallest organisations are not included. Organisations that file the Form 990-N e-Postcard report no financial figures, so they are not in this population. Including them would add many very small charities and most likely make revenue concentration higher, not lower.
• FY2024 is still arriving. Form 990 can be filed up to 10.5 months after year end and IRS e-file releases lag further, so late filers are missing. Quote these figures as "FY2024 filings published so far".
• Amounts are nominal. All amounts are in US dollars as reported, not adjusted for inflation.
• NTEE-based shares are lower bounds. 12.8% of filers, with 9.3% of all revenue, have no NTEE code, and some hospitals and universities are among them.

Download the data

The aggregate tables behind this note are free to reuse under CC-BY-4.0. They contain counts, totals and shares per size band and per group, and the median, with no per-charity rows.