How Much Money Goes To Research At St. Jude? | At A Glance

Readers ask this because the words on donation pages can feel broad. Here is a plain view of what St. Jude counts as research in its audited books, how much it spent last year, and how that compares with patient care and other costs.

How Much Money Goes To Research At St. Jude? Breakdown And Context

The hospital groups its work into three program buckets: patient care services, research, and education, training and outreach service. Program services are the core mission. Fundraising and administrative costs sit in a separate “overhead services” group. In the latest audited year (fiscal year ended June 30, 2024), research was the largest single program line by dollars.

Fiscal 2024 Budget Snapshot

The table below translates the combined audited statement of functional expenses into an easy view. Amounts are rounded to the nearest tenth of a billion.

Category	FY2024 Amount (USD)	Share Of Total
Patient Care Services	$695.6M	26.1%
Research	$823.2M	30.8%
Education, Training & Outreach	$343.1M	12.9%
Total Program Services	$1.862B	69.8%
Fundraising	$419.9M	15.7%
Administrative & General	$387.5M	14.5%
Total Expenses	$2.669B	100%

Two quick ratios help answer the big question. Research was 44.2% of program services and 30.8% of all expenses in 2024. Those shares move a bit year to year, but the pattern holds: research is a major slice of the mission budget.

What “Research” Means In These Books

On this line you’ll find lab and clinical study costs, scientist and research staff pay, core facilities, data teams, research computing, trials, and supplies tied to studies. Patient care covers clinic visits, inpatient units, nursing, pharmacy, and direct treatment needs. Education includes training, fellowships, and outreach tied to care and science.

Where The Figures Come From

Everything above traces to audited statements for the hospital and its fundraising arm (ALSAC). You can read the combined financial statements for FY2024. Those documents describe the categories used in this article and show the totals behind every number here.

Per-Dollar View: Where Each $1 Goes

St. Jude publishes a simple graphic that donors often quote. Over the past several years, about 82 cents of every dollar received funded treatment, research, and long-term needs, with the rest split between fundraising and administration (13% and 5% in the donor graphic). See the hospital’s donor FAQ for that statement. That view covers all funding that keeps the mission moving, not just the program slice named “research.” It helps you see that most dollars reach mission work.

Why The Per-Dollar Graphic And The Audit Differ

The “$0.82” message talks about where funding goes in broad buckets across time. The audited statement shows a single year with a finer split. Both tell a true story; they answer slightly different questions. If you’re asking, “how much money goes to research at St. Jude,” the audited research line is your anchor.

Money Going To Research At St. Jude: By The Numbers

Here’s the math for the latest year. Research expense was $823.2M out of $1.862B in program services. That’s a 44.2% share. Out of total expenses of $2.669B, research was 30.8%. If you prefer the “per dollar” lens donors see on campaigns, the hospital’s FAQ says 82 cents of each dollar funds treatment, research, and long-term needs, with 13 cents to fundraising and 5 cents to administration.

How It Compares With Patient Care

Patient care services were $695.6M in 2024, or 26.1% of total expenses. That means the lab and study side carried more dollars than the clinic side that year. Both rise with growth in trials, new therapies, and staff, so the gap can shift.

Why Research Is Costly Here

St. Jude runs basic science labs and clinical studies under one roof. That setup creates heavy fixed costs: core labs, high-end instruments, biostatistics and data teams, research pharmacy, and compliance. On top of that, novel therapies like cell and gene therapy are expensive to study and deliver. These drivers show up in the research line.

How Your Gift Reaches The Lab

ALSAC, the separate charity founded to fund the hospital, raises most of the dollars each year and transfers backing to the hospital. The hospital also brings in grants, insurance recoveries, and investment returns. This mix pays for program services. In short, donor gifts flow through ALSAC and end up as clinic care, research, and training.

Annual Flow, Step By Step

1. ALSAC raises money from individuals, partners, and events.
2. St. Jude receives transfers to run care, science, and training.
3. Program services are reported by function: patient care, research, education.
4. Overhead services cover fundraising and administrative needs.
5. Auditors review the combined picture each year.

Trend Check: Research Spending Year Over Year

The hospital grew research spend from 2023 to 2024. Here’s a compact view of the last two years using the same audited lines.

Year	Research Expense	Share Metrics
FY2023	$675.4M	40.9% of program; 28.5% of total
FY2024	$823.2M	44.2% of program; 30.8% of total

Growth came from higher staff costs, more studies, and larger facility and equipment needs. The education line grew as well. Fundraising and administrative costs rose with scale, yet program services still made up about seven tenths of total expenses.

How The Figures Align With Donor Messaging

Donation pages try to answer a different reader question: “Does my gift reach the mission?” The “82 cents” claim does that job: it adds up treatment, research, and long-term needs. Your question is narrower. It asks about the research slice itself. The audit gives that slice directly, and it aligns with the story donors see: most funding fuels mission work, and research is a large share of it.

What This Means For A Donor

If you care most about lab science and trials, the audited split shows a heavy, sustained push into research. If your priority is bedside care, note that clinical services still take hundreds of millions and rise with trial volume. Either way, the dollars you send land inside those two mission lines most of the time.

How To Read St. Jude’s Budget Pages Fast

Look For These Lines

• Statement of functional expenses. This shows the split between patient care, research, education, fundraising, and administration.
• Program services total. Add patient care, research, and education to get the mission share.
• Overhead services. Add fundraising and administration to see the overhead share.
• Notes. These describe what goes into each line and any big year-to-year shifts.

Cross-Check With Other Sources

Charity ratings and summaries are helpful for a quick view of governance and data quality. Still, for the exact research figure, rely on the audited statement and the IRS Form 990 for the hospital. Those documents define the lines used in the totals above.

Reader-Friendly Math: Recreate The Shares Yourself

Want to check the figures? Take the audited totals for 2024. Divide $823.2M (research) by $1.862B (total program services) to get 44.2%. Next, divide the same $823.2M by $2.669B (total expenses) to get 30.8%. Repeat the steps with 2023 values—$675.4M research, $1.649B program, $2.371B total—and you’ll land on 40.9% and 28.5%. That’s all there is to it.

What Could Change Next Year

Shares can move when trials ramp up, when new labs come online, or when a large building or equipment project finishes. Big grants can shift timing too. If program spending grows faster than fundraising or administrative costs, the program share rises. If large capital or compliance projects hit the books, overhead can climb for a period. These swings are normal for a research hospital.

Practical Takeaways For Donors

• If you want your gift to back science, the audited split shows that research is a large line by itself, not a tiny footnote.
• If you care about bedside care, the patient care line is also massive and tied tightly to trial volume.
• If you track overhead, combine fundraising and administration and compare that total to program services. In 2024, program services were about 70% of expenses.
• Set a calendar reminder to skim the new audit each fall. The reports publish with fresh figures that let you see where the year landed.

Limits And Caveats

The audited statement treats “research” and “patient care” as separate lines, but in practice the work blends. A child in a trial receives care inside a study. Some overhead, like research IT or pharmacy, can serve both sides and is assigned by accounting rules. Small changes in how those amounts are allocated can nudge the shares by a point or two. That doesn’t change the main answer to the question you asked.

Wrapping It Up

So, how much money goes to research at St. Jude? In FY2024 the research line was $823.2M, which equals 44.2% of program services and 30.8% of all expenses. That answer comes straight from the audit. The donor-facing “$0.82” message sits beside it and tells a broader story about mission use of funds across time.