Public charities comprise the largest portion of 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. These organizations receive broad public support, and contributions made to them are tax-deductible.
Public charities operate across the full range of social action, including social services, health care, education, arts, and civic engagement. Public charities are funded in a variety of ways, the two main categories being earned revenue, which includes fees, government contracts, and sales, and donative revenue, which includes public contributions and grants.
Top public charities
The largest nonprofit organization (and public charity) in Arizona is Banner Health, which in 2022 reported total revenues of $8.75 billion. Excluding health and mental care, the largest Arizona nonprofit organization in 2022 was Grand Canyon University, with $1.59 billion in total revenue.
Religious nonprofits
The religious nonprofit subsector includes congregations of many faiths, which are public charities, along with some foundations and missionary groups. This subsector had 5,625 organizations in 2022. However, congregations are not required to file a yearly 990 return; therefore, aggregate data on congregation revenues are unavailable. For more information about this type of public charity, please see the section Congregations.
Public charities: reported revenues and income sources
The health care subsector accounts for the vast majority of reported nonprofit revenues, more than all other subsectors combined. Education is the second largest subcategory, followed by Human Services. As the chart below illustrates, 93 percent of health care revenues are earned, versus all other nonprofit subsectors, which average 46 percent earned income.
Many nonprofits are seeking to find a better balance between earned income and philanthropic sources as a way to increase sustainability. The chart below illustrates the percentages of earned vs. contributed revenue by subsector.
Religious congregations are not required to file a form 990, therefore, revenues for the religion subsector are highly under-reported.
