NPT curates statistics from recent studies and reports on charitable giving in the U.S. Please refer to the footnotes for original sources.
General Philanthropy
- Americans gave $499.33 billion in 2022. This reflects a 3.4% decline from 2021.¹
- Corporate giving in 2022 increased to $21.08 billion—a 3.4% increase from 2021.¹
- Foundation giving in 2022 increased to $105.21 billion—a 2.5% increase from 2021.¹
- Giving by bequest in 2022 was $45.60 billion—a 2.3% increase from 2021.¹
- In 2022, the largest source of charitable giving came from individuals, who gave $319.04 billion, representing 64% of total giving.¹
- In 2022, the majority of charitable dollars went to religion (27%), human services (14%), education (13%), grantmaking foundations (11%) and health (10%).¹
- Giving in 2022 increased in many sectors, with double-digit growth in gifts for foundations (10.1%) and international affairs (10.1%). Giving declined most precipitously to public-society benefit organizations (-8.4%), with more modest declines in giving to education (-3.6%), environment/animals (-1.6%) and human services (-0.6%).¹
Individual and Family Philanthropy
- 86 percent of affluent households maintained or increased their giving despite uncertainty about further spread of COVID-193
- Adults are more likely to give to charity if their parents gave to charity.4
Charitable Organizations
- According to the most recent data available, there are more than 1.54 million charitable organizations in the United States.5
- Sources of revenue for tax-exempt organizations in 2012 were program service revenues, including government contracts and fees (73%), contributions, gifts, & government grants (21%) and lastly, dues, special event income, rental income and net sales from goods (6%).5
Volunteering
- An estimated 30% of US adults, 77.9 million Americans, volunteered in 2019, contributing an estimated 5.8 billion hours, valued at approximately $147 billion (Source: AmeriCorps, Office of Research and Evaluation)
- The top four national volunteer activities are fundraising or selling items to raise money (36%); food collection or distribution (34.2%); collecting, making or distributing clothing, crafts or other goods (26.5%); and mentoring youth (26.2%).6
- The top four types of organizations by volunteering are: religious (32%); sport, hobby, cultural or arts (25.7%); educational or youth service (19.2%); and civic, political, professional or international (6.2%).6
Donor-Advised Funds
- There were 1,285,801 donor-advised fund accounts in 2021.8
- Donor-advised funds held $234.06 billion in assets in 2021.8
- Annual contributions into donor-advised funds were $72.67 billion in 2021.8
- Donors recommended grants from donor-advised funds totaled more than $45.74 billion to charities in 2021.8
- Average donor-advised fund account size was $182,842 in 2021.8
1 Giving USA 2021 Annual Report
2 Candid 2020 Annual Report
3 Affluent Americans Expand Generosity During the Pandemic
4 Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy Women’s Philanthropy Institute | Women Give 18: Transmitting Generosity to Daughters and Sons
5 The Urban Institute | National Center for Charitable Statistics 2019
6 The Corporation for National and Community Service
7 Independent Sector
8 National Philanthropic Trust – Donor Advised Fund Report 2022