Childrens Hospital Corporation
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
Points to look into
- It reported loans to or from officers, directors or other insiders.
These come from the organization's own tax return. There may be a good explanation; ask the charity.
What it says it does
See Schedule O
- Income
- $3.2 billion
- Spending
- $3.2 billion
- Spent on programs
- 85%
- Reserves
- 1.4 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 72%
- Employees
- 17,819
- Volunteers
- 396
- Highest pay
- $3.2 million, president & ceo
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 62 out of 100. Higher than 50% of charities in its peer group (health care, over $100m).
Reserves
10 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 1.4 months of spending.
Debt
10 of 20It owes 40% of what it owns.
Living within its means
12 of 15Income exceeded spending by 0% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 17% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1585% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 7 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 90 out of 100. Higher than 27% of charities in its peer group (health care, over $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2518 of 19 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
0 of 10Reports at least one of: diversion of assets, excess benefits, loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (6)
- $2.1 billion spent. CLINICAL CARE: The services we offer - from well child visits and treatment for typical child health issues (broken bones, tonsillitis, etc.) to chronic care (asthma, diabetes, obesity, etc.) and specialty services (oncology, cardiology, neurology) - benefit from our clinicians' high level of specialization, our collaboration with research scientists (many of whom are also physicians) affiliated with the hospital, and our significant investments in equipment, facilities and clinical and support staff. We also offer the only pediatrics Department of Addiction Medicine in the U.S., as well as the only Orthopedic Sports Medicine program located at a children's hospital. We also offer the largest programs in Pediatric Anesthesiology, Pediatric Cardiology, and Pediatric Critical Care, in the nation. Boston Children's is the safety net institution for very sick children throughout the region, supporting the entire health care system for the most complex pediatric cases. We receive referrals from community hospitals as well as from other academic medical centers throughout New England. Approximately 25% of our inpatients are transferred from hospitals & medical centers across Massachusetts for care that no one else can provide. In FY24, Boston Children's saw approximately 775,000 outpatient visits, 68,000 emergency department visits, 26,000 inpatient or observation stays, and 32,000 inpatient or day surgeries. Our inpatient case mix index was 2.11 (MA only) and the average length of stay was 6.4 days. Of these patients, approximately 35% (patients on Medicaid/Medicare) are considered low income.Our Medicaid ACO provides primary care to 20% of the children covered by Medicaid in the state. The ability to support the health-related social needs of patients and families via the ACO complements the work that we are doing in communities to address the more systemic social determinants of health. We can address "downstream" immediate needs of children and families, but also to work with communities and partners to affect the "upstream" factors that drive poorer health outcomes for so many. This includes a focus on policy that can impact health.We remain committed to advancing health equity through Boston Children's Sandra L. Fenwick Institute. Through the Institute's works, we seek to transform pediatrics by addressing persistent disparities in the delivery of care to our nation's children. In 2024, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Public Health Council unanimously approved our Determination of Need (DoN) application for the modernization of the Franciscan Children's campus and programs. This latest approval is affirmation by the state of the growing demand of meeting the needs of children for both behavioral health and rehabilitative care, and to further support the critical dental surgical program located on the Franciscan campus. The project will allow us to build out the full continuum of behavioral health services to meet the needs of our patients, as well as update Kennedy Day School, which provides integrated special education, therapeutic and health services to more than 60 students with complex needs from more than 30 communities across Massachusetts.Increasingly, we have been able to care for and improve life and health outcomes for medically complex children, many with conditions such as congenital heart conditions, childhood cancers & complex neurological and neurosurgical conditions. Our capabilities are accelerating rapidly as we develop new clinical & surgical approaches including gene therapies, stem cell transplant procedures, fetal surgical interventions, and the like.Boston Children's is at the absolute forefront nationally in these & many other areas. As a result, we have seen significant growth in the number of complex patients served patients who stay longer, require more resources (such as intensive care unit-level care), use a broader range of interdisciplinary specialists, and frequently require substantial support for their whole family. Some of them travel great distances, but equally many are from here in Massachusetts.Boston Children's MA/Regional network consists of our satellite/physician office locations, formal primary care relationships with groups such as the PPOC and Atrius, community health center relationships and a broad array of relationships with other hospitals in MA and NE including community hospitals, academic medical centers and specialty hospitals. We maintain relationships of varying structures, shapes and sizes with nearly all of the major academic medical centers and specialty hospitals in MA and New England, from a single service agreement such as providing remote EEG interpretations to Elliot Hospital to staffing community hospitals 24/7 365 per year to our multi-faceted Brigham relationship and joint cancer program with Dana Farber. Our satellite/physician office locations and our community hospital relationships in eastern MA have been central to our commitment to increasing access to high quality pediatric services. Over the past 20+ years we have gradually grown our network of satellites/physician office locations and community hospital relationships providing a mix of neonatal, ED and inpatient services. Today, more than 30% of our outpatient specialty visits and surgical cases take place in a Boson Children's satellite or physician office location. Our affiliated community hospitals account for nearly half of our MA community hospital transfers and 30% (~ 1,000) of all intra-hospital transfers. These community hospital relationships also generate important downstream referrals to our specialists including important neonatal referrals from the obstetrical programs at these community hospitals. As fewer community hospitals provide inpatient pediatric care, these hospitals are increasingly serving as regional pediatric hubs to help stem the tide of patients who have to be referred to Boston for community level care.
