Report · Financial health
How financially healthy is the nonprofit sector?
Every US nonprofit reports its own finances to the IRS, a year or two in arrears. Read together, the filings are a financial physical: in FY2023, 42% of 433,616 organizations spent more than they took in, the median organization held 5.4 months of cash, and 33% held less than three. The averages hide most of what matters: the concern is not the middle of those distributions but the tail, and in FY2023 18% of Form 990 filers were running a deficit on less than three months of cash, and 13% held less than one month. Health on this page means financial health throughout, solvency and the cushion behind it, not whether the mission was served; the two can move in opposite directions, and in the pandemic years they did. The map and the table below cut all of it by state, by cause and by size, for every year since 2017.
Published 2026-09-02
Cite this: Plinth. (2026). How financially healthy is the nonprofit sector?. data.useplinth.com/reports/health.
The health map
dot area = filers · Form 990 filers with 50+ in the segment
Each dot is one cause at its 25th percentile (a quarter of its organizations sit below it): across, months of cash; up, the operating margin at the same percentile, where below zero is a deficit. Healthy is up and to the right; the trouble corner, deficits on a thin cushion, is the bottom left. Press play to run the years (the last two are still filling in), or hover a dot for its path.
Why FY2021 stands out
median growth on the prior year, same organization matched to itself
Green is revenue running ahead of spending; the warm band is the give-back. The jump in the government line is consistent with pandemic relief landing on the 990’s government-grants line, and giving rose alongside it. By these measures FY2021 is the sector’s strongest year in the window, which is exactly why the frame is financial health: the margin was built partly on programs not running, and 2021 was a hard year to need a nonprofit. Dashed segments, FY2024 on, are still filling in as returns arrive.
Click a column to sort; the shaded column is the sort, darkest where health is weakest. The trend line beside each figure runs FY2017 to FY2025 for the sorted measure. In deficit: spent more than they took in.
| Cause | Filers | In deficit ↓ | At risk | Under 1 month | Median margin | Months of cash | Bottom-quarter cash | Under 3 months | Negative net assets | Spending growth | Gov 10%+ | Load-bearing funder | Stopped filing | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All of the above | 433,616 | 42.4% | 18.3% | 13.2% | +2.4% | 5.4 mo | 2.1 mo | 32.8% | 5.0% | +9.6% | 21.7% | 5.3% | 3.4% | |
| Housing & Shelter | 13,968 | 54.4% | 30.0% | 26.0% | -2.2% | 3.9 mo | 0.9 mo | 44.0% | 25.2% | +5.7% | 37.5% | 3.0% | 2.3% | |
| Social Science | 543 | 51.7% | 20.1% | 11.9% | -0.8% | 5.2 mo | 2.0 mo | 32.5% | 4.4% | +11.6% | 18.9% | 12.3% | 3.5% | |
| International | 7,627 | 48.1% | 21.7% | 13.0% | +0.3% | 4.7 mo | 1.9 mo | 35.6% | 3.3% | +9.0% | 9.6% | 13.2% | 3.3% | |
| Arts & Culture | 28,125 | 45.4% | 20.1% | 11.4% | +1.6% | 5.3 mo | 2.2 mo | 31.7% | 4.7% | +13.2% | 29.6% | 9.3% | 2.9% | |
| Philanthropy | 12,542 | 44.1% | 16.6% | 11.8% | +2.3% | 6.6 mo | 2.5 mo | 28.6% | 2.9% | +8.6% | 9.7% | 9.1% | 2.2% | |
| Science & Tech | 1,575 | 43.8% | 19.3% | 13.6% | +1.8% | 5.2 mo | 1.9 mo | 34.8% | 5.0% | +12.3% | 21.7% | 8.2% | 3.2% | |
| Civil Rights | 3,069 | 43.0% | 16.1% | 9.5% | +3.6% | 6.5 mo | 2.8 mo | 26.5% | 4.3% | +11.5% | 22.4% | 17.2% | 3.5% | |
