Nonprofit volunteer statistics at a glance
Nonprofit volunteering in the United States showed a clear rebound in 2023, but the recovery was uneven across participation types and places. The latest numbers point to a larger pool of volunteers, stronger civic membership, and a meaningful return in time donated through organizations.
Fast facts
- 28 percent of Americans, or 75.7 million people, volunteered for an organization between September 2022 and September 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
- Formal volunteers collectively served an estimated 4.99 billion hours in 2023, and those hours were valued at more than $167.2 billion (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
- 18 percent of formal volunteers served completely or partially online in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Virtual Volunteering Spotlight).
- Almost 49 percent of Americans gave more than $25 to a non-political group between September 2022 and September 2023, equal to at least 121.8 million donors nationwide (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
- In 2023, one in four Americans, or over 62.9 million people, belonged to an organization (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
Contents
- The 2023 volunteering picture
- Time, money, and membership
- What changed from the pandemic low
- Who volunteers and how they help
- Population groups and volunteer rates
- How organizations can read these numbers
- Common questions about nonprofit volunteer statistics
The 2023 volunteering picture
The strongest signal in the data is simple: formal volunteering recovered in 2023.
The national formal volunteering rate reached a level that was five percentage points higher than the historic low recorded in 2021, which AmeriCorps describes as a 22 percent growth rate over two years (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). That rebound matters because the volunteer rate is not just a participation metric. It is also a proxy for how much social connection, organizational capacity, and unpaid labor communities can mobilize at scale.
The headline figure is 28 percent of Americans volunteering for an organization between September 2022 and September 2023, representing 75.7 million people (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). That is a large base of participation, but the more actionable insight is that formal volunteering is still recovering rather than fully settled back into a long-term norm.
Another way to frame the data is through the size of the volunteer labor pool. Formal volunteers gave an estimated 4.99 billion hours in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). Put differently, nonprofit and civic organizations drew on a national reservoir of time large enough to produce more than $167.2 billion in estimated value (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). For nonprofits, that is not a side note. It is a structural input into service delivery, fundraising, events, mentoring, administration, and community outreach.
Time, money, and membership
Volunteer participation is only one part of civic engagement. The statistics also show how Americans contribute through membership and giving.
| Metric | 2023 value | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Formal volunteering rate | 28 percent | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Number of formal volunteers | 75.7 million | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Total volunteer hours | 4.99 billion | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Estimated value of hours | more than $167.2 billion | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Organizational membership rate | one in four Americans | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Number of organization members | over 62.9 million | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Giving rate | almost 49 percent | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
| Number of donors | at least 121.8 million | AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America |
That table matters because it shows the different channels through which people support mission-driven work. Some people give time, some give money, some hold memberships, and many do more than one.
Membership is especially important for nonprofits because it can create a deeper, more durable relationship than a one-time donation or a single volunteer shift. In 2023, over 62.9 million Americans belonged to an organization, which is one in four people nationwide (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). Fifty-four percent of organization members belonged to two groups or more, suggesting that a large share of members maintain multiple civic ties rather than a single affiliation (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
Giving also remained broad. Almost 49 percent of Americans gave more than $25 to a non-political group between September 2022 and September 2023, equal to at least 121.8 million donors (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). The 0.4 percentage point increase in giving from 2021 to 2023 was the first uptick ever recorded by the CEV, which makes the increase modest in size but notable in context (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
What changed from the pandemic low
The most useful comparison in the dataset is the rebound from 2021 to 2023.
The 2023 formal volunteering rate was five percentage points higher than the historic low in 2021, and AmeriCorps describes that change as 22 percent growth over two years (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). That is a meaningful recovery, but not a full return to every pre-pandemic pattern.
The geography of recovery shows that the rebound was not uniform. The latest formal volunteering rate matched or exceeded 2019 levels in 14 states and in five major metros: Boston, Dallas, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). At the same time, formal volunteering rates remained more than five percentage points below pre-pandemic figures in 11 states plus the District of Columbia metro area (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
That split is important for nonprofits that recruit locally. It suggests that a national average can hide large differences in how quickly community participation returns. If your organization operates across regions, a single volunteer strategy may not fit every market. Some places had already matched 2019 levels, while others remained well below them.
The same pattern appears in organizational membership. The 2023 organizational membership rate remained two percentage points below pre-pandemic levels, even though it rebounded by five percent in two years between 2021 and 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). The implication is that engagement improved, but the system had not completely healed.
Who volunteers and how they help
The 2023 figures highlight both depth and format of volunteer participation.
Half of formal volunteers served 24 hours or more during the measured period (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America). That means a large portion of volunteers were not just sampling an organization. They were committing meaningful blocks of time.
Virtual participation also remained part of the mix. Eighteen percent of formal volunteers served completely or partially online in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Virtual Volunteering Spotlight). That matters because it broadens access for people who cannot easily travel or commit to in-person shifts. It also changes how nonprofits can think about scheduling, training, and task design.
A separate piece of the broader civic picture is informal helping. In 2023, the national informal helping rate was 54 percent, a three percentage point increase from previous years (AmeriCorps 2023 Renewed Engagement in American Civic Life). Informal helping is not identical to nonprofit volunteering, but it shows that help-giving behavior extends beyond formal organizations. For a nonprofit, that can be a lead indicator of community readiness, because people who already help informally may be easier to convert into organized roles.
Common volunteer activity patterns
BLS data from 2015 adds detail on the kinds of tasks volunteers do once they are involved.
