To be eligible for consideration, organizations must:

• Must be in business a minimum of 1 year
• Must be a nonprofit organization with 501 (c) 3 status*
• Have a facility or operations in the US
• Have a minimum of 15 employees in the US**
• An organization may enter as a group of nonprofits or as an individual organization as long as each participating organization is a separate legal entity (separate subsidiary). Branch offices may not enter separately from their parent nonprofit unless they are separate legal entities.

Example: The United Way may enter as the national nonprofit organization or it may enter as a separate local affiliate. Example: United Way Worldwide (national) or United Way of the Capital Region (local).

In addition, if an organization enters several of its subsidiaries as separate entries, and one or more of those organizations make the list, the winning organization(s) will be listed without mentioning the parent organization, even if the legal name of the entity includes the parent organization. We encourage companies to complete the registration form and survey process as one complete entity.

For example, if St Peter’s Health System – Spring Hill Clinic (Basking Ridge, NJ) and St Peter’s Health System – Maple Valley Physician’s Group (Morristown, NJ) make the list, they would simply be listed as Spring Hill Clinic – Basking Ridge, NJ and Maple Valley Physician’s Group – Morristown, NJ.

This naming requirement does not apply to affiliates of national organizations like the American Heart Association or United Way.

*Organizations that fall under 501(c)(3), (c)(4) or (c)(6) can apply to compete for the Best Nonprofits To Work For with a few exceptions. Management support organizations and consultancies formed under a tax-exempt umbrella cannot compete for inclusion in the list. If an applicant falls into these areas, the editors have the right to exclude such organizations from consideration.

**The NonProfit Times reserves the right to determine a company’s eligibility based on whether their corporate principles and ethos align with the standards set forth by The NonProfit Times.

How to enter your organization

All organizations will participate in one of three ways:

1. As an individual organization possessing one Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN).

2. As the parent/holding company of multiple organizations with one FEIN for all subsidiaries. The parent/holding company must register with all eligible employees working for that parent/holding company.

3. Subsidiaries of a parent/holding organization may register separately if each subsidiary organization possesses a separate FEIN. If the organization has multiple facilities, branches, factories, offices or stores, all locations must be included in the survey if they operate under the same FEIN.

Which employees to include

Include all current, full- and part-time US employees in the survey process, from the CEO, partners, all the way to line-level employees, including remote employees. Remote employees are defined as employees that work from home or on the road who directly report to a supervisor in the US.

Exclude all temporary, seasonal or per diem employees, PRN, 1099 employees/independent contractors, volunteers, interns, outside consultants or staffing employees placed by other organizations.