The largest nonprofits with the most assets represent the diversity of tax-exempt organizations in the United States. Universities and foundations account for about half of the top 100 largest nonprofits by assets, but hospitals, credit unions, pension / retirement funds, and fraternal societies are present as well. Each of these nonprofits has between $7.5 billion and $91 billion in assets, with a combined total of $1.8 trillion in assets (23% of the total combined nonprofit sector assets of $6.9 trillion).
Of these $1.8 trillion combined assets, $1.3 trillion are investable assets (e.g., cash, cash equivalents, stocks, bonds), $187.4 billion are ownership of land, buildings, or equipement (post-depreciation), $76.3 billion are outstanding pledges, loans, and other payments owed to organizations, and $143.8 billion are miscellaneous other assets. So while endowments comprise the majority of nonprofit sector assets, other types of assets are still important.
| Metro area | Number of nonprofits | |
|---|---|---|
| New York City |
9
|
|
| San Francisco |
6
|
|
| Chicago |
6
|
|
| Boston |
6
|
|
| San Jose |
4
|
|
| Washington DC |
3
|
|
| Seattle |
3
|
|
| Philadelphia |
3
|
|
| Los Angeles |
3
|
|
| Houston |
3
|
|
| Detroit |
3
|
|
| Number of nonprofits | Top categories | |
|---|---|---|
| Universities |
23
|
|
| General hospitals |
12
|
|
| Hospital systems |
9
|
|
| Credit unions |
8
|
|
| Private foundations |
7
|
|
| Public foundations |
5
|
|
| Fraternal societies |
3
|
|
| Corporate foundations |
3
|
|
| Specialty hospitals |
3
|
|
| School foundations |
3
|
|
| Pension and retirement funds |
2
|
|
| Insurance companies |
2
|
|
| Organizations supporting multiple international-focused nonprofits |
2
|
|
| Managed care organizations |
2
|
|
Cause IQ digitizes and cleans electronic and paper / scanned Form 990s for over 400,000 IRS-registered tax-exempt organizations. For this article, we define "nonprofit" as any tax-exempt organization registered with the IRS. This includes 501(c)(3), 501(c)(6), 501(c)(8), and all other types of nonprofits. Note that churches are not required to submit Form 990s to the IRS, therefor they are not represented in this article.
Article originally published on January 2, 2020.