Gap Between Corporate Interests and Nonprofit Needs Grows, Volunteer Report Shows

Benevity, Inc., a provider of global corporate purpose software, released a new report that reveals a growing tension between corporate volunteering and nonprofit needs as employee volunteering reaches record levels. Benevity Impact Labs’ State of Corporate Volunteering 2026 report highlights continued and significant growth in employee volunteer participation. However, amidst a government funding crisis, a volatile economy and a rapidly changing AI landscape, nonprofit needs are shifting. While volunteering remains a top priority for corporate impact programs, nonprofits list funding as their top strategic priority, which demands that corporate impact leaders re-consider whether their current programs are designed to meet the needs of the future.

As 2026 marks the United Nations’ International Volunteer Year and a global spotlight is placed on volunteering as a driver of social cohesion, the Benevity report surfaces another growing disconnect. While corporate volunteering remains a key driver of employee retention and culture-building, the data reveals a transition toward more episodic employee engagement. This calls for companies to move beyond the optics of high participation and toward a sustainable model that prioritizes more consistent, specialized - including AI-centric - support that nonprofits require to thrive.

“On paper, corporate volunteering has never looked better with record rates of employee volunteerism,” said Sona Khosla, Chief Impact Officer at Benevity. “Since the pandemic, we’ve successfully embedded employee volunteering across the corporate landscape, and companies have increased their investment, but we haven't yet optimized it for the world we live in today. We cannot continue to allow hours to imply impact. When you look closely, you see more volunteers giving less time, nonprofits asking for different forms of support, and very little measurement of actual outcomes. That’s a clear signal the system needs to evolve.”

The State of Corporate Volunteering 2026: A System Ripe for Reimagining analyzes anonymized, aggregated data from the Benevity platform between 2019 and 2025, as well as nonprofit surveys and third‑party research.

Key findings from the State of Corporate Volunteering 2026

The report offers current data and major trends shaping the future of corporate volunteering:

• Companies are driving record rates of employee volunteering. Corporate volunteers logged 23.7 million approved hours in 2025, a 175% increase since 2019, while the number of unique volunteers more than tripled to 1.87 million. Average program participation rates rose 30%, from 10.4% to 13.6%.
• The depth of employee volunteering is declining. Average hours per volunteer fell from 16.4 to 12.7 per year over the six‑year period.
• The phenomenon of “micro‑volunteers” is increasing. Employees contributing fewer than five hours per year now account for roughly 60% of all volunteers, signaling a shift toward short, flexible activities over long‑term commitments.
• The gap between corporate priorities and nonprofit needs is widening. Most companies are planning to increase budgets for employee, team and skills‑based volunteering, yet only about 20% of nonprofit leaders say corporate volunteers contribute meaningfully to long‑term capacity. Many nonprofits report difficulty finding volunteers with the right skills or availability during the workday, even as opportunities for service projects are growing.
• AI literacy is a critical, unmet need for nonprofits. Data from Benevity partner, Goodera, shows 71% of nonprofits identified the ability to leverage AI for operational efficiency as an urgent priority, from communications and fundraising to impact measurement. Yet Benevity data finds that only 3% of nonprofits are using AI extensively today, with many still experimenting or not considering it at all — creating a major opportunity for skills‑based volunteering.
• A measurement gap is obscuring business value and nonprofit impact. The research confirms that employee volunteering drives business value, but most companies are not measuring business outcomes as a result of corporate investments in volunteering.

“The UN’s International Volunteer Year (IVY) comes as corporate volunteering is at an inflection point,” Khosla added. “The next chapter will belong to companies that work deeply with nonprofits to re-imagine volunteering programs with a focus on mutualism for nonprofits and employees, and a move beyond counting hours to achieving higher-level business objectives.”

Access the "The State of Corporate Volunteering 2026: A System Ripe for Reimagining" report here.

Source: Benevity

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.