The Top 10 Cities for Nonprofit Jobs

Job Seekers •

Some cities have built up such a dense concentration of foundations, NGOs, and mission-driven employers that the sector dominates the city, the way finance does in New York or entertainment does in Los Angeles. If you're planning a move, or just curious where the opportunities are most available, these ten cities are where nonprofit careers are sure bets.


1. Washington, D.C.

D.C.'s economy runs on policy, and the nonprofit sector is a huge part of that machine. Advocacy groups, think tanks, and international NGOs set up shop here specifically to be close to Congress, federal agencies, and each other. By employee count, the American Red Cross, headquartered in the District, is one of the city's largest nonprofit employers.

Salaries skew higher here than the national nonprofit average, which helps offset a cost of living that runs well above the national median, particularly for housing. The upside: a genuinely deep professional network. It's hard to find another city where switching between a nonprofit, a federal agency, and a policy shop is this normal a career path.

Number of Nonprofits: ~13,500 registered nonprofits in the District, accounting for roughly 25% of D.C.'s private-sector employment, the highest share of any state or district in the country.

Prominent nonprofits in D.C.:

Browse nonprofit jobs in Washington, D.C. →


2. New York City

New York has the largest, most varied nonprofit sector in the country, simply by virtue of scale. Global human rights organizations, major foundations, and city-specific poverty and housing nonprofits all operate here at once. By employee count, the city's largest nonprofit employers are its hospital systems, like NewYork-Presbyterian and Memorial Sloan Kettering, though the philanthropic and advocacy side is just as deep.

New York is also the country's most expensive city to live in, and nonprofit salaries, while often the highest in the sector nationally, don't always keep pace with rent. The upside is unmatched density: more open roles, more lateral moves, and more informal industry events than anywhere else on this list.

Number of Nonprofits: More than 33,000 nonprofits in the metro area, employing an estimated 600,000 people, more than any other U.S. city.

Prominent nonprofits in New York:

Browse nonprofit jobs in New York →


3. San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco's nonprofit sector leans hard into two things the region is already known for: technology and global development. GoFundMe is headquartered here, built entirely around a mission of individual and community giving, and Global Fund for Women runs its international grantmaking operations from the city.

Tech-adjacent philanthropy is a genuine local specialty: a lot of Bay Area foundations and giving vehicles are funded by tech wealth and staffed by people who understand both worlds. That crossover can mean stronger pay than the nonprofit sector sees elsewhere, which matters given that San Francisco's cost of living, especially housing, is among the highest in the country.

Number of Nonprofits: More than 33,000 nonprofits across the greater Bay Area, including the Sierra Club, headquartered in Oakland, the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than two million members and supporters.

Prominent nonprofits in the Bay Area:

Browse nonprofit jobs in San Francisco →


4. London

London is the one international city on this list, and it earns its place as the nonprofit and NGO capital of Europe. British Council, the UK's international cultural relations and education organization, is headquartered here, and the city is also home to major global health and humanitarian funders, alongside a dense concentration of household-name UK charities.

London's cost of living rivals New York and San Francisco, particularly for housing, but the city offers something few others can: genuine proximity to European and international policy work, alongside a deep, mature charity sector of its own. For anyone considering a nonprofit career with an international bent, London is very hard to skip.

Number of Nonprofits: The UK has more than 171,000 registered charities, and London and the South East together account for roughly half of England's total, more than any other region in the country.

Prominent nonprofits in London:

  • British Council
  • Oxfam GB
  • Save the Children UK
  • Comic Relief
  • Wellcome Trust
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Amnesty International UK

Browse nonprofit jobs in London →


5. Chicago

Chicago's nonprofit sector is shaped by the city's civic culture and its role as a Midwest hub. YMCA of the USA, one of the country's largest youth and community-service organizations, runs its national operations out of Chicago, and the city is also home to the MacArthur Foundation, well known for its "genius grants."

Chicago's real advantage is cost. It offers big-city scale, a major airport, and a genuine concentration of national nonprofit headquarters, at a cost of living meaningfully lower than the coasts. For someone weighing a move purely on where a nonprofit salary stretches furthest, Chicago is one of the strongest answers on this list.

Number of Nonprofits: Roughly 60,000 nonprofits across the greater Chicago metro area, including Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief charity and the network behind most U.S. food banks, headquartered in the city.

