Nonprofit Statistics (2026)
How many nonprofits are in the U.S.? 2026 data: 1.8M nonprofits, $592.5B in giving, 75.7M volunteers, jobs, GDP, and why volunteer screening matters.
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The U.S. nonprofit sector is one of the largest and least-understood parts of the American economy. It employs more people than the construction and finance industries, moves hundreds of billions of dollars in donations every year, and depends on tens of millions of volunteers who give their time for free. Yet because the data is scattered across the IRS, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AmeriCorps, and a handful of research institutes, very few people have ever seen the full picture in one place.
This report pulls together the most current, verifiable nonprofit statistics from primary government and research sources — the IRS, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AmeriCorps, the Federal Reserve, the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), Giving USA, Independent Sector, and the National Philanthropic Trust. Every figure below links to its source. Where two reputable sources disagree, we note it. The goal is simple: the most exhaustive, fully-cited snapshot of the American nonprofit sector available anywhere.
Key takeaways
- There are roughly 1.8 million tax-exempt organizations registered with the IRS, of which about 1.6 million are 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits (National Philanthropic Trust; Candid).
- Americans gave a record $592.50 billion to charity in 2024, up 6.3% in current dollars and 3.3% after inflation (Giving USA 2025).
- Individuals still supply the largest share of giving — $392.45 billion, about 66% of the total (Giving USA 2025).
- 75.7 million people — 28.3% of Americans age 16+ — formally volunteered through an organization, serving 4.99 billion hours worth an estimated $167.2 billion (U.S. Census Bureau & AmeriCorps).
- Independent Sector values a single volunteer hour at $34.79 in its most recent estimate (Independent Sector).
- Nonprofits employed about 12.8 million people — 9.9% of all private-sector workers — and account for roughly 5.3% of GDP (BLS; Richmond Fed).
- Human-services groups make up roughly one-third of all public charities and received $91.15 billion in donations in 2024 (NCCS; Giving USA 2025).
- Many of these organizations serve children and vulnerable adults — a population for whom Darkness to Light estimates about 1 in 10 children are sexually abused before age 18, underscoring why volunteer screening is a core operational risk, not a formality (Darkness to Light).
How many nonprofits are there in the United States?
The most-asked question about the sector has a surprisingly slippery answer, because it depends on how you count. The IRS recognizes more than 1.8 million tax-exempt organizations across all 501(c) subsections — charities, social-welfare groups, business leagues, labor unions, fraternal societies, and more (National Philanthropic Trust). The largest slice by far is the 501(c)(3) charitable category, which numbered roughly 1.6 million organizations in 2024 and represents about three-quarters of all tax-exempt entities (Candid).
Not every registered nonprofit is active. Organizations that fail to file an annual return for three consecutive years lose their tax-exempt status automatically, and tens of thousands fall off the rolls each year while new ones are approved. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and the Pub78 file of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible gifts are the authoritative, regularly-updated registries (IRS; NCCS Pub78). The Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics maintains the most-used research dataset built on top of those IRS filings, classifying every organization by the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NCCS).
For perspective, the number of charities has grown steadily for decades — faster than the U.S. population — reflecting both genuine expansion of civil society and the relative ease of incorporating a nonprofit (Philanthropy Roundtable).
| Metric | Figure | Source year |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-exempt organizations (all 501(c)) | ~1.8 million | 2024 |
| 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits | ~1.6 million | 2024 |
| Nonprofit employment | 12.8 million jobs | 2022 |
| Share of private-sector employment | 9.9% | 2022 |
| Estimated share of GDP | ~5.3% | Q4 2024 |
| Total charitable giving | $592.50 billion | 2024 |
The nonprofit sector's economic footprint
Nonprofits are often imagined as small, scrappy outfits running on bake sales. In aggregate they are an economic heavyweight. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that nonprofits accounted for 12.8 million jobs in 2022 — 9.9% of all private-sector employment (BLS). The National Philanthropic Trust similarly puts nonprofit employment at almost 13 million people (NPT). That is more workers than the entire U.S. construction industry.
