What percentage of St. Jude’s revenue comes from donations versus grants and investments?

1. Donations are the engine — but the share moves with markets and transfers

St. Jude and its fundraising arm ALSAC supply the biggest single chunk of the hospital’s revenue: one reporting snapshot shows St. Jude’s total revenue of $1.4 billion in a given year with $1.1 billion (about 59%) coming from ALSAC transfers and related donations ^[1], while other public summaries and the hospital’s combined statements for later years show higher donation‑linked support — for example, a $2.0 billion revenue year in which roughly $1.7 billion came from ALSAC/donor support (about 85%) in the cited reporting ^{[2] [3]}. The reason for year‑to‑year swings is twofold: fundraising totals and bequests change annually, and the combined statements separate “total support” (donations) from other revenue lines like grants and investment returns ^{[3] [5]}.

2. Grants, patient revenue and investment returns fill the gap

Beyond donations, St. Jude’s audited revenue mix commonly includes government research grants, insurance recoveries (patient service revenue), licensing and other operating income; one summary year recorded government grants (~$129M), patient care/insurance reimbursements (~$118M) and smaller other items totaling the remainder of the $1.4B year ^[1]. Investment gains also materially affect the aggregate “revenue” figure in years with strong market returns, a point St. Jude and news analyses both note: investment performance has both boosted annual revenue in good years and reduced it in weak markets ^{[6] [3]}.

3. Interpreting “donations versus grants and investments” requires reading the combined statements

St. Jude’s public pages and independent explainers emphasize that “donations” appear in lines labelled total support or ALSAC transfers, while grants, insurance recoveries and investment returns are reported separately; mixing those categories without referencing a specific statement produces misleading comparisons ^{[4] [3]}. St. Jude also highlights that 82 cents of every dollar received from donations, research grants, insurance recoveries and investment returns is used for mission activities — a claim about spending efficiency, not a revenue split ^{[4] [7]}.

4. The debate: reserves, fundraising costs and transparency

Investigative reporting has questioned how much of donated dollars are spent immediately versus retained as reserves and how much goes to fundraising overhead; ProPublica reported that in some recent years roughly 30% of contributions covered fundraising costs and about 20% of donations increased reserve balances, data that feed a public debate about appropriate reserve size and fundraising intensity ^[8]. St. Jude and ALSAC respond with statutory and filing distinctions (ALSAC as the fundraising entity, St. Jude as the hospital/research entity) that make straightforward percentage statements more complex unless tied to a particular fiscal report ^{[9] [3]}.

Conclusion — what can be stated with confidence

Using the provided sources, the safe, evidence‑based answer is that donations (largely channeled through ALSAC) are the dominant source of St. Jude’s revenue but the exact percentage varies by fiscal year: examples in the cited reporting show roughly 59% in one audited year and figures in the mid‑80% range in other years, with the remainder supplied by government grants, patient‑service reimbursements and investment returns; precise current percentages require consulting the hospital’s combined annual report or Form 990 for the year of interest ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The available materials do not provide a single immutable split because revenue mix fluctuates with donations, grants and market gains ^{[6] [3]}.