Some of Boston’s nonprofit institutions are among the best known in the world — such as its institutions of higher education and its renowned teaching hospitals.  Beyond these major institutions are the other large, mid-sized and small organizations that also define the sector in Boston.  The larger organizations offer “deep benches” — including well-developed expertise and stability.  Smaller nonprofits often offer an intimate understanding of one neighborhood or ethnic group, or innovative responses to issues that others may not at first recognize as important — such as HIV/AIDS awareness, community gardening, neighborhood arts programs and community-based technology training.  All are an essential part of community and civic life, providing opportunities for neighbors or people of like mind to meet and begin to work together.

Organizations in the nonprofit sector are classified in a variety of ways. Guidestar, a philanthropic research organization, manages a database of all tax-exempt nonprofit organizations’ IRA 990 forms, making possible an assessment of the number of Boston-based nonprofit organizations by size.

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In addition to its major nonprofit institutions and foundations, Massachusetts contains a dense network of large and small tax-exempt nonprofit organizations.  There were about 10,000 such organizations in 2004, 44% of which had annual income of less than $100,000. Fewer than 10% of Massachusetts nonprofits have an annual budget greater than $5,000,000. In 2004, almost one-third of Massachusetts non-profits were involved in human services. One-fifth were in the education sector, and another fifth were classified as public or societal benefit organizations. About 12% were in the health sector, and 6% were religious organizations.