On the output side, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond estimated that nonprofits contributed roughly 5.3% of GDP as of the fourth quarter of 2024, just below the pre-pandemic share of about 5.5% (Richmond Fed). Independent Sector, the sector's leading membership coalition, maintains a running tally of nonprofit economic data drawn from the same federal accounts (Independent Sector).
These two figures together capture why the sector matters macroeconomically: it employs nearly one in ten private workers but produces a smaller share of measured GDP, because much of its value — care, education, advocacy, emergency relief — is delivered below cost or for free and is therefore systematically undercounted in standard economic statistics.
Charitable giving hit a record $592.5 billion in 2024
Total charitable giving in the United States reached an estimated $592.50 billion in 2024, according to Giving USA 2025, the annual report researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. That is an increase of 6.3% in current dollars and 3.3% adjusted for inflation — a genuine real-terms gain, lifted largely by strong stock-market performance that boosted gifts of appreciated assets (Giving USA 2025; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy).
The 2024 record is a notable rebound. The prior year — covered by Giving USA 2024 — total giving reached $557.16 billion, but because inflation ran above 4%, giving actually declined 2.1% in real terms in 2023 (Giving USA 2024). The 2024 numbers therefore mark a return to real growth after a difficult, inflation-eroded year.
Who gives: charitable giving by source
The single most durable fact about American philanthropy is that it is powered by ordinary individuals, not by foundations or corporations. In 2024, giving by individuals totaled $392.45 billion — roughly two-thirds of all giving — and rose 8.2% in current dollars (5.1% after inflation). Foundations gave $109.81 billion, bequests added $45.84 billion, and corporations contributed $44.40 billion (Giving USA 2025).
Over the longer arc, foundation giving has become structurally more important: foundations have grown from about 6% of total giving four decades ago to roughly 19% today, crossing the $100 billion mark in consecutive years (Lilly Family School of Philanthropy).
| Source of giving | 2024 amount | Share of total | Change (current $) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individuals | $392.45 billion | 66% | +8.2% |
| Foundations | $109.81 billion | 19% | +2.4% |
| Bequests | $45.84 billion | 8% | −1.6% |
| Corporations | $44.40 billion | 7% | +9.1% |
Where the money goes: giving by recipient category
Religion remains the largest single destination for American charitable dollars — $146.54 billion in 2024 — though it slipped 1.0% after inflation and has been losing share for years as congregational membership declines. Human services received $91.15 billion, education $88.32 billion, gifts to foundations $71.92 billion, public-society benefit organizations $66.84 billion, and health $60.51 billion (Giving USA 2025).
The fastest-growing categories tell their own story. Public-society benefit giving jumped 16.1% after inflation, international affairs rose 14.3%, and education climbed 9.9% — while religion was the only major category to fall in real terms.
| Recipient category | 2024 amount | Change (inflation-adjusted) |
|---|---|---|
| Religion | $146.54 billion | −1.0% |
| Human services | $91.15 billion | +2.0% |
| Education | $88.32 billion | +9.9% |
| Gifts to foundations | $71.92 billion | +0.5% |
| Public-society benefit | $66.84 billion | +16.1% |
| Health | $60.51 billion | +2.0% |
| International affairs | $35.54 billion | +14.3% |
| Arts, culture & humanities | $25.13 billion | +6.4% |
| Environment & animals | $21.57 billion | +4.6% |
Volunteering rebounded to 75.7 million Americans
Donated money is only half of the nonprofit sector's fuel; donated time is the other half. The U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, which together run the most authoritative volunteering survey in the country, found that 75.7 million people — 28.3% of Americans age 16 and older — formally volunteered through an organization between September 2022 and September 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau; AmeriCorps).
That marks a powerful recovery from the pandemic trough. The formal volunteering rate had fallen to 23.2% in 2021; the jump back to 28.3% represents a 5.1 percentage-point gain — a 22% relative increase — the largest two-year expansion since the survey began in 2002 (AmeriCorps CEV Dashboard). Even so, the rate remains about 1.7 points below its pre-pandemic 2019 level of roughly 30% (Census Bureau).
| Year measured | Formal volunteering rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | ~30.0% | Pre-pandemic baseline |
| 2021 | 23.2% | Pandemic trough |
| 2023 | 28.3% | 75.7 million volunteers; largest two-year gain on record |
The economic value of volunteer time
Formal volunteers served an estimated 4.99 billion hours in the latest survey year, work valued at more than $167.2 billion (AmeriCorps). To put a price on a single hour, Independent Sector publishes an annual Value of Volunteer Time based on average private-sector wages. Its most recent estimate is $34.79 per hour, up from $33.49 the year before and roughly $30 just a few years ago (Independent Sector; Independent Sector research).
