Largest nonprofits in the US: the 25 biggest by revenue, and the largest charities

This list is for anyone who sells to large nonprofits (software, consulting, audit and tax, fundraising services, facilities, staffing) and for anyone who wants to know which nonprofits are biggest. It ranks US tax-exempt organizations by the total revenue on their most recent Form 990, as recorded in the IRS's Exempt Organizations Business Master File (posted October 13, 2026). Each organization appears under its own employer identification number, the way the IRS records it. For how to download the full list of 1.98 million exempt organizations, see the list of nonprofit organizations.

The 25 largest nonprofits by revenue

Revenue is the IRS file's Form 990 revenue amount: total revenue from Part I, line 12 of the organization's most recent return. Location is the address in the IRS file. All are 501(c)(3) organizations unless the type says otherwise. Stanford University ($10.15 billion) is 26th.

Read the table with three cautions. First, the IRS records returns, not systems: Kaiser's health plan and hospitals file separately, and Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic each have a second large return ($9.68 billion and $7.93 billion), so compare whole systems using their audited financial statements. Second, revenue on Form 990 includes contributions and investment income, so donor-advised fund sponsors such as Fidelity Charitable report very large revenue in years when donors give heavily. Third, the dates differ: each figure is from the latest return the IRS had processed by October 2026.

The largest charities

Most people searching for the largest charities mean organizations that raise money for a cause. Leaving out health care providers, universities and schools, grantmakers and donor-advised fund sponsors, the largest US 501(c)(3)s by revenue are:

Our selection from the IRS file: 501(c)(3)s with a US address whose NTEE category is arts, environment, animals, health charities, food, housing, public safety and relief, youth, human services, international, civil rights, community improvement or religion. Donor-advised fund sponsors and one university with a mismatched category are excluded. NTEE is the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities code in the IRS file: K is food, P human services, Q international affairs, X religion, A arts and G health charities.

Form 990 counts noncash contributions, such as donated medicines and products, in revenue (Part VIII, line 1g shows how much). Seven of the 15 are coded Q, international affairs. Check line 1g before comparing any charity's cash fundraising with another's.

How big the biggest are

IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, four regional files, posted October 13, 2026. Organizations that don't file Form 990, including most churches, have no revenue amount.

Of the 604 organizations with $1 billion or more, at least 371 are classified as health care, 64 as education and 17 as philanthropy and grantmaking; 97 have no category code in the IRS file, and many of those, such as UPMC, are also health systems. By state, New York has the most nonprofits with $100 million or more in revenue (537), then California (520), Texas (264), Pennsylvania (260), Florida (235), Illinois (215) and Massachusetts (208).

How this list is built

• What's counted: total revenue from each organization's most recent Form 990, as the IRS records it in the Business Master File extract. It includes contributions, program service revenue (such as patient care or tuition), investment income and other revenue.
• Who's counted: every tax-exempt organization in the file, including 501(c)(4) social welfare groups and 501(c)(8) fraternal societies, each under its own EIN.
• What's left out: churches and other organizations that don't file Form 990, public universities that are part of state government, and foreign charities. Forbes, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and The NonProfit Times publish their own lists, often ranked by private donations; we didn't use them.

Where the buying happens at a large nonprofit

General guidance, informed by the Form 990.

• Health systems and universities buy like large companies: central procurement, a CFO and CIO, group purchasing contracts, formal RFPs and board approval for big contracts.
• Large charities run lean back offices relative to their size, so finance, technology and fundraising operations leaders each own a budget and look hard at cost per dollar raised.
• The Form 990 names the buyers. Part VII lists officers, directors, trustees, key employees and the highest-compensated employees with their titles, and Part I gives the number of employees. That's a public, dated starting point for who runs finance, technology and fundraising.
• Audit and governance follow the fiscal year. Most organizations here have June, August, September or December year-ends, so audit, budgeting and vendor reviews cluster in the months before.

Worked example: an audit firm targets large Ohio nonprofits

Illustrative example. The firm and its fees are fictional; the counts come from the IRS Business Master File posted October 13, 2026.

The seller: Lakeline Assurance (lakeline.example), a regional audit and tax firm, wants nonprofit audit clients with $100 million or more in revenue in Ohio.

What the data shows. Ohio has 156 tax-exempt organizations with $100 million or more in revenue on their latest Form 990, 28 of them over $1 billion. Of the 156, 73 are classified as health care, 19 as education and 26 have no category code; 134 are 501(c)(3)s.

The arithmetic. Lakeline leaves out the 28 organizations over $1 billion and focuses on the 112 between $100 million and $500 million (96 of them 501(c)(3)s). At an illustrative average audit and tax fee of $180,000, winning 6 clients is $1.08 million a year (6 × $180,000).

The plan.

1. Sort by fiscal year-end (the tax period in the IRS file), and approach each organization well before its year closes, when auditor decisions are usually made.
2. Read Part VII of each Form 990 for the CFO, treasurer and board chair, and the audited financial statements for the current auditor.
3. Open with something specific, such as a new program, a merger or rapid revenue growth visible across their last two returns.

Pulling the names, year-ends and recent changes for 60 organizations is the slow part. Bebop researches each account in a list like this and writes a playbook for it.

Next step: for the full download of all exempt organizations by state and category, use the list of nonprofit organizations guide.