The most recently released Internal Revenue Service Data Book, which covers the federal fiscal year running from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020, shows that the United States has about 1.8 million 501(c) organizations. That includes 1.4 million religious, charitable and similar organizations, 79,050 social welfare organizations, and about 62,000 business leagues.
Number of U.S. nonprofits nears 2 million
The most recently released Internal Revenue Service Data Book, which covers the federal fiscal year running from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020, shows that the United States has about 1.8 million 501(c) organizations. That includes 1.4 million religious, charitable and similar organizations, 79,050 social welfare organizations, and about 62,000 business leagues.
The IRS collected $1.2 billion in unrelated business income tax (UBIT) in 2019 and $944 million in UBIT in 2020 from tax-exempt organizations. It received 1.6 million tax returns and other forms from these groups in 2019 and 1.4 million tax returns in 2020. The agency audited 1,417 Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-N in 2020. About 93% of the almost 96,000 applications for Sec. 501(c) status in 2020 came from religious, charitable and similar organizations. Just over 89% of all applications were approved.
Why nonprofits are asking for more labor data
More than 250 national, state and local nonprofits and individual researchers have submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor requesting the release of quarterly data on nonprofit employment and wages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides regular quarterly workforce data to other industries, but, according to the letter, the nonprofit sector must “either purchase this information or wait years for it.”
The letter was a joint effort by the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Data Project, Independent Sector, the National Council of Nonprofits and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. It notes that the nonprofit sector is estimated to have lost more than 1.6 million jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The direct release of nonprofit job data by BLS, it says, “could help policymakers make informed decisions and help the sector to recover.”
Employee volunteering down, donations up
A report from YourCause, a unit of Blackbaud, on trends in employee philanthropic behavior reveals that employees were more engaged in giving than volunteering in 2020. But both were down compared to 2019.
The news isn’t all bad. For example, the median employee donation increased by $447. Companies with up to 1,000 employees (the smallest size included in the report) had the highest average employee donation amount at $2,414 and the most average volunteer hours per employee at 18 hours. But only 10% of companies are considered “volunteering superstars,” which means their employees volunteer 37 or more hours.
The volunteer engagement rate of the smallest company size is about four times higher than the largest company size (19.31% vs. 4.48%). Companies with more than 100,000 employees fall below the overall engagement rate (combined giving and volunteering) of 11.47%, with a rate of 9.96%.