That national average masks wide geographic variation: the figure ranges from about $15.82 per hour in Puerto Rico to $50.88 per hour in the District of Columbia, tracking local wage levels (Independent Sector). Nonprofits use the metric to recognize community support and to translate volunteer labor into figures that appear in grant reports and audited financials (The NonProfit Times).
| Year of estimate | Value of one volunteer hour (national) |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $29.95 |
| 2022 | $31.80 |
| 2023 | $33.49 |
| 2024 (latest) | $34.79 |
Who volunteers: the demographics of service
Volunteering is not evenly distributed across the population. Women volunteer at a notably higher rate than men — 30.9% versus 25.6% — and parents of children under 18 volunteer far more than adults without children at home, 37% versus 25%, largely through schools, sports leagues, and youth programs (AmeriCorps). Generation X posts the highest volunteering rate of any generation (AmeriCorps CEV Dashboard).
The post-pandemic rebound was broad but tilted toward groups that had historically volunteered less: the largest relative increases came among Millennials; Asian, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic populations; people with less than a high-school education; and households earning under $25,000 a year (U.S. Census Bureau).
How volunteering is changing: hours, virtual service, and informal helping
Even as more people volunteer, each volunteer is giving less time than they used to. The average hours served per volunteer fell to about 70 in 2023, down from 96.5 in 2017, and the median dropped from 40 hours to just 24 (U.S. Census Bureau). The sector is being held up by a wider but shallower base of contributors — a structural shift with real implications for organizations that depend on a small core of high-hour volunteers.
For the first time, the survey also measured virtual volunteering. About 18% of formal volunteers — roughly 13.4 million people — served completely or partly online, contributing over 1.2 billion hours worth an estimated $41.5 billion. Notably, virtual and hybrid volunteers averaged 95 hours each, versus 64 hours for in-person-only volunteers (Census Bureau).
Beyond organized volunteering, informal helping is even more widespread. An estimated 54.2% of Americans — about 137.5 million people — helped neighbors with tasks like running errands, house-sitting, or lending tools, up from 51.7% in 2019 (AmeriCorps).
Foundations and donor-advised funds
Two vehicles increasingly sit between donors and operating charities: private foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs). Foundation giving reached $109.81 billion in 2024 and now makes up about 19% of all charitable giving (Giving USA 2025).
DAFs have exploded in popularity. The National Philanthropic Trust counted roughly 1.78 million DAF accounts holding $251.52 billion in assets, which granted out $54.77 billion in its most recent annual data (National Philanthropic Trust). At a single sponsor — Fidelity Charitable — donors recommended more than 2.3 million grants totaling $11.8 billion in one year (Fidelity Charitable 2024 Giving Report). DAF assets rose more than 27% from 2023 to 2024, a pace that has made them a focus of policy debate over payout rates (NPT).
| Donor-advised fund metric | Most recent figure |
|---|---|
| Number of DAF accounts | 1,782,281 |
| Total DAF assets | $251.52 billion |
| Total grants from DAFs | $54.77 billion |
| Foundation giving (2024) | $109.81 billion |
Government grants and nonprofit finances
Donations and volunteers are not the whole story. A large share of nonprofit revenue — especially in human services, health, and housing — comes from government contracts and grants. NCCS research on 2023 IRS filings found that of 244,584 full Form 990 returns analyzed, 81,354 reported receiving a government grant, and the total value of those grants was at least $240 billion (NCCS; Urban Institute).
That dependence is a double-edged sword: government funding lets nonprofits operate at scale, but it also exposes a third of larger charities to budget cuts and grant terminations they cannot easily replace with private donations. The Urban Institute's analysis frames this as one of the sector's central financial-risk questions (Urban Institute). For the most detailed financial benchmarks — revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities by subsector and size — the NCCS Core data series and Nonprofit Sector in Brief dashboard remain the standard references (NCCS; IRS SOI).
