How The Chronicle Compiled Its Philanthropy 400 Rankings

The Philanthropy 400 ranks the charities that raised the most money from private sources in 2012.

The rankings reflect cash and product donations as well as stock, land, and other gifts from individuals, corporations, and foundations.

The Philanthropy 400 is designed to show which groups do best in appealing to donors, so other types of income, such as government payments, are not counted.

Donations raised outside the United States are also excluded, even if an organization has affiliates overseas.

Sources of Data

To gather data on private giving, The Chronicle used Internal Revenue Service Form 990 informational tax filings. It also examined financial statements, annual reports, and a survey sent to all nonprofits likely to make the list.

Organizations with affiliates were asked to provide consolidated figures, which usually come from financial statements.

Some religious groups, which are not required by law to file informational tax forms, volunteered giving data so The Chronicle could rank them, but others declined.

The 2013 rankings are based on donations raised during the fiscal year ending in 2012, or 2013 for organizations with fiscal years ending in January, February, or March. Twenty-four organizations said they could not provide 2012 figures, so The Chronicle used 2011 figures to rank them.

The Chronicle aims to draw all figures from similar sources so that it can compare data fairly.

In some cases, however, it’s not practical to use such data. For instance, because public colleges do not have to file informational returns, The Chronicle relies on data collected by the Council for Aid to Education for both public and private institutions.

The council, however, does not allow institutions to count pledges, which the 990 allows. As a result, the figures for colleges can be fairly compared with one another, but they may appear to be slightly lower than for other similarly sized institutions.

Noncash Gifts

It is also difficult to compare nonprofits whose revenue stems primarily from noncash products, like medicines. For instance, World Help, which landed on the Philanthropy 400 last year as No. 77, announced in April that it told the Internal Revenue Service it had adjusted the value of donations it received (The Chronicle, April 26). Because the organization said it overstated the value by 1,400 percent, The Chronicle removed it from the rankings.

More information on the charities in the Philanthropy 400 is available on The Chronicle’s Web site: philanthropy.com/400.

The Chronicle strives to include all charities that may be eligible for the Philanthropy 400. To be considered, charities usually must have raised more than $40-million from private sources over the past year.

To suggest a group for inclusion, please send an e-mail to research@philanthropy.com.

Correction (May 15, 2014): Due to a calculation error, percent change figures were inaccurately listed in our interactive. The figures have been corrected.

The Philanthropy 400 was compiled by Emma Carew Grovum, Sarah Frostenson, Marisa López-Rivera, and Sam Speicher.