Fraternities are a staple of the American university experience, whether it's for their social power on campus, sprawling alumni networks, or, at times, controversies.
But rearward the parties and secretive traditions are tax-exempt organizations that bring in millions of dollars all year.
Tax filings recommendation a partial glance into how the country's biggest fraternities acquire and expend their money.
Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity Inc., the national institution rearward among the largest fraternities throughout US university campuses, reported $10.6 myriad in income in financial 2025 and ended the twelvemonth alongside $29.4 myriad in net assets, according to public tax filings.
In comparison, Chi Phi Fraternity Inc., which has concerning 48 energetic chapters nationwide and is affiliated alongside Cornell's now-shuttered Chi Phi chapter, reported $1.8 myriad in income and $2.1 myriad in net resources in the identical year, per its tax filings.
Chi Phi declined a petition for comment from Business Insider.
Because many fraternities' local chapters, philanthropic foundations, and accommodation groups run independently, tax filings frequently display lone part of their broader, additional complex financial picture.
Take a appearance into how the US's largest fraternities acquire and expend their millions — and what small is known concerning their inner finances.
Every semester, thousands of students hurry to associate fraternities throughout the US.
Recruitment brings new dues-paying members to Greek existence organizations, reaching thousands of students throughout university campuses.
At Miami University in Ohio, for example, 2,208 students registered for Greek-life recruitment in fountain 2026. This included 859 men who registered for recruitment alongside the school's 25 Interfraternity Council fraternities.
That identical semester, nearly one in three full-time undergraduate men at the school's chief Oxford evidence belonged to a fraternity.
Member dues are a important income source.
Member dues are frequently the most dependable origin of earnings for local fraternity chapters, but how much students pay and anywhere that prosperity goes can change extensively throughout campuses and chapters.
At the University of Arizona, members of the 20 fraternities in the Interfraternity Council pay an average of concerning $1,573 per semester in active-member fees, excluding housing, as of summer 2026, according to the university's Sorority and Fraternity Programs website. Including housing, the average is concerning $5,535 per semester.
The university adds that the organizations set and collect their own dues independently.
Contributions, including alumni gifts, can be another origin of earnings for national Greek organizations.
In the financial twelvemonth ending June 2025, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, the national organization's tax-exempt entity, reported $2.82 myriad in contributions, accounting for 29.4% of its $9.61 myriad in total revenue, according to its tax filings.
Program services, a tax category that mostly covers prosperity earned through activities connected to the organizations' purposes, are the largest income category for many of the biggest Greek-letter organizations in the US, Business Insider established in a assessment of national entities' tax filings.
Greek life's biggest resources can be its houses.
Some of the most precious genuine asset in college towns throughout the US is located on the edges of campus, at the expansive properties that home fraternities and sororities.
In 2017, the Oklahoma State University division of Pi Kappa Alpha dedicated a new 32,500-square-foot, $12.8 myriad mansion (equivalent to $17.5 myriad today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' cost increase calculator).
In a 2024 inspection of additional than 1,300 Greek properties throughout 50 campuses, Today's Homeowner established that Chi Psi had the highest average asset evaluation among the fraternities it surveyed, at $1.64 myriad per house.
National fraternities expend heavily on hazard management.
Delta Upsilon, a fraternity that describes itself as a "non-secret fraternity," stated in a 2026-27 document that loss-prevention fees accounted for 39% of its revenue, during defeat safety made up 38% of its expenses.
The annual fees paid by energetic members fund, among another expenses, liability coverage for bodily injury, asset damage, and personal-injury claims; accident safety that supplements members' health insurance; and coverage protecting board and officers against negligence claims.
Delta Upsilon did not react to a petition for comment from Business Insider.
A 2014 investigation by The Atlantic described in item how liability insurance, risk-management rules, and lawful defenses can form fraternity finances, as fine as how national organizations have sought to bounds their visibility to lawsuits through an extended coverage system.
Executive pay can additionally be a important disbursal for national organizations.
SAE's 2025 filing lists CEO Steven Mitchell's compensation at $284,114, affirmative $8,523 in another compensation.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon did not react to a petition for comment from Business Insider.
Housing costs, including food, are a important expense, too.
For members, accommodation is among the draws and the most crucial aspects of Greek life.
Delta Upsilon says that, at chapters alongside houses that assist food, 60% of members' dues go toward housing-related costs, including home loan or rent payments, utilities, asset taxes and insurance, repairs, landscaping, cleaning, food, and salaries for galley personnel and home directors.
Maintaining a social existence on evidence can be a important prosperity item.
While it varies mostly between distinct organizations, the Delta Upsilon fraternity says that between 17% and 22% of its members' dues at chapters that have a house, depending on whether they assist food, go toward social costs, which may contain formals, date parties, tailgates, homecoming, social apparel, and events for alumni and parents, and are distributed at the chapter's discretion.
Another 8% to 11% of dues goes to local operational costs, including composites, agency supplies, recruitment events, elder gifts, dues-collection systems, promotion materials, intramurals, scholarly incentives, philanthropy events and contributions, and Interfraternity Council dues. That spending is additionally topic to division discretion.
Supporting alumni, including politicians, is another crucial expenditure.
The Fraternity & Sorority Political Action Committee — additionally known as FratPAC — is among the governmental assistance arms of Greek life.
The commission shares a goal of "helping additional Greek alumnae get elected to the House or Senate for the archetypal time," and raised complete $900,000 in the 2023-24 ballot cycle. The bipartisan commission stated it donated to 97 legislative candidates, alongside 52% of finances going to Republican candidates and 48% going to Democratic candidates.
National tax filings are lone a small opening into the finances of Greek existence organizations.
Many fraternities and their affiliated entities are tax-exempt, but the organizational construction and the separations among local chapters, national organizations, philanthropic and instructional foundations, and accommodation corporations can create the general financial landscape difficult to navigate.
For example, Sigma Phi Epsilon operates through distinct organizations and entities: the national fraternity itself; a separate educational foundation supporting instructional and grant programs; and a wholly owned national accommodation LLC subsidiary that supports chapters alongside asset management, operations, and renovations — whose income and resources are additionally reported under the national fraternity organization.
Some local chapters additionally have distinct tax-exempt entities, akin SigEp's housing corporation affiliated alongside its University of Georgia division — although tax and reporting structures can change by division and jurisdiction.
A spokesman for the fraternity told Business Insider that "undergraduate dues paid to the national institution are reinvested in the SigEp cognition through programs and services that advancement our mission," and that "generous alumni assistance complements those dues, assisting provision guidance development, pupil housing, and grant opportunities."
Looking lone at the national fraternity's tax filing offers a partial perspective of the organization's finances.
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Kristine Villarroel is a newsman on Business Insider's Editorial Partnerships team.Her reporting frequently turns data into accessible stories concerning how money, education, policy, and location form Americans’ lives. She covers stories on college costs and degree outcomes, state-by-state comparisons, public officials’ salaries, the rising disbursal of living, travel, food, and real estate.She has earlier worked penning concerning culture, entertainment, music, and tech. Her activity has been featured on Teen Vogue and Wired. She graduated from the University of Florida alongside a flat in journalism. There, she worked as publishing company of The Independent Florida Alligator. Email Villarroel at [email protected] and prosecute her on X @ktnedelvalle
