A current, fully-sourced reference on giving, donor retention, volunteers, email, and the size of the sector. Every number is attributed to a named source so you can quote it with confidence in your next grant, board deck, or appeal.
You need a number, and you need it fast. Maybe it's for a grant narrative due Friday, a board slide that has to land, or an end-of-year appeal that needs to feel urgent and true. We built this page so you stop digging through a dozen PDFs to find one credible figure.
Every statistic below is pulled from a named, current source and carries a footnote you can trace to the full bibliography at the bottom. Where a figure comes from a single study or one organization's experiment, we say so plainly. Use the table of contents to jump straight to what you need.
The big-picture numbers on how much Americans give, and where it comes from.
Americans gave an estimated $592.50 billion to charity in 2024, a new record in current dollars and a 6.3% increase over 2023 (3.3% adjusted for inflation). Giving USA 2025 [1]
Individuals account for 66% of all giving, contributing $392.45 billion in 2024, up 8.2% year over year. Giving USA 2025 [1]
Foundations gave $109.81 billion (19% of the total), surpassing the $100 billion mark for the third straight year. Giving USA 2025 [1]
Bequests reached $45.84 billion in 2024, the only major source to decline, down 1.6% from the prior year. Giving USA 2025 [1]
Corporate giving hit an all-time high of $44.40 billion, up 9.1% over 2023, the fastest-growing source of the four. Giving USA 2025 [1]
GivingTuesday 2024 raised a record $3.6 billion in the U.S. alone, a 16% jump over 2023, with 36.1 million people taking part. GivingTuesday Data Commons, 2024 [2]
Of those 36.1 million GivingTuesday participants, 18.5 million gave money and 9.2 million volunteered, a reminder that generosity is more than dollars. GivingTuesday Data Commons, 2024 [2]
Average gift size has nearly doubled in a decade, rising from $727 in 2016 to roughly $1,346 in 2025. Blackbaud Institute, 2025 Trends in Giving [3]
Giving keeps growing in raw dollars, but the donor base is concentrating. Want to keep more of every gift instead of losing a percentage to platform fees? See what your fundraising platform actually costs.
Digital giving is where the growth is — and recurring donors are the most valuable supporters you'll ever keep.
Online revenue rose 15% for the average nonprofit in 2025, with double-digit gains in nearly every sector. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Monthly giving made up 27% of all online revenue in 2025, a quietly dominant share of digital fundraising. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
One-time online revenue grew 17% and monthly grew 12%, while mobile revenue surged 48% year over year. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Donor-advised fund revenue jumped 44% in 2025, the fastest-growing online revenue type tracked. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
New online donors drove 31% of online revenue in 2025, but only 24% of them were retained the following year. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
The average recurring donor stays for 7.77 years, compared to just 1.5 to 2 years for one-time donors. Neon One, 2026 Recurring Giving Report [5]
A recurring donor is worth $7,288 over their lifetime, more than double the $3,607 lifetime value of a one-time donor. Neon One, 2026 Recurring Giving Report [5]
The average recurring donor gives $938 a year, based on transaction data from 4,107 nonprofits. Neon One, 2026 Recurring Giving Report [5]
A monthly donor who stays nearly eight years is the closest thing to predictable revenue a nonprofit gets. Building that program well starts with the right donor management foundation — and a single platform so giving data, volunteers, and events all live together.
The hidden cost of growing your online giving
Acquiring a donor is the easy part. Keeping them is where most nonprofits quietly lose ground.
Donor retention fell 2.6% year over year in 2024, continuing a long-running slide across the sector. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Repeat-retained donors supplied 60% of all funds raised in 2024, even as their numbers shrank 4.9%. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Micro donors ($1–$100) saw retention drop 4.4%, the steepest decline of any giving segment. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Major and supersize donors held retention above 60%, the most stable segment in a shaky year. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Roughly 19.4% of first-time donors give again, which means about four in five never come back. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Capturing email addresses for offline donors lifted retention 29%, a single illustrative result, not a sector-wide guarantee. NextAfter [7]
Adding a "cover the fees" checkbox cut conversion 38.5% in one A/B test, on an education nonprofit's donation page, dropping overall revenue 20.5% — illustrative of one org, not a universal law. NextAfter, 2022 [7]
A few points of retention can outweigh months of acquisition. See what a small lift is worth to your organization with our donor value & retention calculator, then compare donor CRM options built to keep supporters close.
Where the dollars concentrate, and why your largest and most loyal donors deserve the most attention.
High-net-worth households give about 30% more than other donors, and an outsized share of total dollars flows from the top of the pyramid. Altrata, Major Donor Fundraising 2025 [8]
Large organizations averaged roughly $2,000 per gift, while small organizations averaged about $461 — a wide gap by size. Blackbaud Institute, 2025 Trends in Giving [3]
Large gifts drove most of 2024's year-end gains, while smaller orgs stayed more reliant on lower-level giving. AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 [6]
Monthly revenue equals 27% of all online giving, making recurring programs a load-bearing wall, not a nice-to-have. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Monthly giving is the most common recurring frequency by far, outpacing weekly, quarterly, and annual schedules. Neon One, 2026 Recurring Giving Report [5]
Email is still the workhorse channel — and the numbers show exactly how it performs in 2026.
