30+ Types Of Nonprofits: 501(c)3, 501(c)4, And More

People tend to think of different types of charities and private foundations when they think of nonprofits. While it’s true that all charities, in general, are nonprofit organizations, the reverse isn’t always true.

Understanding different types of nonprofits is crucial to ace governmental reporting and motivate communities, whether using admission-based nonprofit software or starting your first nonprofit.

Let’s go over some examples and then types so that you understand how to grow a nonprofit organization or set rules for lobbying and tax-deductible contributions. 

Nonprofit organization examples

Common nonprofit organization examples include public schools, public clinics, labor unions, volunteer service organizations, research institutes, museums, and legal aid societies, to name a few. Check out these nonprofits you may have come across in real life.

• American Red Cross is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that spreads awareness about disaster preparedness and offers disaster relief as well as emergency assistance. 
• Doctors Without Borders is another nonprofit organization providing humanitarian medical assistance to people in countries suffering from endemic diseases or experiencing conflicts. 
• American Cancer Society is a nonprofit corporation that helps cancer patients detect, treat, and survive cancer with advocacy, research, and patient support.

Now, let's go over the types and some nonprofit examples. 

Types of nonprofits

What types of nonprofits are there? How are they different? And which ones allow you to count charitable contributions? We've got you covered if these are the questions you’re facing. The IRS publication 557 outlines more than 30 types of nonprofits, from private foundations to public charities to trade associations.

501(c) (1): Corporations organized under the Act of Congress

501(c) (1) organizations are tax-exempt status per public law. 

501(c) (2): Title-holding corporations

501(c) (2) organizations hold property titles for nonprofit corporations that are tax-exempt under IRC 501(a). All of the income earned from the property is given back to the latter nonprofit. Property-owning tax-exempt organizations use 501(c) (2) to reduce land and building liability and risk factors. 

501(c) (3): Charitable organizations 

When people think of nonprofits, they usually think of 501 (c) (3)s. Commonly known as “true nonprofits” by those who work in the industry, 501(c)(3) organizations are charities that receive IRS's exempt tax status. 501(c) (3) nonprofits are the most common. 

501(c) (3) organizations can be of three types.

Public charities receive a large portion of their revenue from the government or the public. 

Private or non-operating foundations may not have active programs but support public charities with grants. A private charitable foundation is a privately owned nonprofit that addresses global concerns such as education, medical research, or environmental issues.

A single wealthy benefactor or business normally establishes private charitable foundations. These foundations grant money to smaller, more niche nonprofits. Private charitable foundations get their money from their founders, who manage the investments.

Think of private charitable foundations as angel investors crowdfunding the nonprofit world. One day, they might invest money in cancer research, and then two days later, they might pour money into an initiative to promote an experimental theatre company. The only stipulation is that the initiatives these private charitable foundations donate to must be other 501(c) (3) charities.

Private operating foundations have programs similar to public charity but with governance like a foundation. 

501(c) (4): Civic leagues, social welfare organizations, and local associations of employees

501(c) (3) and 501(c) (4) organizations operate in almost the same way to promote philanthropy and positive change through their work and mission. However, 501(c) (4), or social welfare organizations, freely lobby to help pass or repeal legislation. They can also publicly endorse and promote legislation to gain support.

While 501(c) (3)s are technically permitted to participate in lobbying, the rules are much stricter. They’re only allowed to allocate about 10% of their total operating budget to lobbying, and violating those rules could result in losing nonprofit status.

Social advocacy groups are a type of 501(c) (4) with a primary focus on lobbying and promoting social or political change. Like the other nonprofits, they promote a certain cause through education and fundraising.

Social advocacy groups and social welfare organizations overlap greatly, and although they’re both considered 501(c) (4) organizations, they do have some key differences.

Social welfare organizations vs. social advocacy group

Social welfare organizations promote social change through auctions and public awareness. Examples of social welfare organizations include groups like volunteer fire departments.

Social advocacy groups also affect change through fundraising and public awareness, but their primary means of doing this is through lobbying and political change. They make no apologies for being proactively involved in legislation, as it is their chosen method to advance progress. Social advocacy groups rely heavily on membership dues to supplement the money they receive from public donations. 

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are social advocacy groups.

501(c) (5): Labor, agricultural, and horticultural organizations

501(c) (5) organizations aim to improve product grades and occupational efficiency of those involved in labor, horticulture, or agriculture industries. These nonprofits raise funds with donations, union dues, and political lobbying.  

501(c) (6): Business leagues, chambers of commerce, and real estate boards

501(c) (6) organizations improve working conditions for member businesses using instructional services and programs. These entities participate in political activities and function with funds raised via member dues. 

