Volunteerism Rebounds From Pandemic-Era Lows, Gallup Finds

Volunteer participation in the U.S. has largely recovered from its pandemic-era decline, according to new Gallup research.

The share of Americans who volunteered in the past year (63%) has climbed back near pre-2020 levels after hitting a low in 2021, Gallup’s latest analysis shows. The rebound follows one of the steepest drops in volunteer participation Gallup has recorded since 2001 when it began tracking the measure.

Volunteers Are Re-Engaging — Even as Giving Patterns Shift

While volunteering shows a distinct rebound, charitable giving participation has declined since the pandemic and remains well below historical highs. A substantial share of Americans (76%) continue to donate money each year — though participation fell 5 percentage points since the pandemic and 11 percentage points from 2005’s peak, according to Gallup. 

Historically, Gallup has found significant overlap between those who volunteer and those who donate. Both volunteers and donors are more likely to be wealthier and more highly educated than the general population. One differentiator is that volunteers are more commonly middle-aged while donors are more likely to be older. 

Rising volunteerism does not necessarily signal a shift away from financial giving. Instead, it reflects how engaged supporters are choosing to participate at a given moment, particularly as households navigate inflation, time constraints, and competing demands.

Nonprofits Cite Capacity and Coordination Challenges

On the other side of donors and volunteers weighing whether to give their time, their money, or both, nonprofit leaders have reported challenges with managing volunteer engagement, in a recent NonProfit PRO survey.

Respondents most often pointed to internal capacity issues rather than volunteer supply, with 40% saying having the staff to manage volunteers was their top struggle. Other commonly cited challenges included finding and retaining motivated volunteers (38%) and establishing volunteer opportunities (36%).

By comparison, fewer respondents — 31% — said simply having enough volunteers to meet service demands was among their primary concerns. Only 3% said they face no volunteer-related challenges at all.

These findings suggest that renewed participation does not automatically translate into smoother operations, particularly for organizations still operating with lean teams and expanded responsibilities.

Putting the Data Together

Taken together, these data sets show many Americans remain engaged with nonprofits, but are making deliberate choices about how to contribute — sometimes with their wallets, sometimes with their time, and often with both.

Because volunteers are disproportionately drawn from higher-income and more educated groups, volunteer engagement often intersects with fundraising, advocacy, and long-term support. When organizations struggle to manage that engagement effectively, the implications can extend beyond volunteer programs alone.