| Health | 30,777 | 42.7% | 23.2% | 21.6% | +1.9% | 3.8 mo | 1.2 mo | 44.0% | 7.7% | +9.2% | 24.6% | 5.0% | 2.4% | |
| Religion | 18,838 | 42.6% | 20.2% | 15.4% | +2.3% | 4.8 mo | 1.8 mo | 36.5% | 4.3% | +8.4% | 5.1% | 6.5% | 5.5% | |
| Unclassified | 131,825 | 42.6% | 15.7% | 10.5% | +2.4% | 6.3 mo | 2.5 mo | 28.3% | 3.5% | +8.1% | 15.1% | 2.1% | 4.2% | |
| Community Improvement | 19,506 | 42.4% | 14.9% | 9.6% | +2.5% | 7.1 mo | 2.9 mo | 25.7% | 4.6% | +10.6% | 26.6% | 4.9% | 2.9% | |
| Animals | 10,134 | 42.1% | 18.9% | 12.8% | +2.4% | 5.2 mo | 2.0 mo | 33.9% | 3.7% | +9.6% | 10.7% | 9.3% | 3.5% | |
| Human Services | 40,295 | 41.9% | 21.9% | 16.8% | +2.2% | 4.0 mo | 1.5 mo | 41.3% | 5.7% | +10.1% | 34.2% | 6.2% | 3.1% | |
| Youth Development | 9,238 | 41.1% | 18.7% | 13.0% | +2.7% | 4.8 mo | 2.0 mo | 34.9% | 4.3% | +14.0% | 28.2% | 8.6% | 5.0% | |
| Education | 44,813 | 40.1% | 17.6% | 12.5% | +3.4% | 5.1 mo | 2.1 mo | 33.0% | 5.4% | +11.7% | 24.0% | 6.3% | 2.6% | |
| Public Benefit | 5,054 | 40.1% | 15.6% | 11.5% | +3.7% | 6.4 mo | 2.5 mo | 29.1% | 4.3% | +11.7% | 14.6% | 8.1% | 4.0% | |
| Crime & Legal | 4,559 | 39.9% | 17.5% | 12.2% | +3.2% | 4.9 mo | 2.0 mo | 34.3% | 3.9% | +10.3% | 47.2% | 8.1% | 3.2% | |
| Food & Nutrition | 5,029 | 39.8% | 18.2% | 15.3% | +2.8% | 4.9 mo | 1.7 mo | 36.7% | 2.6% | +13.0% | 29.4% | 7.7% | 3.4% | |
| Recreation & Sports | 23,376 | 39.3% | 16.7% | 10.3% | +3.5% | 5.3 mo | 2.4 mo | 30.1% | 3.3% | +12.4% | 8.2% | 2.8% | 3.8% | |
| Environment | 7,390 | 39.1% | 13.8% | 7.8% | +5.3% | 6.7 mo | 2.9 mo | 25.2% | 2.8% | +13.9% | 31.8% | 14.0% | 2.3% | |
| Membership Benefit | 3,684 | 38.8% | 16.8% | 15.7% | +4.3% | 5.9 mo | 1.9 mo | 34.0% | 2.5% | +5.7% | 3.5% | 0.4% | 2.5% | |
| Public Safety & Disaster | 6,911 | 37.2% | 8.4% | 4.8% | +8.4% | 11.8 mo | 5.3 mo | 14.2% | 2.0% | +9.7% | 54.3% | 3.1% | 2.6% | |
| Employment | 4,738 | 37.0% | 17.6% | 13.5% | +3.4% | 5.0 mo | 2.0 mo | 35.5% | 3.9% | +8.3% | 25.1% | 3.9% | 2.6% |
Two-way cuts (a state within a cause, a size within a state) appear only with 200+ filers in FY2023. FY2024 through FY2025 are still filling in as returns arrive. A dash is a measure that does not apply or a cell too thin to publish.
More from the funding graph
IRS Form 990 and 990-EZ e-file returns, fiscal years 2017 to 2025; organizations with total expenses of at least $50,000 and a reported total revenue. Deficit means total revenue below total expenses in the organization's own fiscal year; total revenue includes investment gains and losses, so swings are partly markets. Months of cash is cash and equivalents against a month of spending, computed for Form 990 filers only (990-EZ filers do not itemize cash, so the figure is never estimated for them) and shown with its own filer count; at risk means a deficit in the same year as a cushion under three months. A load-bearing funder is one foundation, community foundation or donor-advised fund sponsor supplying a quarter or more of the year's spending, from resolved grant lines only, so an undercount. Stopped filing counts filers with no return in either of the next two years and is computed through FY2023; it includes mergers and lapsed filers as well as closures, and roughly half of such organizations show other signs of life afterward. Cells combining two dimensions are shown only with 200+ filers in FY2023. Figures are dated to their filing, and filings lag by 12 to 24 months. Produced by pipeline/org_health.py; the aggregate is the one source for every number on this page.