December 22, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The number of charitable organizations that filed federal informational tax returns rose from 286,615 in 2005 to 301,214 in 2006, an increase of 5.1 percent, according to a newly released report from the Internal Revenue Service.
The tax returns — the Form 990 and the Form 990-EZ — include information about charity finances, activities, and compensation of top officials.
Charities reported $1.37-trillion in revenue, 9.4 percent more than the $1.25-trillion in 2005.
The charitable groups held nearly $2.55-trillion in assets, an increase of 13.7-percent compared with 2005, while their liabilities increased by 12.2-percent, to $932-billion.
The figures do not include charitable organizations that did not have to file the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ, including most churches and certain religious organizations, as well as most organizations with gross annual receipts totaling less than $25,000.
The statistics also do not include tax-exempt private foundations, which are required to file a Form 990-PF.
“Program service revenue, the fees received for charitable programs conducted by tax-exempt organizations, was $920.2-billion for tax year 2006 and represents nearly two-thirds of the total revenue reported by charitable organizations,” the IRS said.
“A second source of revenue — contributions, gifts, and grants — which totaled $303.1-billion, accounted for more than half of the total revenue of organizations with asset holdings of less than $1-million, but for a much smaller share of the total revenue of larger organizations,” the tax agency said.
