Grade A, Top Tier on the Efficiency Score

An A grade — Efficiency Score 80 or higher — is the top tier of the distribution. The 133 organizations that earn an A combine healthy operating reserves with consistent multi-year revenue growth and current-officer compensation that scales reasonably with revenue. Many are mature mid-sized to large nonprofits with audited financials and stable programs.

Grade A groups every organization whose Efficiency Score lands in this band. The grade is descriptive — it summarizes the combination of financial reserves, revenue-growth consistency, and officer-comp ratio drawn from the 990, not the social impact of the work.

The 133 grade A nonprofits in this view together report $405.8B in combined annual revenue on their most recent IRS Form 990 filings. Median revenue is $2.1B, and the simple average is $3.1B — a gap that reflects the long-tail distribution typical of the nonprofit sector, where a handful of large organizations account for most aggregate dollars.

Across the 133 grade A nonprofits we track, 133 earn an A and 0 earn a B on the Efficiency Score (combined 100% in the top two tiers, with A-grade organizations alone at 100%). Another 0 land at C, 0 at D, and 0 at F — a combined 0% in the bottom two tiers based on financial reserves, revenue-growth consistency, and officer-comp ratio drawn from each organization's most recent Form 990.

Across the grade A nonprofits where Schedule J compensation is reported, the average top executive received $9.0M in total compensation in the most recent filing year. The 990's Part VII and Schedule J break out base pay, bonuses, deferred compensation, retirement plan contributions, and non-taxable benefits separately.

The grade is a starting point. For any organization in the list above, the three factors that compose the score — financial health / operating reserves, revenue-growth consistency, and current-officer-comp ratio — are reported separately on the profile page. Reading those three numbers tells you which dimension drove the grade, which is usually more useful than the headline letter on its own.

The NonprofitTruth Efficiency Score is a 0–100 composite that summarizes three signals the IRS Form 990 feed actually reports: financial health and months of operating reserves on the balance sheet (40% of the score), revenue-growth consistency over multiple years (35%), and current-officer compensation as a share of revenue (25%). It does not include a program-spending ratio — total program service expenses are not exposed by the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer feed, and we do not estimate that figure. The grade A–F mapping is purely descriptive — it summarizes the financial structure that the 990 reveals, not the social impact, program quality, or outcomes of the work the organization does. Donors evaluating impact should pair these financial signals with program-level evaluations from sources like Charity Navigator, GiveWell, or the organization's own audited reports.

Top-tier scores often correlate with mature operations and stable programs. They do not guarantee impact — that is a separate question that program evaluators address better than the 990 alone.

All financials on this page come from each organization's IRS Form 990 — the federal information return that 501(c)(3) public charities, private foundations, and most other tax-exempt organizations must file annually. The Form 990 is a public document. We ingest it primarily through the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer feed, which mirrors the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search dataset. Original e-file XML and PDF copies of any return can be looked up directly at the IRS, ProPublica, or the Candid (formerly GuideStar) directory.

Each organization in this grade band has its underlying Form 990 available free of charge from the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, or the Candid (GuideStar) directory.