The human-services and youth-serving subsector
Human services is the largest subsector by organization count: roughly one-third (about 34.8%) of all public charities are human-services groups — food banks, shelters, youth programs, disability services, disaster relief, and the like (NCCS). They received $91.15 billion in donations in 2024, the second-largest category after religion (Giving USA 2025).
A defining feature of this subsector is that its work brings adults into direct, often unsupervised contact with children and vulnerable adults — the very population most at risk of harm. And because parents volunteer at the highest rate of any group (37%), youth-serving organizations are precisely where the most volunteers and the most vulnerable people meet (AmeriCorps). That intersection is what makes volunteer screening a frontline operational issue for a third of the sector.
Child safety: the data behind volunteer screening
The risk that screening exists to manage is not hypothetical. Darkness to Light, a national child-abuse-prevention organization, estimates that about 1 in 10 children are sexually abused before their 18th birthday, with peer-reviewed prevalence estimates clustering in the 7.5%–11.7% range (Darkness to Light; D2L statistics).
Two further findings matter for how organizations think about prevention. First, abuse is frequently perpetrated by people the child knows and trusts within an institution, not by strangers. Second, only about one-third of children disclose abuse, and only a fraction of incidents are ever reported — meaning organizations cannot rely on victims to surface a problem after the fact (Darkness to Light). Prevention has to happen at the front door, before an adult is placed in a position of trust.
What the data means for volunteer screening
Put the numbers side by side. The nonprofit sector mobilizes 75.7 million volunteers a year. About a third of public charities are human-services groups that put adults in direct contact with children and vulnerable adults. And roughly 1 in 10 children experience sexual abuse before 18, most often from someone known to them inside a trusted institution. The volume of volunteers, the vulnerability of the population they serve, and the difficulty of detecting harm after the fact all point to the same conclusion: screening volunteers is not bureaucratic box-checking — it is risk management for the single most consequential failure a youth-serving nonprofit can suffer.
Screening is one necessary layer in a broader child-safety system that also includes training, supervision, codes of conduct, and clear reporting channels — no single control is sufficient on its own. Within that system, the practical barrier for most small and mid-size nonprofits has always been cost and friction: comprehensive background checks have historically been expensive and slow, which tempts under-resourced organizations to skip or shortcut them precisely when volunteer numbers surge. This is the gap VolunteerBadge is built to close — FCRA-compliant criminal background checks starting at $5, combined with identity verification, so that screening every volunteer is affordable enough to be the default rather than the exception. When the data shows tens of millions of adults moving through youth-serving organizations every year, making thorough screening cheap and fast is itself a child-safety intervention.
Charitable giving in historical perspective
The record $592.50 billion figure is impressive in isolation, but the more revealing lens is giving as a share of the economy. For decades, total U.S. charitable giving has hovered around 2% of GDP — it rises and falls with the stock market and disposable income but rarely breaks far above that ceiling, even as the dollar totals climb to new nominal highs each year (Giving USA 2025). That stability is why year-over-year inflation matters so much: in 2023, nominal giving set a record while real giving actually fell 2.1%, a reminder that headline totals can mask a shrinking real resource base for the charities doing the work (Giving USA 2024).
There is also a long-running compositional shift worth watching. The share of American households that give to charity at all has trended downward over the past two decades, even as total dollars rise — meaning a growing share of giving comes from a shrinking, wealthier pool of donors. That concentration makes the sector more sensitive to the fortunes of high-net-worth households and the performance of financial markets, and it raises the strategic importance of broad-based engagement tools like volunteering and small-dollar online giving for organizations that want a resilient donor base (Lilly Family School of Philanthropy; National Philanthropic Trust).
Trends shaping the nonprofit sector
Several of the data points above are not just snapshots but directional signals. First, volunteering is broadening but thinning: more people are showing up (75.7 million, up 22% in two years) while each gives fewer hours (a median of 24, down from 40 in 2017). Organizations that historically leaned on a small core of high-hour volunteers will increasingly need to coordinate larger, more transient volunteer pools — which raises the per-organization burden of onboarding and screening (U.S. Census Bureau).