- $514.3 million spent. RESEARCH: Our Research Mission is to be the leading source of research and discovery. We are the leader in discovery and innovation that is dramatically advancing not only pediatric care but adult care as well. We have the world's largest pediatric research program for many reasons. The most important reason is our focus on our patients. We are constantly evolving care and caring for increasingly complex patients. Every child who walks through our doors teaches us something. More than 3,000 basic, clinical, and translational research employees work in our dedicated facilities, which total some 1 million square feet of space.Our more than 1,100 investigators include 13 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 30 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 25 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 Fellows of the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences, 12 current members and 13 alumni of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Twenty-seven faculty are members of the American Association of Physicians and 47 are members of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Over the years, four Boston Children's investigators have won the Nobel Prize and six have won the nearly equally prestigious Lasker Award.Our investigators are Harvard Medical School faculty basic scientists, clinical researchers and epidemiologists - who are accelerating the pace of medical discovery from brainstorm to bench to bedside. Our researchers were the first to develop 10 new disease-based stem cell lines by reprogramming adult stem cells that can be used to study treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's to Diabetes.
- $58.1 million spent. TEACHING: Boston Children's is committed to providing high quality continuing education for pediatric providers and specialists throughout the world. As the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, more than 2,000 of our attending physicians and researchers are on the clinical frontier of effectively understanding and treating many pediatric diseases and disorders.We are proud to be the primary teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and our Nursing Department partners with 27 schools of nursing throughout Massachusetts and New England. We are home to the largest and most competitive training program in pediatrics, seeding the word with the next generations of scientists, innovators and caregivers.In 2024, our Continuing Education Office earned Reaccreditation with Commendation from Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the organization consisting of the three global leaders in the field of accreditation. Commendation status represents the pinnacle of accreditation for interprofessional education, reflecting our steadfast dedication to upholding the highest standards in healthcare education and collaborative practice. It reflects our demonstrated commitment to using our education platform to listen to the patient's voice, consider the social determinants of health and population outcomes, pursue research and scholarship in education, and ultimately to improve healthcare.We offer more than 70 Training Programs (44 are accredited - more than any other freestanding children's hospital). We host over 500 Boston Children's-based residents and clinical fellows annually, selected for their potential leadership in their respective fields and their commitment to advancing the frontiers of pediatric care. A 24-year analysis of residents who have graduated from our Department of Medicine found that roughly 40% go on to become leaders in academic medicine, filling positions such as deans, chairs and program heads across the country. More than one third of the chiefs of pediatric departments across the country trained at Boston Children's.Our simulation program, Immersive Design Systems, is the first hospital-based simulator program at a teaching hospital in New England. Our goal is to make "practice prior to game time" part of healthcare routine, offering a fully integrated quality assurance and improvement resource, preparation and testing environment for hospitals. Boston Children's offers the only training programs in New England for Adolescent Medicine, Congenital Cardiac Surgery, and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities; and the only training programs in Massachusetts for Adolescent Medicine, Congenital Cardiac Surgery, Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Pediatric Nephrology, Pediatric Orthopedics, Pediatric Pathology, and Pediatric Surgery.
