Local philanthropy statistics at a glance
Local philanthropy looks less like a niche charitable habit and more like a broad civic system. The latest numbers show how many Americans volunteer, give, belong, and help informally, while community foundations and donor-advised funds reveal where local grantmaking capacity is concentrated.
Fast facts
- More than 28% of Americans, or 75.7 million people, formally volunteered between September 2022 and September 2023 (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- Formal volunteers gave an estimated 4.99 billion hours in 2023, and those hours were valued at more than $167.2 billion (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- Almost 49% of Americans gave more than $25 to a non-political group between September 2022 and September 2023, implying a donor base of at least 121.8 million people (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- More than 54% of Americans, or 137.5 million people, informally helped their neighbors in the latest data window (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- In 2024, participating community foundations held nearly $159 billion in assets, received over $18 billion in gifts, and gave over $16.5 billion in grants (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024).
- U.S. charitable giving reached $592.50 billion in 2024, with individuals contributing $392.45 billion (Giving USA 2025).
Table of contents
- What local philanthropy statistics measure
- Volunteering, membership, and giving patterns
- Community foundations and local grantmaking capacity
- Donor-advised funds and operating structure
- Sector-by-sector charitable giving
- What the numbers suggest about local civic participation
What local philanthropy statistics measure
Local philanthropy is broader than gifts to a single nonprofit. It includes formal volunteering, membership in organizations, informal neighbor-to-neighbor help, gifts to non-political groups, and institutional grantmaking through community foundations.
That matters because the data points do not all move together. Some measures reflect time, some reflect money, and some capture the infrastructure that redistributes local dollars into grants. Taken together, they show how civic participation and local giving reinforce one another.
Big number: formal volunteering alone represented 4.99 billion hours in 2023 (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024). That figure is useful because it turns a social behavior into something easier to compare with budgets, payrolls, and annual grant totals.
Why it matters: local philanthropy is not just about elite donors or foundation assets. The current data show participation at household scale, neighborhood scale, and institutional scale at the same time.
Volunteering, membership, and giving patterns
The most revealing local-philanthropy pattern is that participation is distributed across multiple forms. Americans are not only donating or volunteering; many are doing both, and many are also part of organizations that create recurring local ties.
At a glance: civic participation signals
| Measure | Latest figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Formal volunteering rate | More than 28% of Americans | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
| Formal volunteer hours | 4.99 billion hours | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
| Value of volunteer hours | More than $167.2 billion | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
| Organizational membership | One in four Americans, or over 62.9 million people | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
| Gave more than $25 to a non-political group | Almost 49% of Americans | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
| Informally helped neighbors | More than 54% of Americans, or 137.5 million people | AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024 |
The table makes one thing clear: local philanthropy is not a single channel. People contribute through time, money, membership, and informal assistance, and each channel reaches a different segment of the population.
Formal volunteering remains a large civic engine
The headline figure is straightforward: more than 28% of Americans, or 75.7 million people, formally volunteered during the September 2022 to September 2023 period (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024). That is a large base for local institutions that depend on recurring volunteer labor.
A few related figures sharpen the picture:
- Half of formal volunteers served 24 hours or more in that same period (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- The 2023 formal volunteering rate was five percentage points higher than the historic low recorded in 2021 (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- The two-year rebound represented 22% growth (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- 18% of formal volunteers served completely or partially online (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
Those details matter because they show both depth and adaptability. Local philanthropy is not only recovering in person; it also includes a meaningful online service layer.
Organizational membership adds a separate participation channel
Membership is not identical to volunteering, but it often signals sustained involvement. In 2023, one in four Americans, or over 62.9 million people, belonged to an organization (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
There are two especially useful supporting facts:
- 54% of organizational members belonged to two groups or more (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- The 2023 membership rate remained two percentage points below pre-pandemic levels (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
That combination suggests that membership is still rebuilding, but it already has a multi-membership core. For local institutions, that matters because multi-group members may be more likely to move between volunteer roles, board service, and donation behavior.
Small donations still create a large donor base
The giving side of local philanthropy is just as wide. Almost 49% of Americans gave more than $25 to a non-political group between September 2022 and September 2023 (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024). That translates into a donor base of at least 121.8 million people.
Two other facts make the trend more notable:
- The share giving more than $25 rose by 0.4 percentage points between 2021 and 2023 (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- That was the first uptick ever recorded by the CEV giving measure (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
The increase is small in percentage terms, but the historical context is important. Even a modest rise in giving breadth can matter when the base is already very large.
Informal helping is even more common than formal volunteering
Informal help often gets less attention than formal volunteer programs, but the latest data show it is an enormous part of local philanthropy. More than 54% of Americans, or 137.5 million people, informally helped their neighbors during the latest reporting window (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
The share rose by three percentage points in the latest data (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024). That puts informal helping at the top of the participation stack in these statistics.
For local nonprofits, this is a useful reminder: community support often starts outside formal institutions. Formal campaigns may amplify that behavior, but the baseline social pattern is already strong.
Community foundations and local grantmaking capacity
Community foundations are one of the clearest institutional expressions of local philanthropy. They collect gifts, manage assets, and redistribute money through grants that can reflect place-based priorities.
Community foundation snapshot
| Measure | 2024 figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Assets held by participating community foundations | Nearly $159 billion | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 |
| Gifts received | Over $18 billion | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 |
| Grants given | Over $16.5 billion | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 |
| Responding foundations | 445 foundations | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Respondents |
| Midwest share of respondents | 50% (219 foundations) | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Respondents |
| South share of respondents | 21% (92 foundations) | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Respondents |
| West share of respondents | 15% (68 foundations) | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Respondents |
| Northeast share of respondents | 14% (62 foundations) | Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Respondents |
The sample is broad enough to show regional spread, and the asset and grant totals show that community foundations remain a major channel for local charitable capital.