501(c) (7): Social and recreational clubs

501(c) (7) organizations are social or recreational clubs, including country clubs, sports leagues, interest clubs, cultural clubs, fraternities, and sororities. These organizations collect non-tax-deductible member fees to support their operations.

501(c) (8): Fraternal beneficiary societies and associations

501(c) (8) organizations provide life, sickness, and other benefits to their fraternity members and dependents. They operate under a lodge system or parent organization with multiple subordinate chapters. 

501(c) (9): Voluntary employees beneficiary associations (VEBAs)

501(c) (9) organizations financially support members and their dependents in case of accidents, sickness, and other similar live events. Volunteers form these organizations to give benefits to their co-workers. 

501(c) (10): Domestic fraternal societies and associations

501(c) (10) organizations are similar to 501(c) (8)s, but they don’t offer financial assistance or benefits to members. All earnings go toward fraternal and charitable causes that the society has chosen. 

501(c) (11): Teachers' retirement fund associations

501(c )(11) organizations are locally organized associations that manage teachers’ retirement funds and benefits. These associations are typically funded through tax proceeds, membership contributions, and investment revenue.

501(c) (12): Benevolent life insurance associations

501(c) (12) organizations are local mutual or cooperative telephone companies, mutual ditch or irrigation companies, or electric companies that offer certain services to members at the lowest possible cost. These organizations must receive at least 85% of their income from members to be eligible for exempt tax status. 

501(c) (13): Cemetery companies

501(c) (13) organizations are cemetery companies that offer burial or cremation services to various fraternities and groups. Anyone who buys a plot becomes a member of the organization. These nonprofit cemeteries use the revenue to operate and maintain cemetery grounds. 

501(c) (14): State-chartered credit unions and mutual reserve funds

501(c) (14) IRS tax exemption status applies to state-chartered financial entities like cooperative banks and loan associations that serve their members and communities. A common bond, such as employment, unites the members of these nonprofit credit unions. 

501(c) (15): Mutual insurance companies or associations

A 501(c) (15) mutual insurance company offers insurance coverage at cost. These local-level nonprofits generally restrict participation to individuals residing in a particular county. Any profit goes toward reducing policy costs. Most 501(c) (15) companies offer property damage coverage and funeral benefits, among others. 

501(c) (16): Cooperative organizations to finance crop operations

Farmers’ cooperatives registered under IRC section 521 create 501(c) (16) organizations to support agricultural or crop operations. These nonprofits work with the founding cooperative to fund warehousing, shipping, livestock, farm equipment, and marketing.

501(c) (17): Supplemental unemployment benefit trusts

Supplementary unemployment benefits trusts that financially support individuals laid off temporarily or permanently are known as 501(c) (17) organizations. The employer or employees form and support these organizations to offer unemployment, injury, and sickness benefits. 

501(c) (18): Employee-funded pension trust

The 501(c) (18) tax status applies to a special class of employee pension trusts created before June 25, 1959. Funded by member contributions, these trusts offer pension and retirement benefits to employees.

501(c) (19): Veteran organizations

501(c) (19) organizations are trusts or foundations, with at least 75% of members being active or former employees of the United States Armed Forces (USAF). 97.5% of the members must be cadets, members’ spouses, close relatives, or armed forces. These organizations aim to fulfill a particular goal, such as providing community service, recreational activities, educational programming, or access to insurance. Veterans organizations rely on tax-deductible individual contributions. 

501(c) (21): Black lung benefit trusts

501(c) (21) organizations offer insurance premiums and death or disability compensation to coal mine workers diagnosed with black lung disease as a result of their employment. Spouses and dependents of coal miners are eligible for these benefits as well. These trusts came into existence after the Federal Black Lung Benefits Act of 1969 made coal mine operators pay claims. 

These are the most common types of nonprofits, but some more exempt organizations are mentioned below.

Nonprofit organization structure

• Association: An association is an informal group of people who accomplish a common goal. These groups enjoy some legal rights but also suffer from certain liabilities. That’s why most associations prefer to incorporate. Incorporation also helps you apply for grants, raise deductible donations, and even participate in nonprofit equity financing.
• Trust: Groups involved with charitable giving often create charitable trusts to use assets. Trusts, however, do not protect trustees from liability. Trustees must deal with assets carefully and must comply with fiduciary standards.
• Corporation: Most nonprofits become corporations for multiple benefits. A nonprofit corporation can easily enter into contracts as a separate entity while protecting members from liability. Corporations also receive tax-exempt status with less effort. Plus, many government and private programs only offer grants to corporations. While unincorporated organizations make up their own procedures, incorporated nonprofits must comply with the state incorporation law.

Admission-based nonprofit software

Ticketing, donations, fundraising, and membership management are the only tasks that admission-based nonprofit software solutions can assist you with. Integrating these tools with other back-office programs and nonprofit systems is also easy. 

