Top-Rated Nonprofits in Tennessee 2026
Tennessee has 20 nonprofits with $13.1B in combined revenue. The top-rated organization is Vanderbilt University Medical Center with an Efficiency Score of 91/100.
Tennessee has 20 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 20 Nonprofits in Tennessee
| # | Organization | Category | Revenue | CEO Pay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Health | $6.9B | $24.6M | A (91) |
| 2 | Lincoln Memorial University | Education | $225.1M | $2.7M | A (86) |
| 3 | Highlander Research & Education Center Inc | Environment & Animals | $23.7M | $190K | B (79) |
| 4 | Ducks Unlimited Inc | Environment & Animals | $302.2M | $3.4M | B (78) |
| 5 | Tennessee Performing Arts Center Management Corporation | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $30.4M | $1.3M | B (72) |
| 6 | Meharry Medical College | Education | $209.4M | $5.8M | B (71) |
| 7 | St Jude Childrens Research Hospital Inc | Health | $1.7B | $9.3M | C (64) |
| 8 | Tennessee Aquarium | Environment & Animals | $31.5M | $1.1M | C (61) |
| 9 | Memphis Zoo Inc | Environment & Animals | $25.9M | $1.1M | C (60) |
| 10 | Vanderbilt University | Education | $2.3B | $20.7M | C (58) |
| 11 | Rhodes College | Education | $165.4M | $3.3M | C (57) |
| 12 | Education Loan Finance Inc | Education | $155.5M | $3.7M | C (56) |
| 13 | Country Music Foundation Inc | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $57.1M | $1.7M | C (56) |
| 14 | Belmont University | Education | $454.0M | $7.6M | C (54) |
| 15 | Memphis Brooks Museum Of Art Inc | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $44.3M | $0 | C (54) |
| 16 | University Of The South | Education | $175.3M | $3.5M | C (53) |
| 17 | Nashville Zoo Inc | Environment & Animals | $47.4M | $1.7M | C (53) |
| 18 | The University Of Tennessee Foundation Inc | Education | $211.8M | $6.3M | C (51) |
| 19 | Nashville Symphony Association | Arts, Culture & Humanities | $22.0M | $2.0M | D (41) |
| 20 | Ducks Unlimited Inc | Environment & Animals | $59.3M | $0 | F (32) |
Nonprofit financial data for Tennessee is sourced from IRS Form 990 filings, which all tax-exempt organizations must file annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the top-rated nonprofit in Tennessee with an Efficiency Score of 91/100 (Grade A) and $6.9B in annual revenue.
Tennessee has 20 nonprofits in our database with a combined $13.1B 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.