Prominent nonprofits in Chicago:

  • YMCA of the USA
  • MacArthur Foundation
  • Feeding America
  • The Chicago Community Trust
  • Field Museum
  • American Bar Association

Browse nonprofit jobs in Chicago →


6. Boston

Boston's nonprofit sector draws heavily on the city's academic and medical institutions. Global health giant Partners In Health was founded and is still headquartered here, and the density of universities, teaching hospitals, and research institutions feeds a steady supply of nonprofits focused on public health, education, and biomedical research.

Cost of living is high, similar to other major Northeast cities, but Boston's nonprofit salaries and its relatively compact, walkable core make it a popular choice for people early in a public health or education career.

Number of Nonprofits: Roughly 35,600 nonprofits across the greater Boston metro area. Mass General Brigham is the largest nonprofit employer in the region by headcount.

Prominent nonprofits in Boston:

  • Partners In Health
  • Mass General Brigham
  • WGBH Educational Foundation
  • The Boston Foundation
  • Bridgespan Group
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Browse nonprofit jobs in Boston →


7. Seattle

Seattle's nonprofit sector sits in the shadow of two of the largest philanthropic forces in the world: the Gates Foundation, and Amazon and Microsoft's corporate giving arms nearby. World Vision, one of the largest humanitarian aid organizations globally, is also headquartered in the Seattle area.

That concentration of philanthropic capital has built a genuine global health and development cluster in the city. Seattle's cost of living is high, on par with other West Coast tech hubs, but the philanthropic sector here pays some of the strongest nonprofit salaries in the country, particularly in global health.

Number of Nonprofits: Roughly 25,000 nonprofits across the greater Seattle metro area, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in the world by endowment.

Prominent nonprofits in Seattle:

Browse nonprofit jobs in Seattle →


8. Los Angeles

LA's nonprofit sector often surprises people with its size, it's large, but it's spread across a genuinely enormous metro area rather than concentrated in one downtown core. Entertainment-industry philanthropy is a real local specialty, alongside a large immigration, housing, and homelessness-focused nonprofit sector responding to the city's specific challenges.

Cost of living is high, especially housing, but LA's nonprofit salaries have been rising to compete with the cost of staying in the city, and the sheer size of the metro area means there's a lot of ground to cover for the right role.

Number of Nonprofits: Nearly 79,000 nonprofits across the greater LA metro area, including the J. Paul Getty Trust, the wealthiest arts and cultural institution in the world.

Prominent nonprofits in Los Angeles:

  • J. Paul Getty Trust
  • California Community Foundation
  • City of Hope
  • Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
  • Simon Wiesenthal Center
  • Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Browse nonprofit jobs in Los Angeles →


9. Atlanta

Atlanta has quietly become one of the biggest nonprofit headquarters cities in the country, and it happened deliberately. Four major national nonprofits, the American Cancer Society, CARE USA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Habitat for Humanity International, all relocated their headquarters to the city between 1989 and 2006. That's an unusual amount of national and international nonprofit leadership for one city outside D.C. or New York, and it comes with Atlanta's lower cost of living.

For a nonprofit career with real growth potential, at a fraction of what it costs to live in D.C. or New York, Atlanta is one of the most underrated cities on this list.

Number of Nonprofits: Roughly 48,000 nonprofits across the greater Atlanta metro area.

Prominent nonprofits in Atlanta:

Browse nonprofit jobs in Atlanta →


10. Denver

Denver's nonprofit sector centers on two of the region's defining issues: the outdoors and public health. Conservation and outdoor-recreation nonprofits have a natural home here, and Denver has grown fast over the past decade, though it's still meaningfully more affordable than the West Coast cities on this list.

Combined with genuine year-round quality of life, easy mountain access, a walkable downtown, it's become a popular landing spot for nonprofit professionals who want outdoor access without a coastal price tag.

Number of Nonprofits: Roughly 19,700 nonprofits across the greater Denver metro area. United Way, now one of the largest charitable networks in the world, was founded in Denver in 1887.

Prominent nonprofits in Denver:

  • Denver Foundation
  • Colorado Health Foundation
  • National Jewish Health
  • Craig Hospital
  • Rocky Mountain Institute
  • Conservation Colorado

Browse nonprofit jobs in Denver →


Wherever you land

Cost of living, salary, and sector focus vary a lot across this list, so the right city really depends on what kind of nonprofit work you want to do and what trade-offs you're willing to make. Whichever city you're eyeing, you can browse all nonprofit jobs on The Impact Job, or check real pay ranges by role and location with the salary guide before you commit to a move.