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 $484.85 billion in 2021. This reflects a 4% increase from 2020.1
- Corporate giving in 2021 increased to $21.08 billion—a 23.8% increase from 2020.1
- Foundation giving in 2021 increased to $90.88 billion—a 3.4% increase from 2020.1
- Giving by bequest in 2021 was $46.01 billion—a 7.3% decline from 2020.¹
- In 2021, the largest source of charitable giving came from individuals, who gave $326.87 billion, representing 67% of total giving.
- In 2021, the majority of charitable dollars went to religion (27%), education (14%), human services (13%), grantmaking foundations (13%) and public-society benefit (11%).1
- Giving in 2021 increased in nearly every sector, with double-digit growth in gifts for arts, culture and humanities (27.5%), public-society benefit (23.5%) and environment/animals (11%).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 1,005,099 donor-advised fund accounts in 2020.8
- Donor-advised funds held $159.83 billion in assets in 2020.8
- Annual contributions into donor-advised funds were $47.85 billion in 2020.8
- Donors recommended grants from donor-advised funds totaled more than $34.67 billion to charities in 2020.8
- Average donor-advised fund account size was $159,019 in 2020.8
Sources
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 2021