- The most common single main activity category was “something else,” reported by 11.3 percent of volunteers (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
- Tutoring or teaching was the main activity for 9.2 percent of volunteers (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
- Fundraising was the main activity for 9.0 percent of volunteers (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
- General labor was the main activity for 8.8 percent of volunteers (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
Those figures suggest that volunteer work is operationally diverse. Not every volunteer role is public-facing, and not every role looks like direct service. Organizations need a mix of tasks because volunteer demand is spread across teaching, fundraising, physical labor, and more flexible catch-all assignments.
Population groups and volunteer rates
The BLS data from 2013 and 2015 is especially useful for comparing participation across demographic groups, work status, and education.
| Group | Volunteer rate | Year/source label |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 27.8 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Men | 21.8 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| 35- to 44-year-olds | 28.9 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| 45- to 54-year-olds | 28.0 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| 20- to 24-year-olds | 18.4 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Teenagers ages 16 to 19 | 26.4 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| College graduates age 25 and over | 38.8 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Some college or associate degree | 26.5 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| High school graduate, no college | 15.6 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Less than high school diploma | 8.1 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Employed people | 27.2 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Unemployed people | 23.3 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Not in the labor force | 21.4 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Part-time workers | 31.1 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
| Full-time workers | 26.3 percent | BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015 |
The education gap is the most pronounced of the group comparisons above. In 2015, college graduates age 25 and over volunteered at a 38.8 percent rate, while people with less than a high school diploma volunteered at an 8.1 percent rate (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015). That is a large spread and suggests that access, time, and organizational recruitment channels are not evenly distributed.
Age also matters. In 2015, 35- to 44-year-olds had the highest volunteer rate at 28.9 percent, while 20- to 24-year-olds had the lowest at 18.4 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015). Teens ages 16 to 19 volunteered at 26.4 percent, which means late teens were more engaged than young adults in that dataset (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
Work status shows a less dramatic but still important pattern. Part-time workers volunteered at a 31.1 percent rate, higher than full-time workers at 26.3 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015). Employed people overall volunteered at 27.2 percent, compared with 23.3 percent for unemployed people and 21.4 percent for people not in the labor force (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
The 2013 data adds a broader civic baseline. In that year, 62.6 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once, and the overall volunteer rate was 25.4 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2013). Women volunteered at a 28.4 percent rate and men at 22.2 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2013). Among age groups, 35- to 44-year-olds again had the highest rate at 30.6 percent, while 20- to 24-year-olds had the lowest at 18.5 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2013).
Race and family status also appeared in the 2013 data. White Americans volunteered at a 27.1 percent rate, Black Americans at 18.5 percent, Asian Americans at 19.0 percent, and Hispanic Americans at 15.5 percent (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2013). Married people volunteered at a 30.7 percent rate (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2013). These figures are not a full causal explanation, but they do show that volunteer participation is shaped by social position as well as personal interest.
How volunteers get involved
Recruitment pathway is another useful operational clue.
In 2015, 41.2 percent of volunteers became involved with their main organization after being asked to volunteer, while 41.6 percent became involved on their own by approaching the organization (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015). Those two figures are nearly identical, which tells nonprofits something practical: direct asks matter, but self-motivated applicants matter just as much.
For volunteer managers, that suggests two parallel acquisition channels. One is outbound recruiting through staff, members, and existing volunteers. The other is inbound interest from people who already want to help and are looking for a place to do it.
The median volunteer time in 2015 was 52 hours on volunteer activities (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015). That median is useful because it signals a middle-ground commitment level. Many volunteers are not one-off participants, but they are also not full-time contributors. A program that wants to retain volunteers should be designed for steady engagement across multiple months, not just a single event.
What the data suggests for nonprofits
- Build recruiting around direct asks and inbound opportunities, since the 2015 data shows both routes are important (BLS Volunteering in the United States 2015).
- Offer both in-person and online roles, because 18 percent of formal volunteers served online in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Virtual Volunteering Spotlight).
- Design roles with meaningful time blocks, since half of formal volunteers served 24 hours or more in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
- Segment recruitment by geography, because recovery to 2019 levels was already stronger in 14 states and five major metros than in others (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
- Treat donations, memberships, and volunteering as connected but distinct engagement paths, since the 2023 data shows strong participation in all three (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
Common questions about nonprofit volunteer statistics
How many people volunteered in the United States in 2023?
According to AmeriCorps, 75.7 million Americans volunteered for an organization between September 2022 and September 2023, which was 28 percent of the population (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
How many hours did volunteers contribute in 2023?
Formal volunteers collectively served an estimated 4.99 billion hours in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
What is the value of volunteer time?
AmeriCorps estimated the 4.99 billion volunteer hours at more than $167.2 billion in value for 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
Did volunteering recover after the pandemic low?
Yes, the 2023 formal volunteering rate was five percentage points higher than the historic low recorded in 2021, and AmeriCorps describes that as 22 percent growth over two years (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
How common is online volunteering?
Eighteen percent of formal volunteers served completely or partially online in 2023 (AmeriCorps 2023 Virtual Volunteering Spotlight).
How many Americans belong to organizations?
In 2023, over 62.9 million Americans belonged to an organization, equal to one in four Americans (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).
How common is charitable giving in the same period?
Almost 49 percent of Americans gave more than $25 to a non-political group between September 2022 and September 2023, which was at least 121.8 million donors nationwide (AmeriCorps 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life in America).