- $22.8 million spent. COMMUNITY: Boston Children's Hospital was among the first academic medical centers in the country to expand the traditional missions of patient care, teaching, and research to embrace a fourth part of its mission - community. Through the years, Boston Children's has strived to ensure that community health is more than just words in its mission statement. The efforts have evolved from targeted services for individual families to innovative models that have proven to reduce health disparities, improve child health outcomes, and promote health equity.Boston Children's community mission is based on the needs of the community. It revolves around keeping children healthy through wellness and prevention efforts, ensuring that children have access to needed health care services, and partnering with others in the community to address the social determinants of health. These are issues that can have a significant impact on an individual's health such as exposure to violence, experiencing food insecurity, living in poverty or having unstable housing. In all its endeavors, Boston Children's focuses on meeting community needs and implementing programs that are aligned with the priorities of the City of Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Public Schools, as well as other key partners and city agencies.Understanding Community Needs:Boston Children's conducts a comprehensive community health needs assessment every three years as required by the Internal Revenue Service. The full report from the 2022 assessment can be found here. The findings inform the direction of Boston Children's Community Health Improvement Plan, which outlines how the hospital will use its resources and partner with others to address those themes and improve community health. This process also ensures that the hospital utilizes its resources and leverages community partnerships in the most effective way. The assessment was approved by the Boston Children's Board of Trustees in the fall of 2022. The 2022 assessment identified the health-related needs, strengths, and resources available to children, youth, families, and residents in Boston - specifically the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, and Roxbury. The assessment also looked at those living in the communities served by Boston Children's locations outside of Boston, which includes Brookline, Lexington, North Dartmouth, Peabody, Waltham, and Weymouth.Boston Children's 2022 assessment also included data from the Boston Community Health Collaborative. This assessment included a wide range of Boston stakeholders - community organizations, community development corporations, health centers, hospitals, and the Boston Public Health Commission. While community health assessment and planning work are often conducted by individual organizations, the Boston Collaborative aligns and coordinates resources between multi-sector stakeholders across the city. Boston Children's is a founding member, and staff participate in the steering committee and work groups.Key themes from the assessment include how poverty impacts child and community health, access to stable and affordable housing, concerns about food access and insecurity, and the importance of prevention and focus on early childhood and youth development. Health issues of concern for families continue to be around mental/behavioral health, asthma, and obesity. A formal and comprehensive needs assessment is only one part of Boston Children's approach to understanding the health needs and vital resources within the community. Boston Children's is continually listening and learning from patient families, community leaders, and staff. The staff rely on ongoing conversations with Boston Children's key partners - community health centers and community-based organizations, as well as the Boston Public Health Commission, and the Boston Public Schools.Through the Community Advisory Board, which meets on a quarterly basis, Boston Children's has a direct link to expertise on Boston neighborhoods, community organizations, and current health needs. Members of the Community Advisory Board are instrumental in providing feedback throughout the year and play a key role in the Boston Children's formal assessment process. This feedback from experts, community leaders, and partners as well as the Community Advisory Board informs the hospital's community mission, strengthens the development of partnerships, and helps to shape the implementation of the hospital's Strategic Implementation Plan. The 2025 community health needs assessment is underway, and the results will be available at the end of this year.Being A Community Health Leader:Boston Children's has identified priority health areas - asthma, obesity, mental and behavioral health, and early childhood development - and has a programmatic response to each. Community programs are focused where Boston Children's has the clinical expertise, resources, and partnerships to make a difference. Boston Children's strategy for improving community health is to: 1) address the most pressing health needs of children and families; 2) provide services through programs that can lead to improvements in health; or 3) build community capacity to better meet the needs of children and families. Some of these programs are described briefly below.-Since 2005, the Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) has helped to improve the health and lives of 2,731 Boston children with asthma. Through a comprehensive asthma home visiting program, CAI provides case management, home visits, offers education to caregivers and patients, distributes asthma control supplies, connects families to resources and increases access through advocacy. CAI surpassed its quality goal, reducing the percentage of patients with any hospitalizations by 82% and any emergency department visits by 54% after one year in the program. The program provided education and training for 153 community meetings with 1,679 p
