Here's how the largest fraternities earn and spend their millions

Every semester, thousands of students rush to join fraternities across the US.

Recruitment brings new dues-paying members to Greek life organizations, reaching thousands of students across college campuses.

At Miami University in Ohio, for example, 2,208 students registered for Greek-life recruitment in spring 2026. This included 859 men who registered for recruitment with the school's 25 Interfraternity Council fraternities.

That same semester, nearly one in three full-time undergraduate men at the school's main Oxford campus belonged to a fraternity.

Member dues are a major revenue source.

Member dues are often the most reliable source of income for local fraternity chapters, but how much students pay and where that money goes can vary widely across campuses and chapters.

At the University of Arizona, members of the 20 fraternities in the Interfraternity Council pay an average of about $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 about $5,535 per semester.

The university adds that the organizations set and collect their own dues independently.

Contributions, including alumni gifts, can be another source of income for national Greek organizations.

In the fiscal year ending June 2025, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, the national organization's tax-exempt entity, reported $2.82 million in contributions, accounting for 29.4% of its $9.61 million in total revenue, according to itstax filings.

Program services, a tax category that generally covers money earned through activities connected to the organizations' purposes, are the largest revenue category for many of the biggest Greek-letter organizations in the US, Business Insider found in a review of national entities' tax filings.

Greek life's biggest assets can be its houses.

Some of the most valuable real estate in college towns across the US is located on the edges of campus, at the grand properties that house fraternities and sororities.

In 2017, the Oklahoma State University chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha dedicated a new 32,500-square-foot, $12.8 million mansion (equivalent to $17.5 million today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator).

In a 2024 analysis of more than 1,300 Greek properties across 50 campuses, Today's Homeowner found that Chi Psi had the highest average property valuation among the fraternities it surveyed, at $1.64 million per house.

National fraternities spend heavily on risk management.

Delta Upsilon, a fraternity that describes itself as a "non-secret fraternity," said in a 2026-27 document that loss-prevention fees accounted for 39% of its revenue, while loss prevention made up 38% of its expenses.

The annual fees paid by active members fund, among other expenses, liability coverage for bodily injury, property damage, and personal-injury claims; accident coverage that supplements members' health insurance; and insurance protecting directors and officers against negligence claims.

Delta Upsilon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

A 2014 investigation by The Atlantic described in detail how liability insurance, risk-management rules, and legal defenses can shape fraternity finances, as well as how national organizations have sought to limit their exposure to lawsuits through an expansive insurance system.

Executive pay can also be a significant expense for national organizations.

SAE's 2025 filing lists CEO Steven Mitchell's compensation at $284,114, plus $8,523 in other compensation.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Housing costs, including food, are a major expense, too.

For members, housing is one of the draws and the most important aspects of Greek life.

Delta Upsilon says that, at chapters with houses that serve food, 60% of members' dues go toward housing-related costs, including mortgage or rent payments, utilities, property taxes and insurance, repairs, landscaping, cleaning, food, and salaries for kitchen staff and house directors.

Maintaining a social presence on campus can be a significant budget item.

While it varies largely between different 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 serve food, go toward social costs, which may include 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, office supplies, recruitment events, senior gifts, dues-collection systems, marketing materials, intramurals, academic incentives, philanthropy events and contributions, and Interfraternity Council dues. That spending is also subject to chapter discretion.

Supporting alumni, including politicians, is another important expenditure.

The Fraternity & Sorority Political Action Committee — also known as FratPAC — is one of the political advocacy arms of Greek life.

The committee shares a mission of "helping more Greek alumnae get elected to the House or Senate for the first time," and raised over $900,000 in the 2023-24 election cycle. The bipartisan committee said it donated to 97 congressional candidates, with 52% of funds going to Republican candidates and 48% going to Democratic candidates.

National tax filings are only a small window into the finances of Greek life organizations.

Many fraternities and their affiliated entities are tax-exempt, but the organizational structure and the separations among local chapters, national organizations, philanthropic and educational foundations, and housing corporations can make the overall financial landscape difficult to navigate.

For example, Sigma Phi Epsilon operates through separate organizations and entities:the national fraternityitself; a separateeducational foundationsupporting educational and scholarship programs; and awholly owned national housing LLC subsidiarythat supports chapters with property management, operations, and renovations — whose revenue and assets are also reported under the national fraternity organization.

Some local chapters also have separate tax-exempt entities, like SigEp's housing corporation affiliated with its University of Georgia chapter — though tax and reporting structures can vary by chapter and jurisdiction.

A spokesperson for the fraternity told Business Insider that "undergraduate dues paid to the national organization are reinvested in the SigEp experience through programs and services that advance our mission," and that "generous alumni support complements those dues, helping provide leadership development, student housing, and scholarship opportunities."

Looking only at the national fraternity's tax filing offers a partial view of the organization's finances.