Mega Nonprofits

Mega-sized nonprofits — organizations reporting over $1 billion in annual revenue on Form 990 — make up only a sliver of the U.S. tax-exempt sector. The 231 organizations in this band are dominated by national hospital systems, research universities, and a small number of foundations and federated charities. Their financial reporting is the most detailed in the dataset, with audited financial statements typically accompanying the 990.

Organizations of this size — over $1 billion in annual revenue — are rare in the nonprofit sector and tend to be national hospital systems, research universities, foundations, or large social-service networks. At this scale, fundraising is rarely the primary revenue stream; program service revenue, government grants, and investment income usually dominate the Form 990.

Revenue-tier filters group nonprofits by annual reported revenue from the most recent Form 990. The 231 mega nonprofits in this band give a like-for-like comparison set, since fundraising structure, staffing model, and reporting depth all vary substantially by organizational scale.

The 231 mega nonprofits in this view together report $966.2B in combined annual revenue on their most recent IRS Form 990 filings. Median revenue is $2.7B, and the simple average is $4.2B — 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 231 mega nonprofits we track, 131 earn an A and 94 earn a B on the Efficiency Score (combined 97% in the top two tiers, with A-grade organizations alone at 57%). Another 6 land at C, 0 at D, and 0 at F — a combined 0% in the bottom two tiers based on program ratio, reserves, growth consistency, and CEO-comp ratio drawn from each organization's most recent Form 990.

Executive compensation detail is reported on Schedule J of the Form 990 and is not always present for every organization in this list — particularly the smaller filers using Form 990-EZ.

A revenue tier is the most generous filter on the site — it groups together very different cause areas. Two organizations in the same tier might be a hospital system and a humanitarian aid charity. Both report on the same Form 990 schema, but their cost structures, revenue mixes, and reserve practices differ enough that direct comparisons need additional context. Filtering by NTEE category before comparing within a revenue tier gives the cleanest read.

The NonprofitTruth Efficiency Score is a 0–100 composite that summarizes four signals from the Form 990: program-spending ratio (50% of the score), revenue-growth consistency over multiple years (20%), months of fund reserves on the balance sheet (20%), and CEO compensation as a share of revenue (10%). 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.

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 revenue 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.