- Serving as an Anchor for the Community:Since 2018, Boston Children's has been a committed and proud member of the Healthcare Anchor Network, a national network of more than 70 hospitals and health care systems working to build more inclusive and sustainable local economies.Four Focus AreasThe Boston Children's anchor strategy puts corporate goals and business practices in place to address social inequities and aims to help improve community conditions that contribute to poor health. There are four pillars:1. Hiring and Workforce Development. Boston Children's partners with community organizations to recruit, hire, and train individuals from neighboring communities to ensure that employees are reflective of the communities we serve.2. Purchasing. Boston Children's supports community businesses by buying locally whenever possible, with a focus on increasing the participation of minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned businesses.3. Investment. Boston Children's is investing in local projects that can produce significant health and social returns for our community. This includes projects that address affordable housing, early childhood education, youth engagement, and mental health efforts.4. Sustainability. Boston Children's is implementing approaches to advance reductions in hospital-generated greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to local climate resilience.The Boston Children's anchor strategy builds upon and amplifies the work of the hospital's community mission to improve the health and well-being of children and families.In FY24, Boston Children's made 3 new community investments totaling $2.45M in partnership with the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation. These investments are part of the hospital's larger $10M endowment commitment in community investment. The Hospital continued its community engagement efforts: launched an externally facing website landing page; convened quarterly meetings of the Community Investment Advisory Committee; and convened monthly internal Anchor Institution Team meetings to coordinate efforts on community investment, purchasing, and workforce development. As part of its partnership work, the Boston Children's Hospital's Community Investment, Workforce Development, and Purchasing teams met with other healthcare organizations at the annual Healthcare Anchor Network Convening. Members of the Boston Children's Anchor Institution team alongside Boston Medical Center met with representatives from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services to discuss collaborative priorities. Anchor Team staff presented on the Community Investment and Sustainability efforts during a webinar hosted by the Office of Community Health. The Anchor Team reported on FY23 progress to the Health Care Anchor Network.Expanded Commitment through the Collaboration for Community Health:Boston Children's had an opportunity to build on its history of building partnerships with the community. In August 2018, Boston Children's started to distribute additional funds as part of an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Determination of Need/Community Health Initiative program.These funds - Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health - are distributed to community organizations in addition to our ongoing commitments and support for programs and partners. The strategy to distribute funds followed a two-year community engagement process to inform how Boston Children's could make a long-lasting impact. That process resulted in identifying several strategic funding areas to address the critical needs of children and families.Funding and support for community-based projects are in the following strategic areas: Mental Health and Youth Support Systems, Community Trauma Response, Birth to Five Child Health and Development, Family Housing Stability and Economic Opportunity, Community Physical Activity, Recreation and Food Access and through the Children's Health Equity Collaborative.Through the Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health, more than 80 organizations have now received funds and support from the hospital. The leadership and staff also have been convened by Boston Children's to network, share lessons learned, provide feedback, and receive assistance around advocacy and evaluation.More details on the Collaboration and the funded projects can be found at BostonChildrens.org/funding.Addressing Social Determinants of Health:Boston Children's also responds to the social determinants of health by focusing on support and partnerships in three areas: -Education and schools. Boston Children's partners with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to support and strengthen the system as well as to work directly in school settings to reach students and help families.In FY24, BCHNP's Training and Access Project (TAP) continued to provide professional development and consultation services focused on building the capacity of school communities to address social, emotional, and behavioral health. Through TAP's online free training series for school communities, we have increased our national reach to over 12,000 participants to date. In 2023-2024, TAP provided a webinar training series that reached 1650 BPS clinicians (school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and school counselors). Trainings were developed based on needs identified by the social workers. The series included 10 interactive training courses. TAP training can be accessed at www.childrenshospital.org/TAPOnline.-Workforce Development. Boston Children's strives to bridge community and incumbent talent to build teams that provide the best service and care for patient families. The hospital partners with numerous community-based organizations to recruit community talent to job, internship, and career exploration opportunities. Once a community member joins Boston Children's as an employee, there are extensive offerings available as individuals build their caree
