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Nonprofit revenue totals surge amid growing scrutiny after major fraud cases
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Hundreds of billions of dollars flowed through U.S. nonprofit organizations in 2024, tax filing data show, as major fraud cases — including in Minnesota — put new focus on how taxpayer-backed funds are overseen.
The figures come from ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and were independently reviewed by Fox News, which confirmed the state-by-state revenue totals.
According to the data, California’s 213,720 nonprofits reported a collective $593.4 billion in revenue, the highest total of any state.
For nonprofit organizations, revenue refers to total income reported on tax filings – not profit or money pocketed by individuals – and can include government grants and reimbursements, donations, service fees, investment income and contracts for public services.
COMER VOWS MINNESOTA FRAUD PROBE WILL EXPAND TO OTHER STATES AMID MOUNTING SCRUTINY
The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) headquarters building in Washington DC (Getty Images)
Following California was New York, where 132,097 nonprofits reported a collective $445.8 billion in revenue. Pennsylvania’s 85,346 nonprofits reported $247.3 billion, while Texas’ 157,840 nonprofits reported $219.6 billion.
Other notable states include Washington, where 44,332 nonprofits reported $139.5 billion in revenue; New Jersey, where 56,332 nonprofits reported $113 billion; and Minnesota, where 41,267 nonprofits reported $124.2 billion — placing the state among the top revenue totals nationwide despite its smaller population.
The figures circulated widely on social media on Monday after an X user highlighted the totals using the term “NGOs.” The “NGO” label is oftentimes applied to international organizations but is sometimes used online to describe domestic nonprofit groups, which are the focus of the ProPublica database.
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Nonprofit revenue figures are based on tax filings and include grants, donations and fees. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although nonprofit revenue does not indicate wrongdoing, the heavy reliance on taxpayer-backed federal and state programs has drawn scrutiny as investigators uncover fraud in multiple publicly funded initiatives.
That scrutiny comes as the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced it is sending additional federal prosecutors to Minnesota to help crack down on large-scale fraud involving taxpayer-funded programs, following a series of high-profile cases tied to nonprofit organizations and social services spending.
“The Department of Justice is dispatching a team of prosecutors to Minnesota to reinforce our U.S. Attorney’s Office and put the perpetrators of this widespread fraud behind bars,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News on Wednesday, vowing “severe consequences” in Minnesota.
COMER SAYS WALZ ‘RETALIATED’ AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS WHO WARNED OF MINNESOTA FRAUD FOR YEARS
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department is ready to deploy prosecutors nationwide to combat fraud. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
She also said her department stands “ready to deploy to any other state where similar fraud schemes are robbing American taxpayers.”
Bondi’s remarks come as the DOJ continues a sweeping welfare fraud investigation that began under former Attorney General Merrick Garland.
In 2022, Garland announced the first wave of indictments in what he said was a $250 million scheme involving the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which authorities accused of exploiting taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs and described at the time as the largest pandemic-related fraud uncovered to date.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL
The Feeding Our Future nonprofit was at the center of a sweeping federal fraud investigation in Minnesota. (Shari L. Gross/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Under Bondi, the DOJ has continued pursuing cases tied to Feeding Our Future, along with related investigations involving alleged juror bribery and health care fraud. Bondi has said the scope of the misconduct is larger than previously understood and warned that additional criminal charges are expected, bolstered by the deployment of more federal prosecutors to Minnesota.
To date, the department has charged 98 people in fraud-related cases in Minnesota and secured 64 convictions. The vast majority of defendants have been of Somali descent.
Health and Human Services said this month that it froze billions of dollars in federal funding for childcare programs and other social services in five Democrat-led states, including Minnesota, while it investigates their use of taxpayer dollars.
MINNESOTA AG BLASTS HOUSE HEARING ON FRAUD SCANDAL IN HIS STATE : ‘A LOT OF BULLS— FROM REPUBLICANS’
A viral video posted by YouTube creator Nick Shirley in December amplified the attention on fraud in Minnesota. In the video, Shirley is seen visiting Somali-run daycare centers and finding they were closed. The videos have attracted millions of views on social media.
Some of the daycare centers have since disputed the suggestions in Shirley’s video and said they have never committed fraud.
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ProPublica’s data reflect reported tax filings and does not allege wrongdoing.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Resident’s Tour of Surveillance Infrastructure Shows System ‘Greater Than Sum of Its Parts’ | KQED
Independent writer Larry Kubin toured the city to find a wide network of surveillance.
In an aerial view, an automated license plate reader is seen mounted on a pole on June 13, 2024, in San Francisco, California. Independent writer Larry Kubin of The Fogline toured the city to find a wide network of surveillance, including Flock Safety cameras. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
He found around 700 San Francisco Police Department drone flights in February alone, a rundown of city-owned tech, separate private cameras and a push for even more surveillance.
Among the tech are around 400 Flock Safety automated license plate readers used by SFPD. Police Chief Derrick Lew said this week that out-of-state and federal law enforcement agencies had “improperly” accessed the data, after the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center queried the system hundreds of times.
The incident prompted SFPD to stop sharing Flock data with NCRIC and another agency, the Western States Information Network.
It wasn’t the first of the city’s problems with Flock. In 2025, an investigation by The San Francisco Standard revealed that SFPD had allowed out-of-state agencies to search its system 1.6 million times, a possible violation of state law. Some SFPD personnel also appeared to make searches on behalf of federal agencies.