To be included in this category, a software product must:

• Manage memberships online
• Integrate with existing back-office systems
• Process one-time and recurring payments securely
• Provide online and on-site ticketing, admissions, and reservation solutions

*Below are the top 5 leading admission-based nonprofit software solutions from G2’s Summer 2024 Grid® Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. AudienceView Professional

AudienceView Professional is an all-in-one event ticketing platform that features marketing, fundraising, and customer engagement solutions for nonprofits. 

What users like:

“This web-based program is helpful for processing orders off-site. Detailed reports give the information we want and need. The ability to integrate a credit card reader is a plus.”

– AudienceView Professional Review, Ryan R.

What users dislike:

“There can be a learning curve to get to know the system. However, the help and tutorials available make learning easy. I would like to see the addition to the package's feature that allows patrons to choose from series events and pay according to the selected events' individual ticket prices.”

– AudienceView Professional Review, Jess R.

2. Neon CRM

Neon CRM is a connected fundraising platform for managing memberships, raising funds, automating email campaigns, and processing payments. 

What users like:

“Neon CRM has been a useful, intuitive tool for our medium-sized nonprofit organization. We can import all of our volunteers, donors, and event attendees in one place so that we can access a central supporters database. Tracking donations and pulling reports is a breeze, and it's easy to pull data to support our fundraising initiatives quickly.”

– Neon CRM Review, Hayley W.

What users dislike:

“I wish we had the ability to turn company accounts into individual accounts and vice versa. This would help with combining duplicate accounts. I also noticed that ‘soft credits’ and ‘donations’ showed on one tab instead of separate tabs.”

– Neon CRM Review, Kristina R.

3. Blackbaud Altru

Blackbaud Altru is a comprehensive fundraising and donor management software for nonprofits. It helps NGOs by streamlining donor data management, tracking donations, and automating fundraising processes.

What users like:

"Altru is best at collecting data from multiple different areas of an organization to understand users cross-departmentally. This approach allows an organization better to track users' interactions across multiple contact points. For us, this means being able to gain a better understanding of potential growth areas and equip ourselves with the tools for targeted marketing campaigns."

- BlackBaud Altru Review, George B.

What users dislike:

"It has some glitches, and the support team isn't always the quickest at responding to or fixing things, but they will eventually get it done. At our organization, we've also noticed a lot of connectivity issues with Altru specifically. It's definitely sensitive when it comes to browsers and internet connection."

- Blackbaud Altru Review, Evy E.

4. ACTIVEWorks for Parks & Recreation

ACTIVEWorks for Parks & Recreation is a nonprofit facility, registration, and membership management software that lets you do more with less. 

What users like:

“Tons of tutorials, so you can always look up how to do something if you don't know.”

– ACTIVEWorks for Parks & Recreation Review, Naomi N.

What users dislike:

“I don't like how an automatic receipt is sent to the user's email that makes them log in to view it. I also wish Active had an easier way to set up schedules on leagues. The fee for the surcharge is not cheap, and when we refund someone if a class was canceled, we have to pay them the surcharge back out of our pocket, and Active still keeps the profit of us using the software.”

– ACTIVEWorks for Parks & Recreation Review, Verified User in Recreational Facilities and Services

5. ThunderTix

ThunderTix is an online ticketing platform designed to manage events. Beyond ticketing, you can sell merchandise and concessions, accept donations, track customer data, offer discounts, and sell using integrated hardware solutions.

What users like:

"We run a community-based nonprofit literacy organization in Northeast Florida. We have a handful of events yearly, from a fundraising gala with 400 guests to a luncheon for 100 people. We have been using ThunderTix for almost 4 years to replace Eventbrite. The solution is very flexible and versatile. It was implemented quickly, and we use it frequently (over 8 months of our fiscal year).

ThunderTix has easily handled all of our reservation and ticketing needs and is adaptable to the needs of a larger/more complex organization. It has been timely, helpful, and accurate when we have needed assistance. The pricing fits our budget well, and the solution provides great value. We have integrated ThunderTix with Braintree using the built-in support and Google Tag Manager. This is an excellent solution that continues to evolve, meet our needs, and help us grow our business."

- ThunderTix Review, Bob F.

What users dislike:

"The only downside I can think of is that I wish the areas in the program where you can type in your email receipts, reminders, or letters were a little easier to use. I often have to use HTML for bold, italic, or links."

- ThunderTix Review, Luana W.

Stay true to your purpose.

Starting a nonprofit comes with more challenges than you might think. Focus on capacity-building projects like recruiting volunteers, implementing communications strategies, and delivering missions effectively. These are the first steps toward making an impact on lives and communities. 

Want to manage better relationships among donors, volunteers, and members? Try nonprofit CRM software to strengthen your nonprofit's marketing muscle. 

This article was originally published in 2022. It has been updated with new information.