- -Partnering to support the health and social infrastructure in place for families. Boston Children's is also committed to and directs resources to build capacity within the existing infrastructure of care for Boston children and families. This means supporting key partners such as Boston community health centers. The hospital has relationships and strong partnerships with 10 Boston community health centers. Through these partnerships, Boston Children's improves access to care for underserved populations, helps efforts to better manage chronic diseases, and supports prevention and treatment services that improve the health of Boston children, youth, and families. Health center partners receive funding, training, and technical assistance. Due to the on-going mental and behavioral health crisis for children and youth, Boston Children's has made a substantial investment to develop internal resources to assist patients and their families (in coordination with state and community-based agencies) with crisis stabilization and care delivery transformation. Leveraging community partnerships and community-based providers, the focus is providing enhanced services to enable a safe transition to an appropriate level of care. Investments include but are not limited to enhanced behavioral response, state agency coordination, Emergency Department diversion programming, room-modifications, and more. Boston Children's also has relationships with a wide array of community organizations, which provide services as well as a voice for the families and neighborhoods they represent. Serving as a Safety Net:Boston Children's remains committed to its local community, providing primary and preventative care, as well as inpatient care for complex illnesses. It is one of the leading providers of health care to low-income children in Massachusetts and it provides care unavailable elsewhere in the state and sometimes the nation. Boston Children's also is a safety net provider for Boston children. This safety net is financial in that the hospital provides free care, subsidizes care for Medicaid patients, and incurs bad debt for patient families who cannot pay for the care they receive. It is programmatic in that Boston Children's offers vital, hospital-subsidized services that are either unavailable elsewhere or available only in a limited capacity, such as mental health and dental care.Advocating for Children and Families:As the only freestanding children's hospital in Massachusetts, influencing public policy to improve child health is an important aspect of Boston Children's commitment to community health. The hospital is a leading provider of pediatric medical and behavioral health services to low-income children across the Commonwealth and is a critical component of the safety net for children throughout New England and the nation. Boston Children's has been an organized force and an influential advocate for the health and well-being of children for more than 20 years.Boston Children's is an effective advocate on legislative and regulatory matters, both at state and federal levels, that affect children's wellbeing such as increasing access to quality pediatric mental health programs, promoting better treatment and access to services for children with medical complexity and chronic conditions, improving the landscape for pediatric medical research and advancing innovative public health policies. Boston Children's advocacy history is rooted in the promotion of better insurance coverage for children, including major child health expansions in the 1990s, the passage of Massachusetts's 2006 health reform law, and significant national involvement in work to promote child health access through the Children's Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. As a result, Massachusetts has achieved near universal health access for children, with only 1.5 percent of children uninsured, the lowest rate in the country. Massachusetts has emphasized payment reform and cost containment policies within the health care system. Boston Children's played an active and vocal role in the development of the groundbreaking statewide payment reform legislation that was signed into law in August 2012. Nationally, Boston Children's engaged in efforts to preserve and improve Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which serve as a safety net for children in all fifty states, ensuring their access to high-quality, effective coverage, and facilitates important quality measurement and improvement initiatives. We have also worked to ease the burdens on families in the Medicaid program who find it necessary to cross state lines for care. In 2006, Boston Children's (including its Boston Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships Program - for details see above) and a coalition of community organizations launched the Children's Mental Health Campaign (CMHC). The CMHC has converted its credibility and influence into several major policy accomplishments which have redefined the landscape of the children's mental health system in Massachusetts. In 2008, the CMHC was instrumental in securing passage of two landmark state laws. An Act Relative to Children's Mental Health (Chapter 321) creates a structure for enhancing early identification of behavioral health needs, treating children in the most appropriate settings, enhancing coordination among state health care agencies, and establishing mechanisms for oversight of and input into the state children's mental health system. Chapter 256 strengthened the state's mental health parity law by expanding the categories of disorders for which health insurance plans must provide mental health benefits. In 2022, the CMHC was also a strong advocate for An Act Addressing Barriers to Mental Health Care (Chapter 177 of the Acts of 2022), which increased access to emergency behavioral health services, the pediatric behavioral health workforce, and addressed the behavioral health boarding
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending September 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since March 1983.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.