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Nonprofits in North Carolina

The IRS recognises 59,130 tax-exempt organizations with a North Carolina address, rank 9 of 51. 4,172 of them have a Form 990 on record.

American Factbook Research

At a glance

59,130
Organizations recognised
Registration, not activity.
51,573
Recognised under 501(c)(3)
The charitable subsection.
4,172
With a Form 990 on record
The only organizations with financial figures here.
535.3
Per 100,000 residents
Census resident population as the denominator.
$93,667,476,208
Revenue reported
Summed across filings, each for a different year.
3.0%
Share of all US organizations
Of 1,964,958 recognised nationally.

Taken from the IRS on September 19, 2026. Address of record, which is not necessarily where an organization operates.

Largest by revenue

2 more columns on a wider screen

Organizations in North Carolina by total revenue on their most recent Form 990
RankOrganizationRevenue
1NOVANT HEALTH INC$6,542,888,138
2DUKE UNIVERSITY$4,754,345,666
3DUKE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC$4,672,834,668
4NORTH CAROLINA BAPTIST HOSPITAL$3,259,407,603
5STATE CHARTERED CREDIT UNIONS INC$2,922,921,560
6WAKEMED$2,599,042,078
7PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL$2,274,729,924
8PITT COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC$2,223,240,973
9REX HOSPITAL INC$1,916,498,283
10SAMARITANS PURSE$1,839,497,527
11GOTHIC CORPORATION$1,719,200,107
12WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES$1,713,703,683
13FORSYTH MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC$1,560,678,254
14NORTH CAROLINA ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP CORPORATION$1,402,413,754
15RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE$1,254,259,534

The fifteen largest with a filing on record. Organizations without one are counted above but have no figures to rank.

Largest by assets

2 more columns on a wider screen

Organizations in North Carolina by assets
RankOrganizationAssets
1STATE CHARTERED CREDIT UNIONS INC$56,111,610,046
2DUKE UNIVERSITY$22,131,922,809
3NOVANT HEALTH INC$14,556,934,673
4GOTHIC CORPORATION$8,367,573,592
5DUKE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC$7,958,888,279
6PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL$4,829,574,533
7FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS$3,934,238,899
8DUKE ENDOWMENT$3,567,263,777
9SELF HELP VENTURES FUND$3,447,735,170
10FORSYTH MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC$3,190,552,079

Book value at the end of the year, which is what all three forms report.

Highest reported compensation

2 more columns on a wider screen

Organizations in North Carolina by reported compensation
RankOrganizationReported compensation
1WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER$25,781,279
2FORSYTH MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC$8,150,937
3NOVANT HEALTH INC$8,150,937
4NORTH CAROLINA BAPTIST HOSPITAL$7,634,720
5WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY$7,634,720
6WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES$7,634,720
7DUKE UNIVERSITY$5,012,725
8GOTHIC HSP CORPORATION$5,012,725
9GOTHIC CORPORATION$4,292,537
10ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE$4,081,734

The largest amount an organization here reported paying one person, as reported.

What they do

Organizations in North Carolina by NTEE major group
CategoryOrganizations
Education713
Human Services455
Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Grantmaking Foundations426
Health Care274
Public Safety, Disaster Preparedness and Relief154
Arts, Culture and Humanities145
Housing and Shelter125
Religion-Related123
Community Improvement and Capacity Building117
Recreation and Sports91

Organizations the IRS never classified do not appear here. A code is assigned at registration and rarely updated, so it describes what an organization said it would do.

Nearest by count

States either side of North Carolina by number of organizations
RankStateOrganizations
8Georgia62,347
10Michigan56,381

North Carolina elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

    Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

  • Cities by violent crime rateCrime and justice

    What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

  • Prison populationCrime and justice

    People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

  • Arrests by race, sex and ageCrime and justice

    Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

  • Hate crimeCrime and justice

    Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

  • Federal obligationsFederal spending

    What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.

  • Payments to doctorsHealth

    What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

  • The North Carolina Factbook entryAcross the Factbook

    Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration hub has no page for a state: CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography, so assigning them to states would be a claim the data does not make. Immigration and the border.

Compared with Michigan.

Full rankings: largest by revenue, largest by assets, and largest grantmakers, and highest reported officer compensation. All organizations: nonprofits.

What this page cannot show

  • The state is the organization’s address of record with the IRS. A national charity registered here operates elsewhere too.
  • Churches need not apply for recognition, so they are under-represented, and the ones here are those that chose to apply.
  • Financial figures exist only for organizations with a Form 990 on record, and each describes whichever year that organization last reported.

Full method at methodology.

Sources

Data retrieved