Giving Tuesday Volunteer Statistics (2026): Participation, Hours, Value & the Screening Gap
Verified Giving Tuesday volunteer counts, national formal-volunteering benchmarks, volunteer-hour values and screening data for nonprofit and church leaders.
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Giving Tuesday has become one of the busiest days of the year for nonprofits, and volunteers are a growing part of it. The GivingTuesday Data Commons reports that 11.1 million Americans volunteered on GivingTuesday 2025, a 20% jump over the prior year. This report pulls together the verified numbers behind that surge, places them against national volunteering benchmarks, and shows where the screening gap still matters. It is part of our statistics hub, and it is built for leaders who need figures they can defend in a board packet or a grant report. For related planning, see our donor retention statistics and our monthly giving statistics.
Key takeaways
GivingTuesday volunteering is the fastest-growing form of participation
The GivingTuesday Data Commons reported that volunteering rose 20% in 2025, while the number of people who spoke out about causes rose 26%. The breakdown below shows how 2025 participants split across giving types. Note that people can take part in more than one way, so the bars do not sum to the 38.1 million total participants.
Volunteers grew faster than dollars
Total US dollars on GivingTuesday rose to $4.0 billion in 2025, a 13% increase, and the volunteer count followed a steeper curve. In 2024, the organization tallied 9.2 million volunteers, a 4% rise over 2023. The 2025 count of 11.1 million is therefore a jump of roughly one-fifth in a single year, which is the signal program leaders should plan around. Donor retention also moved in the right direction: a Blackbaud Institute and GivingTuesday report found 65% of 2024 GivingTuesday donors gave again in 2025, compared with 52% of donors who gave earlier in the year.
Volunteer participation on GivingTuesday, year over year
The table below collects the GivingTuesday volunteer and dollar figures we could verify across the last two years, so you can see the change at a glance.
| Measure (US) | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volunteers | 9.2 million | 11.1 million | +20% |
| Total participants | 36.1 million | 38.1 million | +6% |
| Dollars donated | $3.6 billion | $4.0 billion | +13% |
The broader volunteer base: formal volunteering is rebounding
GivingTuesday is a single day, so national context matters. The federal AmeriCorps survey, run with the Census Bureau, is the most robust longitudinal measure of formal volunteering. Formal volunteering through organizations fell from 30% in 2019 to 23.2% in 2021 during the pandemic. The rebound since then has been substantial. The Census Bureau reported that the 2023 rate remained 1.7 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels, even after the largest two-year gain the survey has recorded.
What volunteer time is worth
Volunteer hours carry a measurable economic value. In its 2021 survey, AmeriCorps estimated that volunteers served an estimated 4.1 billion hours with an economic value of $122.9 billion. Independent Sector now sets the national benchmark for a single hour. Its 2026 update put the value of a volunteer hour at $36.14 for 2025, a 3.9% increase over 2024. Independent Sector notes the figure is an estimate of replacement cost, so use it as a benchmark, not a precise price for every role.
| Survey year | Formal volunteer hours | Estimated economic value |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4.1 billion | $122.9 billion |
| 2023 | 4.99 billion | $167.2 billion |
The screening gap: expectations outrun checks
Families and congregants assume background checks happen. A Church Mutual survey found that more than half of respondents who attend or frequent an organization using volunteers expect those volunteers to have undergone criminal background checks, yet only a third of volunteers said they had received one. The gap is the core risk for churches and nonprofits that rely on volunteers for children, seniors or vulnerable adults.
What nonprofits actually screen
Among organizations that do screen, the most common tool is a criminal records search, but depth varies widely. A 2018 Sterling Volunteers survey of nonprofit organizations found that almost half screen all volunteers. As a summary of that research notes, 92% conducted criminal record checks, but only 25% included fingerprinting and 27% checked neglect and abuse records. Volunteers themselves are open to screening: in a separate Sterling survey, about half of 7,215 respondents said background checks had a positive effect on their volunteering experience. Among those with concerns, the leading worry was sharing a Social Security number.
What this means for your volunteer program
Giving Tuesday volunteers often arrive in a rush: a one-day sign-up, a short shift, and a crowd at the door. That is exactly when a screening step is easiest to skip. Start with a written policy that applies to every volunteer role, not only the roles that feel high-risk. Use identity verification so the person screened is the person who shows up, and run checks through a process that follows the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Our BCI background check guide explains coverage and timing, and this state background check overview covers cost and scope. If you are running a seasonal drive alongside Giving Tuesday, our winter clothing drive statistics show how supply and screening needs overlap.
VolunteerBadge is built for this workload. Our FCRA-compliant background checks include identity verification, and there are no monthly fees, so a surge of one-day volunteers does not create a surge in software cost. You can import your volunteer roster and run checks in one place. Nonprofits that want to see how screening fits into their wider operations can review our nonprofit solutions and pricing, and our academy has training for coordinators.
Ready to screen every Giving Tuesday volunteer before the first shift?
Volunteer time has a cost too. Burnout and turnover can erase the gains from a big recruitment day, so pair recruitment with onboarding and follow-up. See our volunteer burnout report for turnover data and retention practices. Holiday-season peers also publish their own figures, such as our community
