| From the issue dated Thursday, March 11, 1999 |
Nearly 700,000 charities and private foundations were registered with the Internal Revenue Service in 1997, according to the agency.
The number of organizations classified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code rose by 38,338, or 5.9 per cent, from 1996 to 1997, the I.R.S. reported.
In 1997, 692,524 organizations — including about 50,000 private foundations — were registered with the federal government, compared with 654,186 in 1996. The number of private foundations has remained fairly constant in recent years.
The number of charities had increased by 4.5 per cent from 1995 to 1996, 4.4 per cent from 1994 to 1995, and 4.2 per cent from 1993 to 1994.
The I.R.S. has acknowledged that an unknown number of the organizations classified under Section 501(c)(3) are still on the government’s books even though they have gone out of business.
The I.R.S. statistics show that the total number of tax-exempt organizations classified under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code rose by 43,725, or 3.7 per cent, from 1996 to 1997.
The chart below shows the number of organizations registered under each subcategory of Section 501(c), as well as the number of applications approved and denied in 1997 by the Internal Revenue Service’s field offices.
|
Applications |
Organizations registered |
|
Approved |
Denied |
Other 1 |
Total |
1996 |
1997 |
| Section 501(c): |
| (1) Corporations organized under act of Congress |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
20 |
27 |
| (2) Titleholding corporations |
190 |
0 |
68 |
258 |
7,100 |
7,113 |
| (3) Religious, charitable, etc. |
47,015 |
226 |
17,761 |
65,002 |
654,1862 |
692,5242 |
| (4) Social welfare |
1,535 |
21 |
726 |
2,282 |
139,512 |
141,776 |
| (5) Labor, agriculture organizations |
336 |
3 |
98 |
437 |
64,955 |
64,902 |
| (6) Business leagues |
1,803 |
23 |
483 |
2,309 |
77,274 |
78,406 |
| (7) Social and recreation clubs |
980 |
21 |
705 |
1,706 |
60,845 |
66,387 |
| (8) Fraternal beneficiary societies |
18 |
0 |
27 |
45 |
91,972 |
87,990 |
| (9) Voluntary employees’ beneficiary associations |
460 |
1 |
140 |
601 |
14,486 |
14,464 |
| (10) Domestic fraternal beneficiary societies |
25 |
1 |
40 |
66 |
20,925 |
20,954 |
| (11) Teachers’ retirement funds |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
13 |
| (12) Benevolent life-insurance associations |
78 |
0 |
52 |
130 |
6,343 |
6,368 |
| (13) Cemetery companies |
160 |
3 |
40 |
203 |
9,562 |
9,646 |
| (14) State-chartered credit unions |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5,157 |
4,959 |
| (15) Mutual-insurance companies |
2 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
1,212 |
1,206 |
| (16) Corporations to finance crop operations |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
23 |
25 |
| (17) Supplemental unemployment benefit trusts |
4 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
565 |
542 |
| (18) Employee-funded pension trusts |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
| (19) War-veterans’ organizations |
146 |
0 |
44 |
190 |
31,464 |
31,961 |
| (20) Legal-service organizations |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
131 |
92 |
| (21) Black-lung trusts |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
25 |
27 |
| (22) Multi-employer pension plans |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| (23) Veterans’ associations founded prior to 1880 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| (24) Trusts described in section 4049 of ERISA |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| (25) Holding companies for pensions, etc. |
3 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
794 |
908 |
| Total |
52,757 |
299 |
20,201 |
73,257 |
1,186,569 |
1,230,294 |
| 1. Includes cases in which the taxpayer withdrew the application or failed to furnish required information. |
|
| 2. All section 501(c)(3) organizations are not included because certain organizations, such as churches, integrated auxiliaries, subordinate units, and convention or associations of churches need not apply for recognition of exemption unless they desire a ruling. |
| SOURCE: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE |
Copyright © 1999 The Chronicle of Philanthropy
|
