Top-Rated Nonprofits in Kentucky 2026
Kentucky has 11 nonprofits with $10.6B in combined revenue. The top-rated organization is Norton Hospitals Inc with an Efficiency Score of 83/100.
Kentucky has 11 nonprofits in the IRS Form 990 dataset ranked here by efficiency score. The NonprofitTruth nonprofit efficiency rubric combines financial health / operating reserves (40%), revenue-growth consistency (35%), and officer compensation relative to revenue (25%) into a 0-100 composite.
Reading the ranking: top of the list typically combines healthy operating reserves (the highest-weighted factor) with stable multi-year revenue and reasonable officer compensation. Large hospital and university systems often appear near the top in any state — their scale gives them deep balance sheets and steady revenue. Each nonprofit links to its full Form 990 profile. For donors trying to choose between organizations, the efficiency grade is a useful triage — but the underlying reserve position, the multi-year revenue trend, and the officer-comp ratio matter more than the composite letter on any individual decision.
Top 11 Nonprofits in Kentucky
| # | Organization | Category | Revenue | CEO Pay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norton Hospitals Inc | Health | $3.0B | $4.1M | A (83) |
| 2 | Campbellsville University Inc | Education | $133.1M | $1.7M | A (83) |
| 3 | Baptist Healthcare System Inc | Health | $3.7B | $5.1M | B (78) |
| 4 | St Elizabeth Medical Center Inc | Health | $1.9B | $9.2M | B (78) |
| 5 | University Of Kentucky Research Foundation | Education | $463.0M | $0 | B (73) |
| 6 | University Of Louisville Research Foundation Inc | Education | $631.9M | $0 | B (72) |
| 7 | Kentucky Medical Services Foundation Inc | Education | $373.7M | $0 | B (69) |
| 8 | Bellarmine University | Education | $135.9M | $2.0M | B (66) |
| 9 | Crosswater Canyon Inc | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $37.3M | $67K | C (59) |
| 10 | University Of The Cumberlands Inc | Education | $177.5M | $2.9M | C (54) |
| 11 | American Printing House For The Blind Inc | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $43.9M | $2.8M | D (49) |
Nonprofit financial data for Kentucky is sourced from IRS Form 990 filings, which all tax-exempt organizations must file annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
Norton Hospitals Inc is the top-rated nonprofit in Kentucky with an Efficiency Score of 83/100 (Grade A) and $3.0B in annual revenue.
Kentucky has 11 nonprofits in our database with a combined $10.6B in total revenue.
The Efficiency Score (0-100, A-F) measures a nonprofit's financial structure based on financial health / operating reserves (40%), revenue-growth consistency (35%), and current-officer compensation relative to revenue (25%), all from IRS Form 990 data. Higher scores indicate stronger financial structure. It does not include a program-spending ratio, which our data source does not provide.
Efficiency Score: financial health / operating reserves (40%), revenue-growth consistency (35%), current-officer compensation ratio (25%). No program-spending ratio is included — total program service expenses are not available from the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer feed.