Types of Nonprofit Organizations, Counted

“>how to get 501(c)(3) status sets out the application.

501(c)(4), social welfare organizations. 68,449 organizations. Civic leagues and organizations promoting the general welfare, including advocacy groups that want to lobby without limit. Gifts are deductible for only 11.4% of them, and the reason is the trade: a (c)(4) can lobby as its main activity and engage in some political activity, but donors generally get no deduction.

501(c)(6), business leagues. 57,755 organizations: chambers of commerce, trade associations, professional societies and boards of trade. They serve the common business interests of their members rather than the public. Dues are generally not charitable gifts, gifts are deductible for 0.4% of them, and members may deduct dues as a business expense, less any part spent on lobbying.

501(c)(7), social and recreation clubs. 46,492 organizations: country clubs, sports clubs, hobby groups. Funded by members, for members, and taxed on income from non-members. Gifts are deductible for 0.2% of them.

501(c)(5), labor and agricultural organizations. 43,643 organizations: labor unions, farm bureaus, horticultural societies. They live on dues: across the small ones that file the short Form 990-EZ, dues are a median 95.8% of revenue, from the IRS data behind our membership software comparison.

501(c)(8) and (c)(10), fraternal societies. 32,962 and 14,276 organizations. Lodge systems; (c)(8) societies provide benefits such as insurance to members and (c)(10) societies do not. Gifts are deductible for most of them, 85.6% and 80.0%, when used for charitable purposes.

501(c)(19), veterans organizations. 24,650 organizations: posts and auxiliaries of war veterans. Gifts are deductible for 80.3% of them.

501(c)(13), cemetery companies. 9,783 organizations, and one of the few types outside (c)(3) where gifts are usually deductible, 88.1% in the file.

The specialised rest. Title holding corporations, which hold property for another exempt organization; voluntary employees’ beneficiary associations, which provide benefits to employees; state chartered credit unions; mutual insurance companies and benevolent life insurance, mutual water and electric companies; and a long tail of pension and benefit trusts with a handful of members each. They matter enormously to the people who run them and almost never to someone deciding what kind of organization to start.

What is being created now

The file carries the date each organization was recognised, so it also shows what kinds of organization are being formed. In the twelve months to August 2026 the IRS recognised 126,439 organizations, and 94.5% of them were 501(c)(3)s, against 83.6% of everything on the file. The other types are a shrinking share: social welfare organizations were 1.4% of new recognitions, business leagues 1.3% and social clubs 1.1%, all well below their share of the existing stock.

Within the new charities the split is the familiar one. 57,981 qualified through broad public support and 46,886 through the 509(a)(2) mix of fees and donations; 6,276 were private non-operating foundations, 5.3% of new 501(c)(3)s against 7.4% of the existing ones; and 5,313 were churches that chose to apply. The practical reading for anyone starting out: the 501(c)(3) public charity is overwhelmingly what people form, the process is well trodden, and the alternatives are worth choosing deliberately rather than by default.

Which type should you be?

Two distinctions catch people out. First, “nonprofit” is a state law status and “tax exempt” is a federal one: you incorporate as a nonprofit corporation in your state, and then apply to the IRS for exemption under one of the types above. Every state’s rules for the first half are in starting a nonprofit in your state. Second, the words people use, charity, foundation, NGO, not-for-profit, are not types at all in US law; nonprofit vs not-for-profit and NGO vs nonprofit sort out the vocabulary, and what is a nonprofit organization covers the basic definition. A for-profit structure doing social good, an LLC or a benefit corporation, is not on this list at all, and nonprofit corporation vs LLC explains why that matters.

Method and limits

The counts are every record in the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, all four regional files, as downloaded in October 2026. Subsection and foundation codes are decoded using the IRS’s own information sheet for the file, and the deductibility column is the file’s deductibility code, where code 1 means contributions are deductible.

Three limits. The file excludes churches and other organizations that are not required to apply for recognition and have not applied, so the church count is a floor. It includes organizations whose exemption has not been revoked even if they are dormant, so the totals describe registrations rather than active operations. And 660 records carry subsection codes the information sheet does not define; they are grouped in the last row rather than guessed at.

This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.