The Bay Area cities of Santa Cruz, Mountain View, El Cerrito and the town of Los Altos Hills have canceled Flock contracts over worries of improper data sharing, all of which learned their own data had been searched in similar ways. Santa Clara County also iced the company out, and Berkeley council members last month approved a contract extension but not an expansion.
Flock’s attention in the media, plus a 2019 look at Seattle’s surveillance infrastructure, was part of Kubin’s inspiration for the tour.
“I wanted to look more into that because my initial reaction was, like, ‘Oh, reading a license plate, that’s not so bad,’” Kubin said. But then he started spotting cameras in “postcard views” of the city and places where people chill. He said it feels like a much different world than when he was growing up.
“We shouldn’t have to need this much technology. We shouldn’t need a police surveillance technology inventory that’s continuing to expand,” Kubin added.
For that, he in part blames the city’s voter-approved Proposition E. The 2024 ballot measure allows SFPD to roll out new surveillance technology for a full year without an official policy.
“I’m just picturing where we are now and whether it can become like a sci-fi TV show, right? They’re not doing this now, but you can see with these new powers of things like Proposition E,” Kubin said. “The checks and balances are a bit looser.”
Proponents of the measure have defended it, with a former spokesperson for the Yes on E campaign saying officers are “highly trained and should be trusted to make smart decisions” about the use of drones in high-speed chases.
SFPD’s surveillance network has increased in recent years. The Department opened its fully operational Real Time Investigation Center at its headquarters last year. Mayor Daniel Lurie touted it as an important resource in his efforts to keep the city safe and clean.
The center houses a central hub that synthesizes real-time data from Flock cameras, drones and other public safety cameras. As of the reopening, the center helped make at least 800 arrests, according to ABC7.
But the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation is a critic of the center and how it came to be.
EFF said that these centers, which other cities like San Jose have too, are “basically control rooms that pull together all feeds from a vast warrantless digital dragnet.”
SFPD’s center was funded partly through Prop. E, with later additional backing from crypto billionaire and Ripple CEO Chris Larsen. Larsen, through Ripple and his nonprofit San Francisco Police Community Foundation, gifted $9.4 million to the new headquarters.
Larsen’s support was another inspiration for Kubin’s deep-dive into surveillance. He said that, while Larsen’s “crypto billionaire” title was not enough for him to be upset, his name had come up a lot in funding increasing police technology.
Kubin said that the introduction of each surveillance tool in isolation — Flock automated license plate reader cameras, drones, ShotSpotter technology and so on — might’ve made sense at the time for safety. But he worries that it soon evolves into something else.
“The fact that all those different modalities are coming together into this Real-Time Investigation Center – the whole of that is now greater than the sum of its parts,” Kubin said.
Denver, CO
Glitz and glamor take the stage in Monty Python’s “Spamalot” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Audiences heading to Denver for the upcoming run of “Spamalot” will see plenty of glitz, glamour and even some costumes that have become fan favorites over the years.
Ahead of the musical’s visit to Denver from Aug. 11-23, CBS Colorado was given an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the production while it was playing at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis.
The tour took place backstage inside a costume gondola, where ensemble member Claire Kennard showcased some of the elaborate wardrobe pieces featured in the show.
One of the standout costumes is the production’s “Laker Girl” outfit, which Kennard said is packed with intricate details.
“This is our Laker Girl costume. As you can see, we have the nude mesh, so there’s a little bit of a nude illusion. There’s that fish net aspect in there, the ruffles to mimic the coral, the pearls. There’s just a lot of little details that our costume designer, Jen Caprio, thought very thoroughly about,” Kennard said.
Kennard also highlighted one of the ensemble’s showgirl costumes, noting that each performer wears a different color variation.
“So this is our showgirl costume. Each of the girls, there are four ensemble girls, we have different colors, and I am the teal. Which is my personal favorite color. We have tail feathers that are right over here, which are my second favorite part of this costume,” Kennard said.
The costumes are designed to help bring the musical’s over-the-top comedy and spectacle to life.
“(We have) lots of glitz and glamor, and we shine on stage,” Kennard said.
Fans of the musical may also recognize some familiar pieces when the production arrives in Denver. Several of the most popular costumes from the original touring production of “Spamalot” remain on the road and will be featured during the Denver stop.
The Tony Award-winning musical, based on the comedy of Monty Python, will be performed in Denver from Aug. 11 through Aug. 23. Tickets and more information are available on the DCPA website.
CBS Colorado is a proud partner of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Wilyer Abreu hit a two-run homer, Connelly Early gave up two hits and a run in six innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 5-1 on Saturday night.
Early (6-5) struggled in the first inning, giving up a run on two hits, but didn’t allow another hit through the rest of his six innings, although he did hit three Mariners with pitches. He had seven strikeouts and two walks.
Tyron Guerrero pitched a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts, Garrett Whitlock went 1-2-3 in the eighth and Danny Coulombe worked a clean ninth.
Abreu homered off Seattle starter Emerson Hancock (5-4) with two out in the fourth, a shot to center field for his ninth of the season.
The Red Sox tacked on three runs in the sixth inning, with Abreu scoring on a wild pitch and Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer hitting back-to-back RBI infield singles off reliever José A. Ferrer.
The Red Sox stole three bases in the game, with Durbin swiping two.
The AL West-leading Mariners dropped to 39-39, marking the first time they have been .500 since May 29.
Up next
Boston LHP Payton Tolle (3-4, 2.93 ERA) was set to start against RHP Logan Gilbert (5-4, 3.43) on Sunday in the series finale.
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