by Paul Arnsberger Charities and Other Tax-Exempt Organizations, 2001 Paul Arnsberger is an economist with the Special Studies Branch Special Projects Section. This article was

N onprofit charitable organizations exempt fromincome tax under Internal Revenue Codesection 501(c)(3) filed over 240,000 informa-tion returns for Reporting Year 2001, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year. These organiza-tions held over $1.6 trillion in assets, an increase of 4 percent from 2000, and reported $897 billion in revenue, 70 percent of which came from program services and activities (Figure A). The statistics in this article exclude private foundations, most organi-zations with receipts totaling less than $25,000, as well as most churches and certain other types of religious organizations. Data for certain other organizations, with tax-exempt status under Code sections 501(c)(4) through (9), are also presented in this article. Such organiza-tions are generally diverse both in function and finan-cial character. For 2001, voluntary employee benefit associations, exempt under Code section 501(c)(9), reported assets of $110.6 billion and revenue of $101.7 billion, larger amounts than those registered by organizations classified under each of the Code sections, 501(c)(4) through (8). The statistics for charities and other tax-exempt organizations reported in this article are based on data compiled from Form 990, Return of Organiza-tion Exempt from Income Tax, and Form 990-EZ, the short form version of this information return. The latter form may be completed by smaller organiza-tions, those with end-of-year assets of less than $250,000 and gross receipts of $25,000 to $100,000. Only condensed income statements and balance sheets are required from filers of the short form, which accounted for 22 percent of the returns filed by organizations exempt under Code sections 501(c)(3) through (9) for Reporting Year 2001. Charitable Organizations Tax-Exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3