There are over 8,000 nonprofits incorporated in Philadelphia.

That number needs some context, though, and the first question that demands to be asked is this: What kind of scale are we talking about here?

We plan to dive in to that question deeper in the future, but to begin to answer it, here’s a list of the 25 largest nonprofits incorporated in Philadelphia, ranked by income, according to GuideStar. (The first number listed is a nonprofit’s income, the second is its assets.)

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1. Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania — $15,876,299,641 / $17,230,855,000
2. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — $2,117,047,837 / $3,546,987,890
3. Temple University — $2,019,276,000 / $2,944,852,000
4. Drexel University — $1,817,290,476 / $1,943,620,563
5. Health Partners Plans, Inc. — $1,625,451,719 / $476,023,567
6. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital — $1,589,904,628 / $1,772,516,839
7. Temple University Hospital, Inc. — $1,209,604,341 / $717,173,174
8. Albert Einstein Healthcare Network Group Letter Ruling — $1,149,454,907 / $1,322,357,938
9. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation — $1,116,844,032 / $1,744,198,284
10. Pew Charitable Trusts — $875,595,351 / $823,502,691
11. Community Behavioral Health — $811,528,131 / $97,358,011
12. Albert Einstein Healthcare Network — $739,762,819 / $840,652,000
13. American Bible Society — $615,282,095 / $746,386,221
14. Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System — $579,868,847 / $677,316,141
15. Aria Health — $521,028,279 / $737,133,229
16. University of Pennsylvania Medical — $507,261,125 / $636,795,328
17. Carpenter’s Health and Welfare Fund of Philadelphia and Vicinity — $476,830,055 / $308,123,122
18. Thomas Jefferson University — $451,403,419 / $1,529,734,743
19. Jefferson University Physicians — $401,335,107 / $239,883,749
20. GlaxoSmithKline Patient Access Programs Foundation — $400,020,917 / $30,996,799
21. St. Joseph’s University — $321,117,990 / $677,140,152
22. Neubauer Family Foundation — $299,509,332 / $374,238,007
23. American Oncologic Hospital — $298,473,710 / $148,446,114
24. Pew Memorial Trust — $280,994,393 / $2,888,959,778
25. Resources for Human Development, Inc. — $255,960,451 / $70,233,108

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Some thoughts on all this:

• Most of these are to be expected. Philly is commonly known as an “eds and meds” capital — 38 percent of those employed in the city work for an educational or medical institution. And a few of these entities, such as Jefferson and Temple, are both hospitals and universities.
• But holy moly, Penn. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that both its income and assets far outperform other local schools, as it’s the only Ivy in Philadelphia. (Also, Amy Gutmann is the fourth-highest-paid of all U.S. university presidents.) Still, consider that the City of Philadelphia‘s proposed 2018 fiscal year budget lists obligations of a mere $4.38 billion.
• Nonprofits don’t need to pay property taxes. Instead, they can make “payments in lieu of taxes,” or PILOTs, as a way to give back to the city. Penn — the largest land-owning nonprofit in Philly — doesn’t. It’s controversial.
• As sister site Technical.ly Philly pointed out this December, University City is poised to become a “catalyst for the Philly tech scene,” largely because of the anchor institutions listed here: Penn, CHOP, Drexel.
• Several of these nonprofits were included in Technical.ly’s 2013 list of the 20 biggest employers in Philly.
• We’re a little surprised to realize how huge RHD is. It makes sense, though — the human services org operates over 160 programs in 15 states.
• Let’s call American Bible Society, which provides bibles to people around the world, the sleeper hit here.

And some further questions we have:

• Why aren’t there more foundations on the list?
• Why are there so many nonprofits associated with Penn?
• How much do these organizations’ CEOs and EDs make?
• Which of these are having the biggest impact on the city?

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What surprises you — or doesn’t — about this list? Do you have the answers to our questions? What other lists do you want to see? Tell us @generocity or by emailing julie@generocity.org.