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Nonprofits in Tennessee

The IRS recognises 39,046 tax-exempt organizations with a Tennessee address, rank 20 of 51. 2,674 of them have a Form 990 on record.

American Factbook Research

At a glance

39,046
Organizations recognised
Registration, not activity.
33,317
Recognised under 501(c)(3)
The charitable subsection.
2,674
With a Form 990 on record
The only organizations with financial figures here.
540.2
Per 100,000 residents
Census resident population as the denominator.
$63,490,285,837
Revenue reported
Summed across filings, each for a different year.
2.0%
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 Tennessee by total revenue on their most recent Form 990
RankOrganizationRevenue
1VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$8,674,383,028
2VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY$2,818,556,976
3AMERICAN LEBANESE SYRIAN ASSOC CHAR INC$2,686,629,420
4ST JUDE CHILDRENS RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC$2,208,853,162
5METHODIST HEALTHCARE-MEMPHIS$1,968,551,184
6UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC$1,624,770,137
7ERLANGER HEALTH$1,623,655,937
8MOUNTAIN STATES HEALTH ALLIANCE$1,307,839,695
9BAPTIST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL$1,120,858,064
10MIDDLE TENNESSEE ELECTRIC MEMBERSHI P CORPORATION$991,192,614
11WELLMONT HEALTH SYSTEM$933,212,443
12SHELBY COUNTY HEALTH CARE CORPORATION$809,133,452
13DIALYSIS CLINIC INC$705,801,265
14CHS COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS INC VEBA TRUST$698,051,409
15BELMONT UNIVERSITY$579,470,406

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 Tennessee by assets
RankOrganizationAssets
1VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY$14,819,492,400
2ST JUDE CHILDRENS RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC$12,933,669,993
3AMERICAN LEBANESE SYRIAN ASSOC CHAR INC$9,109,419,712
4EASTMAN CREDIT UNION$9,097,283,047
5VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$7,794,199,229
6METHODIST LEBONHEUR HEALTHCARE$2,400,815,607
7BAPTIST MEMORIAL HEALTH CARE CORPORATION$1,863,454,830
8BELMONT UNIVERSITY$1,849,461,397
9UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC$1,315,300,471
10ERLANGER HEALTH$1,307,876,311

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 Tennessee by reported compensation
RankOrganizationReported compensation
1VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$16,481,139
2MUELLER INDUSTRIES INC BENEFITS TR$14,150,647
3VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY$8,427,395
4MOUNTAIN STATES HEALTH ALLIANCE$4,135,022
5WELLMONT HEALTH SYSTEM$4,135,022
6UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC$4,119,053
7BAPTIST MEMORIAL HEALTH CARE CORPORATION$3,913,950
8BAPTIST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL$3,913,950
9BAPTIST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL TIPTON$3,913,950
10FORT SANDERS REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER$3,242,830

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

What they do

Organizations in Tennessee by NTEE major group
CategoryOrganizations
Education346
Human Services291
Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Grantmaking Foundations278
Health Care194
Arts, Culture and Humanities124
Religion-Related106
Community Improvement and Capacity Building91
Mental Health and Crisis Intervention83
Housing and Shelter75
Recreation and Sports49

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 Tennessee by number of organizations
RankStateOrganizations
19Wisconsin39,309
21Colorado36,344

Tennessee 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 Tennessee 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 Colorado.

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