Second, virtual and hybrid volunteering has moved from novelty to measurable force — 13.4 million people and 1.2 billion hours in its first year of formal measurement — expanding who can participate but complicating traditional in-person vetting assumptions (Census Bureau). Third, the sector's heavy reliance on government grants — at least $240 billion flowing to more than 81,000 organizations in 2023 — concentrates financial risk in exactly the human-services charities that serve the most vulnerable people, making operational efficiency and cost control existential rather than optional (Urban Institute). Taken together, these trends push toward a sector that is larger, more distributed, more digital, and under more financial pressure — conditions in which low-cost, fast, compliant infrastructure for tasks like volunteer screening becomes a competitive necessity, not a luxury.
Frequently asked questions
How many nonprofits are there in the United States?
About 1.8 million tax-exempt organizations are registered with the IRS, of which roughly 1.6 million are 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits (NPT; Candid).
How much do Americans give to charity each year?
A record $592.50 billion in 2024, up 3.3% after inflation, with individuals supplying about two-thirds of the total (Giving USA 2025).
How many people volunteer in the U.S.?
About 75.7 million people, or 28.3% of adults 16 and older, formally volunteered in the latest year measured, serving 4.99 billion hours (Census Bureau & AmeriCorps).
What is a volunteer hour worth?
Independent Sector's most recent national estimate is $34.79 per hour, though state values range from about $15.82 to $50.88 (Independent Sector).
How big is the nonprofit sector in the economy?
Nonprofits employ about 12.8 million people — 9.9% of private-sector workers — and account for roughly 5.3% of GDP (BLS; Richmond Fed).
Why do nonprofits need to screen volunteers?
Because about a third of charities serve children and vulnerable adults, and roughly 1 in 10 children are sexually abused before 18 — most often by a known, trusted adult inside an institution. Screening at intake is a frontline prevention control (Darkness to Light).
Sources
- Giving USA 2025: U.S. charitable giving grew to $592.50 billion in 2024
- Lilly Family School of Philanthropy — Giving USA 2025
- Giving USA 2024: U.S. charitable giving totaled $557.16 billion in 2023
- Lilly Family School of Philanthropy — Giving USA 2024 Diving Deeper
- U.S. Census Bureau — Civic Engagement and Volunteerism (2024)
- AmeriCorps — More than 75.7 Million People Volunteered in America
- AmeriCorps — Civic Engagement and Volunteering (CEV) Dashboard
- NonProfit PRO — More Than 75.7 Million People Volunteered
- The Hill — Volunteering rate sees record growth
- Independent Sector — New Value of Volunteer Time of $34.79 Per Hour
- Independent Sector — Value of Volunteer Time of $33.49 Per Hour
- Independent Sector — Value of Volunteer Time (research)
- The NonProfit Times — Value of Volunteers Jumped 3.9% for 2024
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Nonprofits accounted for 12.8 million jobs (2022)
- Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond — How Big Is the Nonprofit Sector?
- Independent Sector — Nonprofit Economic Data
- NCCS (Urban Institute) — Nonprofit Sector in Brief Dashboard
- National Center for Charitable Statistics
- Urban Institute — Financial Risk of Nonprofits Losing Government Grants
- National Philanthropic Trust — Charitable Giving Statistics
- National Philanthropic Trust — DAF vs. Private Foundation
- Fidelity Charitable — 2024 Giving Report (PDF)
- Candid — How many nonprofit organizations are there in the U.S.?
- USAFacts — How many nonprofits are there in the US?
- IRS — Tax Exempt Organization Search
- IRS — SOI Tax Stats: Charities and Other Tax-Exempt Organizations
- NCCS — Pub78 dataset
- Library of Congress — Nonprofit Sector Statistics and Datasets
- Philanthropy Roundtable — Growth of the Nonprofit Sector
- Darkness to Light — Child Sexual Abuse Research and Statistics
- Darkness to Light — Child Sexual Abuse Statistics: The Magnitude (PDF)
- Statista — Nonprofit organizations in the U.S.: statistics & facts