Growth in 2024 was positive, but not uniform
The 2024 CF Insights snapshot contains several important direction-of-change signals:
- Community foundations grew assets by 10% in the 2024 snapshot (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- Gifts jumped by more than 20%, the first increase in three years (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- Grants fell about 9% to roughly $14.8 billion in the 2024 snapshot (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- The median community foundation increased giving by 9% in 2024 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- Nearly 94% of community foundations ended FY24 with year-over-year asset growth (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- Nearly two-thirds increased funding totals over the previous year in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
That is not a flat story. Assets and gifts moved up, grants moved down, and the median foundation still showed stronger giving. In practical terms, local philanthropy capacity appears healthy, but distribution timing and grant deployment can still vary across institutions.
Concentration among the largest foundations
A major structural fact is concentration. The largest 100 community foundations manage nearly 85% of total assets within the broader survey sample (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
That means a relatively small share of institutions controls most of the balance-sheet power. For local fundraisers, nonprofit leaders, and civic planners, that concentration affects where strategic relationships matter most.
Donor-advised funds and operating structure
Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are a key part of the modern community foundation model. The dataset shows how much of the sector’s financial activity now runs through that structure.
DAFs account for a large share of assets and flow
The headline DAF figures are striking:
- DAFs accounted for 60% of all gift dollars in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- DAFs accounted for 67% of all grant dollars in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- DAFs held 41% of reported community foundation assets in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- DAF assets, gifts, and grants totaled $51,965,246,996, $9,315,707,323, and $9,367,562,513 respectively in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
These shares show that DAFs are not a side feature. They are central to how community foundation resources move from gifts into grants.
Distribution rules and inactivity policies are widely used
The governance side of DAFs is also visible in the data:
- The median community foundation increased DAF grantmaking by 6% in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- The median community foundation’s fundraising total dropped by 15% in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- Just over half of reporting community foundations had DAF flow rates above 100% in FY24 (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- Nearly half reported DAF distribution rates in double digits (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- About 90% of reporting community foundations said they have an inactive-DAF policy (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- 97% said they take action after three years when a DAF is deemed dormant (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- All but one community foundation said they wait no more than five years before activating dormant DAFs (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
- Nearly all respondents said they contact DAF holders to encourage activation when a fund becomes dormant (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Funds).
The policy pattern is important because it shows active oversight rather than passive storage. For local philanthropy, that means fund retention and fund activation are both part of the operational model.
Sector-by-sector charitable giving
The Giving USA figures help place local philanthropy inside the larger U.S. giving economy. Not every dollar in the national total is local, but the category split shows which causes absorbed the most support in 2024.
National giving moved higher in 2024
U.S. charitable giving reached $592.50 billion in 2024 (Giving USA 2025). That total grew 6.3% in current dollars and 3.3% after inflation adjustment (Giving USA 2025).
The source mix was also clear:
- Individuals gave $392.45 billion in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
- Foundations gave $109.81 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Bequest giving totaled $45.84 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Corporate giving totaled $44.40 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Giving by individuals comprised two-thirds of all giving in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
Giving by source compared
| Source | 2024 amount | Growth note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individuals | $392.45 billion | Up 8.2% in current dollars | Giving USA 2025 |
| Foundations | $109.81 billion | Up 2.4% in current dollars | Giving USA 2025 |
| Bequests | $45.84 billion | Down 1.6% in current dollars | Giving USA 2025 |
| Corporations | $44.40 billion | Up 9.1% in current dollars | Giving USA 2025 |
This table shows a simple but important point: individuals remain the dominant force in the giving system. Even when foundations and corporations post gains, household giving still sets the tone for overall philanthropic volume.
Which causes received the most support
The largest recipient categories in 2024 were:
- Religion: $146.54 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Human services: $91.15 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Education: $88.32 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Gifts to foundations: $71.92 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Public-society benefit organizations: $66.84 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Health: $60.51 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- International affairs: $35.54 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Arts, culture, and humanities: $25.13 billion (Giving USA 2025).
- Environment and animals: $21.57 billion (Giving USA 2025).
A few growth rates stand out as especially strong:
- Education giving grew 13.2% in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
- Public-society benefit giving grew 19.5% in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
- International affairs giving grew 17.7% in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
- Arts, culture, and humanities giving grew 9.5% in 2024 (Giving USA 2025).
These are useful signals for local organizers because they show where donor attention accelerated. If a community foundation or local nonprofit is looking at category momentum, those growth rates are a better clue than totals alone.
What the numbers suggest about local civic participation
The dataset points to three practical takeaways.
- Local philanthropy is broad-based. More than 28% volunteered formally, almost 49% gave more than $25, and more than 54% helped neighbors informally (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024).
- Institutional philanthropy is highly concentrated. The largest 100 community foundations hold nearly 85% of assets in the survey sample, so a small number of institutions manage most balance-sheet capacity (Council on Foundations CF Insights 2024 Assets, gifts, and grants).
- Giving is still driven mostly by individuals. In 2024, individuals supplied $392.45 billion of the $592.50 billion total, or roughly two-thirds of all giving (Giving USA 2025).
That combination helps explain why local philanthropy statistics are useful. They show that civic life is not confined to one channel, one donor type, or one institution size. Instead, it spans volunteer hours, neighborly aid, membership, household donations, foundation assets, and grantmaking flow.
A final data point ties the whole picture together: the AmeriCorps series shows a five percentage point rise from the 2021 low in formal volunteering and a 22% two-year rebound (AmeriCorps Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2024). That recovery suggests local participation can move meaningfully when conditions improve, which is exactly why these statistics deserve close tracking year after year.