The 50 largest US charities ranked by total income

Click here to see the chart. (PDF, 21K. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view this file.)

About this chart

Most figures on the chart, ranking charities by income, are based on tax reports from fiscal year 2000, which ran from July 1999 to June 2000 for most nonprofits. As a result, income levels and public-support figures do not reflect the huge outpouring of dollars following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (In fact, next year's chart in our annual giving guide may not reflect those donations, either.)

The chart also omits certain types of nonprofits, including colleges, universities, and foundations. They would have dominated the list if included. For example, Harvard University's income last year was $5.97 billion, followed by the Mayo Foundation ($3.81 billion), Stanford ($3.78 billion), and Yale ($3.08 billion).

Another note: The main reason the Nature Conservancy devotes such a small percentage of its revenue to programs is that the IRS classifies money for land purchases as capital additions, not program expenses.

Finally, the large salary reported by Colonial Williamsburg was the result of a retiring official collecting salary that had been deferred in past years.