Self-employment method
Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations
185,682 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 185,682 people who filed under this code in 2022, 54.17% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 185,682 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full receipts distribution as Census publishes it. The median above is interpolated inside whichever band contains the 50th percentile, so this table is what that figure is derived from.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 65,448 | 35.2% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 35,145 | 18.9% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 45,243 | 24.4% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 25,214 | 13.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 10,906 | 5.9% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 2,995 | 1.6% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 516 | 0.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 214 | 0.1% |
Who this suits
The midpoint filer took $8,897 in gross receipts for the year. Before expenses. That is not a low income from this work — for half the field it is not income from this work at all, it is a hobby with a tax form attached.
With 185,682 filers, Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
2.0% of filers grossed $100,000 or more — a small minority, but a real one. That group is who the aspirational version of this work describes, and they are roughly one in thirty.
Personal and repair services are the most common form of American self-employment: a chair, a van or a set of tools, one person, and a book of local clients built by referral.
There is no training requirement to file under this code — which is precisely why so many people appear in the bottom bands. Entry being free is not the same as the work being viable.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations earns 6.4x the bottom quarter — under $3,546 against over $22,820, a spread of $19,274. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations earns under $3,546 — $46,474 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this without a client book already forming. Rent on a chair or a unit begins immediately; the referrals do not.
54.2% of 185,682 filers — 100,583 people — grossed under $10,000 in 2022. More than half of everyone who tried Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations took in less than $10,000 before any expense came out.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 6.4x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $8,897 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations should plan around it.
In cash terms the middle half of Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations runs $3,546 to $22,820 — $19,274 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $8,897.
Getting to $22,820, the 75th percentile, is worth $13,923 a year more than the $8,897 midpoint and $19,274 more than the $3,546 a quarter of Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations settle for.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $4.27 at the midpoint for Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations, $1.70 at the 25th percentile and $10.97 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
Counted straight off the return: 65,448 filers grossed under $5,000, 35,145 took $5,000 to $9,999, 45,243 took $10,000 to $24,999, 3,725 cleared $100,000 and 730 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $8,897 midpoint for Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $8,897 salary.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations, the hourly figure is $8,897 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · Look up something else