Free benchmark tool
Type your organization’s name or EIN. We place its fundraising efficiency, growth, and four more figures against a peer cohort of nonprofits with the same mission and revenue band, built from public IRS Form 990 filings.
Search by name, or type the nine-digit EIN from your Form 990.
Covers 501(c)(3) organizations filing the full Form 990. Results show the newest public filing.
Not finding it?
Organizations that file the 990-EZ or 990-PF, group returns, and names that differ from the legal name on the return can be hard to find. Leave your email and the organization’s name, and we run the benchmark by hand.
Received. A person on our team runs the benchmark and emails it to you.
stratuslive.com/tools/peer-benchmark
Full benchmark report
Newest filing. Contributions, program service revenue, and everything else.
Contributions and net assets by tax year.
Where the 990 ends
This report is built from public 990s, which end where your real questions begin: which donors are behind that growth number, who is about to lapse, and where next year’s number comes from. Ignite answers those from your live data, not an eighteen-month-old filing.
Six figures every board recognizes
Every metric comes straight from lines on the Form 990, so peers are measured under the same rules. Each one renders as the value, a percentile bar against the cohort, and one plain sentence.
Headline metric, ungated
Contributions and grants (Part I line 8) divided by total fundraising expenses (Part I line 16b).
How many dollars of contributions arrived for each dollar spent on fundraising. The number every development office already tracks as cost to raise a dollar, turned the other way up.
Headline metric, ungated
Contributions in the newest filing compared with two tax years earlier, annualized.
Whether contributed revenue is growing faster or slower than peers. A rate below the cohort median over three years is the question boards ask first.
Full report
Contributions and grants divided by total revenue (Part I line 12).
How much of the budget depends on fundraising rather than program fees or other income. Context for the other five numbers, not a target.
Full report
Program service expenses (Part IX line 25, column B) divided by total functional expenses (column A).
The share of spending that went to programs. Watchdogs publish it, so boards expect it; allocation practices vary, so treat small differences as noise.
Full report
Total fundraising expenses (Part I line 16b) divided by total expenses (Part I line 18).
What the organization invests in raising money. A rate well below peers is usually an opportunity to fund growth, not a sign of thrift.
Full report
Net assets at the end of the newest filing compared with two tax years earlier.
Whether the balance sheet is building or drawing down. The finance committee reads this next to the growth number.
Peers, defined
A peer cohort is every 501(c)(3) in the same IRS mission group and the same revenue band, using each organization’s newest full Form 990. A cohort needs at least 30 organizations; when a mission group is thin in a band, the adjacent bands are combined and the report says so.
This edition covers 173,008 organizations with revenue from $250,000 to $250 million, tax years 2023 and 2024, built 2026-09-30. Percentiles are descriptive: they say where a figure sits, not whether it is good.
Revenue bands
Bands match the ones we use everywhere on this site, so a benchmark and a working session describe the same organization.
The whole sector, by mission and size
The same dataset, summarized. Median fundraising efficiency, contribution growth, program expense ratio, and fundraising investment rate for every mission group and revenue band.
Where the 990 ends
A benchmark answers the board’s first question. The next ones need your own data: which donors drove the growth number, who is about to lapse, and where next year’s contributions come from. Ignite works from your live constituent data, so the answers are current, not eighteen months old.
Behind the growth number
Giving history by donor, segment, and campaign, so the trend on this page has names attached.
Who is about to lapse
Predictive segments flag donors at high lapse risk from recency and engagement, so the ones going quiet are on a list before they are gone.
Next year’s number
Opportunity pipeline, pledge schedules, and recurring plans in the same platform, so next year’s number is built from commitments, not a filing.
A peer benchmark places one organization’s figures next to organizations of the same mission category and revenue band. This tool uses six figures every board recognizes: fundraising efficiency, contribution growth, contribution share of revenue, program expense ratio, fundraising investment rate, and net asset trend. Each one is shown as a value and as a percentile among peers, with the cohort median beside it.
Public IRS Form 990 filings, read from the IRS e-file releases as published by the National Center for Charitable Statistics, plus the IRS Business Master File for each organization’s mission code. Nothing is estimated, surveyed, or entered by hand. The methodology page lists every line used.
Peers share the organization’s NTEE major group (the IRS mission category, such as human services or education) and its revenue band. The bands are under $1M, $1M to $3M, $3M to $10M, $10M to $15M, $15M to $22M, $22M to $30M, and $30M to $250M. A cohort needs at least 30 organizations; when a mission group is thin in a band, adjacent bands are combined and the report says so.
No. A percentile says where a figure sits among peers, nothing more. A 30th percentile fundraising investment rate can mean an organization is under-investing in growth, or that it allocates costs differently, or that it relies on program revenue. The report gives the plain reading and leaves the judgment to you and your board.
Form 990 reports total fundraising expense as the organization allocates it across program, management, and fundraising, and reports contributions after the IRS definitions, including in-kind gifts. Internal cost-to-raise-a-dollar figures usually count different things. Use the 990 number to compare with peers, who filed under the same rules, and the internal number to manage the team.
Form 990 data becomes public roughly a year to eighteen months after the fiscal year ends, so the newest filing is the most recent public view of an organization, not its current position. This edition uses tax years 2023 and 2024 for the cohorts. The report states the exact years for the organization you look up.
Not for the headline figures. The organization, its peer cohort, and the two headline metrics appear as soon as you pick a result. The full report, with all six metrics, the three-year trend, and the revenue mix, unlocks with a work email and first name.
Yes. The figures are public, the same ones watchdogs and journalists read. Board members, consultants, and funders use the lookup the same way staff do.
501(c)(3) organizations that file the full Form 990 with revenue between $250,000 and $250 million, about 173,008 of them in this edition. Organizations that file the 990-EZ or 990-PF, group returns, and churches that do not file are not included. If you cannot find an organization, leave your email and we run the benchmark by hand.
The lookup itself stores nothing about you. If you unlock the full report, your name, email, and role are stored with the organization’s public figures in our CRM so the report link keeps working, and we record anonymous usage of the tool. We send nothing else unless you check the follow-up box. Our data privacy policy covers the rest.
We start from your report and your live data, and show what the 990 cannot: which donors, which segments, and what comes next.