What percentage of $1 is spent on the children at shriners children's hospitals
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Shriners Children’s reports that roughly 80–85 cents of every dollar it spends goes to patient care, research and education, while independent breakdowns for specific entities and years can show higher or lower program ratios [1] [2] [3]. Detailed financial statements for the two U.S. corporations and hospital-level analyses show variation—one recent hospital-level figure cited $86 of every $100 spent in 2022—so the precise answer depends on which legal entity and fiscal year is being measured [4] [5].
1. What the organization says: “About 80–85% goes to patients, research and education”
Shriners Children’s itself presents a clear headline figure: its stewardship messaging states that “approximately 80 percent” of all funds spent each year are dedicated to patient care, research and education in some pages, and in other official help/FAQ pages and donor-facing materials the organization cites “approximately 85 percent” devoted to those programmatic activities [1] [2] [3]. Those figures are the organization’s public summary of how it allocates expenditures and are repeated in annual reports and donor FAQ material [6].
2. What independent or third‑party breakdowns show: hospital-by-hospital and year-to-year differences
External analyses and reporting reveal that the program-spending share is not a single immutable number: a Paddock Post review of the SHC–Colorado financials for 2022 reported that the Colorado corporation “spent $86 of every $100 in revenue in 2022,” while other years and the Massachusetts corporation produced different ratios and retained significant unspent revenue to general funds or net assets [4] [7]. CharityWatch and other evaluators apply different accounting rules and note that salary allocations, shared costs with Shriners International, and investment gains or losses can materially shift apparent program ratios from year to year [8] [5].
3. Why the reported percentage can vary: accounting choices and legal structure
The network’s U.S. operations are split into two separate nonprofit corporations (Massachusetts and Colorado), and their consolidated financial statements show allocations based on occupancy and shared services; those allocations, plus investment income, unrealized gains/losses and the timing of spending, make “per $1” calculations sensitive to which set of statements and what line items are included [1] [5] [9]. Donor-facing claims typically report program expense ratios (money spent on mission-related activities) while some independent write-ups compare spending to total revenue or to net assets changes—two different denominators that produce different percentages [4] [7].
4. How to translate this into “what percentage of $1 is spent on the children”
A careful reading of the reporting available leads to a practical answer: using Shriners Children’s own published claims, between $0.80 and $0.85 of every dollar the system spends is allocated to patient care, research and education [1] [2] [3]. For particular entities and fiscal years the figure can be higher—for example, one 2022 analysis for SHC–Colorado put it at about $0.86 per $1 spent [4]. The final percentage thus depends on whether one relies on the systemwide, donor-facing assertion, an independent hospital-level calculation, or a specific year’s audited numbers [6] [5].
5. Caveats, competing views and where to check next
The organization’s 80–85% statements are self-reported summaries intended for donors and will tend to emphasize program spending; independent databases like ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and charity watchdogs examine IRS Form 990 filings and may allocate salaries and shared costs differently, producing alternative ratios and criticism of particular expense items or governance decisions [10] [8]. Detailed confirmation requires consulting the combined financial statements and the Form 990s for the relevant year and corporation [5] [9]. Where sources do not provide a granular line-by-line “per-dollar-to-child” split, this analysis does not invent one and relies on the ranges and examples available in the reporting [1] [4].