86% of nonprofits use email marketing, making it the most widely adopted digital channel in the sector. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [9]
Email-sourced revenue grew 16% in 2025, and email drove 11% of all online revenue. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Revenue per email subscriber rose to $2.40, climbing from $1.87 the previous year. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
The average nonprofit email open rate is 28.59%, with an average click rate of 3.29%. Neon One, via Nonprofit Tech for Good 2026 [9]
Nonprofits sent 50 emails per subscriber in 2025, 31 of which were fundraising appeals. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Personalized subject lines lift open rates 26%, a small change with outsized payoff. Campaign Monitor, via Nonprofit Tech for Good 2026 [9]
Welcome emails average an 80% open rate, the single highest-engagement message you can send. Mailmodo, via Nonprofit Tech for Good 2026 [9]
53% of emails are opened on mobile, and 15% of people unsubscribe if an email isn't mobile-friendly. Campaign Monitor, via Nonprofit Tech for Good 2026 [9]
33% of donors say email most inspires their giving, ahead of social media and direct mail. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [9]
Volunteers are donated labor with real economic value — and the latest data quantifies it.
A volunteer hour is worth $36.14, the latest national figure (2025 data, released April 2026), up 3.9% from the prior year (verify state-level multipliers for your area). Independent Sector, 2026 release [11]
75.7 million people formally volunteered in the U.S., or 28.3% of the population age 16 and up. U.S. Census Bureau & AmeriCorps [12]
Volunteers gave 4.99 billion hours of service, worth an estimated $167.2 billion in economic value. U.S. Census Bureau & AmeriCorps [12]
The formal volunteering rate jumped 5.1 points in two years, a 22.1% increase — the largest expansion since tracking began in 2002. U.S. Census Bureau & AmeriCorps [12]
137.5 million people (54.2%) helped neighbors informally, generosity that never shows up in a volunteer roster. U.S. Census Bureau & AmeriCorps [12]
9.2 million people volunteered on GivingTuesday 2024, a sign that giving days mobilize volunteer time alongside money. GivingTuesday Data Commons, 2024 [2]
That $36.14 figure is the number to put in your grant reports — calculate your program's full value on our value of a volunteer hour page, and see how Kindly handles volunteer scheduling and hour tracking in the same platform as your donors.
Billions in free matching money goes unclaimed every year, mostly because donors never ask.
An estimated $4 to $7 billion in matching gift funds go unclaimed annually, money employers are ready to send that never gets requested. Double the Donation (matching-gift vendor estimate), 2026 [13]
Most donors don't know whether their employer offers matching, the single biggest reason matches go unclaimed. Double the Donation (matching-gift vendor estimate), 2026 [13]
Vendors report matching-gift automation can lift matching revenue 20%–50% annually, by surfacing the option at the right moment. Double the Donation (matching-gift vendor estimate), 2026 [13]
Corporations give an estimated $20–$26 billion to nonprofits each year, through grants, sponsorships, and workplace giving. Double the Donation, 2026 [13]
Workplace giving on Benevity alone reached $3.74 billion in 2025, a 9.2% increase over the prior year. Double the Donation, 2026 [13]
Adoption is racing ahead of impact. The tools are everywhere; the strategy often isn't.
92% of nonprofits have adopted AI in some form, but only 7% say it has meaningfully expanded what their team can do. Virtuous & Fundraising.AI, 2026 AI Adoption Report [14]
81% use AI individually and on an ad hoc basis, one-off prompts and personal experiments rather than documented team workflows. Virtuous & Fundraising.AI, 2026 AI Adoption Report [14]
Only 4% have documented, repeatable AI workflows, and 47% have no AI governance policy at all. Virtuous & Fundraising.AI, 2026 AI Adoption Report [14]
79% report small to moderate efficiency gains from AI, while just 7% report a major improvement in capability. Virtuous & Fundraising.AI, 2026 AI Adoption Report [14]
94% of nonprofits use a dedicated email marketing service, while 6% still send appeals by BCC. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [9]
The disconnect between adopting tools and seeing impact often comes down to fragmentation — five apps that don't talk to each other. A genuine all-in-one platform keeps donors, volunteers, events, and members in one place. Compare the trade-offs in our platform comparison hub.
The nonprofit sector is one of the largest employers in the country — context for just how much this work matters.
More than 1.8 million 501(c)(3) organizations are recognized in the U.S., part of roughly 1.9 million registered nonprofits overall. NCCS, Urban Institute [15]
Nonprofits employ about 12.3 million people, roughly 10% of the U.S. private-sector workforce. NCCS, Urban Institute [15]
Nonprofit employment now rivals manufacturing, trailing only retail trade and food services among private industries. NCCS, Urban Institute [15]
Program services generate roughly 70% of 501(c)(3) revenue, with contributions, gifts, and government grants making up most of the rest. NCCS, Urban Institute [15]
Every statistic on this page traces to one of the named sources below. Figures reflect the most recent reports available as of June 2026; always confirm against the original before quoting in formal documents.
Note on usage: Figures drawn from a single study or one organization's A/B test (such as the NextAfter donor-fee experiments) are illustrative of that context, not sector-wide laws. Volunteer-hour values vary by state. Platform pricing and benchmark figures change frequently — verify the original source before citing in grants, board reports, or published material.
Kindly brings donors, volunteers, events, members, and your team into one platform for one predictable subscription — so you spend less time stitching tools together and more time on your mission.
Social, Mobile & Web
Where supporters find you, and what happens when they reach your donation page.
93% of nonprofits maintain a Facebook page, and 85% actively use Instagram — still the two dominant platforms. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [10]
Organic Facebook posts reach just 2.2% of followers, a reminder that owned channels like email still matter most. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [10]
39% of nonprofits now use TikTok, where nonprofit content sees a 7.5% engagement rate. Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 [10]
Mobile users made up 52% of website traffic in 2025, but generated just 28% of online revenue. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
11% of desktop visitors who reach a donation page complete a gift, versus 8% on mobile — and only 4% on mobile for small nonprofits. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]
Nonprofits received gifts from 1.6% of website visitors, generating an average of $1.33 per visitor. M+R Benchmarks 2026 [4]