Scope of the Nonprofit Sector in the U.S. The following is from the Independent Sector (last updated 10/30/09).
* There are over 1.9 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S.
* The majority of these organizations (1.5 million) make up the "independent sector". The Independent Sector includes 501(c)(3) (public charities, private foundations, and religious congregations) and 501(c)(4) (social/welfare/advocacy organizations).
* There are 1.4 million 501(c)(3) organizations.
* There are nearly 140,000 501(c)(4) organizations.
* From 1995 to 2005, the number of charitable organizations registering with the IRS has grown by 53%.
* In 2005, nonprofits employed 12.9 million individuals, or approximately 9.7% of the U.S. economy. This is greater than the number of people employd by the financial activities sector.
U.S. Charitable Giving. The following are statistics from Giving USA 2009:
* Donations to charitable causes in the U.S reached an estimated $307.65 billon in 2008, a 2% drop in current dollars in 2007.
* Individual giving is the largest component of charitable contributions. Individuals gave $229.28 billion, or 75% of total giving in 2008.
* Charitable bequests were $22.66 billion in 2008. They make up 7% of total giving.
* Corporate giving is projected to decrease 4.5% to $14.5 billion.
* Foundation grantmaking, according to Foundation Center, was $41.21 billion.
* Religious organizations received 35% of total giving, education organization received 13%, followed by foundations, health (7%), public-society benefit subsectors (8%), arts/culture/humanities (4%), international affairs (4%) and environment/animals (2%).
