How corporate volunteering can better support nonprofits

Corporate volunteering is growing. In Benevity’s 2026 State of Corporate Volunteering report​,​ data shows more companies are making it easier for employees to participate and more people are showing up to participate in workplace purpose programs. In fact, employees contributed 23.7 million volunteer hours in 2025, up 175% since before the pandemic in 2019.

That momentum matters. It reflects a real commitment to support communities in tangible ways. But at the same time, the data suggests that corporate programs and volunteers​,​ and the nonprofits they partner with​,​ have diverging priorities. A​rguably, a​n effective program has aligned goals, structures that support those goals, and clear measures of progress.

More corporate volunteers give fewer hours per year

While total participation is up, average volunteer hours per person have declined 23%, from 16.4 hours to 12.7 hours annually, and employees giving fewer than five hours per year now make up 60% of all corporate volunteers. In other words, more people are engaging, but often in shorter bursts.

That is not inherently a negative. In many cases, a short corporate volunteering experience can be deeply meaningful, especially when it is thoughtfully designed and clearly connected to a nonprofit’s mission. As Coker Powell, chief revenue officer at Blood Cancer United, put it: “Volunteer hours don’t automatically equal impact. What nonprofits need—especially right now—is alignment. Alignment between corporate skill sets and nonprofit capacity gaps.”

That idea of alignment is essential to any effective corporate volunteer program.

Nonprofits need consistent, long-term support

In our research, only 20% of nonprofit leaders said corporate volunteers contribute meaningfully to their long-term capacity. Nonprofits are asking for deeper partnership. They value enthusiasm and participation, but many need consistent support—the kind that helps build skills, systems, and resilience over time.

This creates an opportunity for companies to think about volunteer hours and volunteer depth. Depth can mean sustained relationships, skills-based support, better preparation, or stronger connection between a nonprofit’s priorities and an employee’s availability and expertise. It can also mean creating experiences that are more engaging for employees because they can see the difference their time, talent, and effort are making for the nonprofit—and the communities they serve.

Combining corporate volunteering with funding can bridge the gap

One area where deeper engagement could be transformative is AI readiness. According to Goodera, 71% of nonprofits say using AI for operational efficiency is an urgent priority, yet only 3% are using it extensively today. This gap is about more than technology. And it’s exactly the kind of challenge that invites a more integrated model of support.

Imagine a partnership in which employees work alongside a nonprofit over several months to assess needs, identify use cases, and build an adoption plan, while the company also provides grant funding for the tools and training required. The corporate volunteering experience becomes more substantive. The funding becomes more informed. And the nonprofit gets support that enables it to operate more efficiently and possibly transformatively.

As Powell noted, “There’s tremendous opportunity around AI literacy, data analytics, digital marketing, and operational strategy.” Those are not simply areas of need; they’re areas where companies can bring distinctive strengths.

Data shows that 45% of Benevity’s corporate clients offer rewards programs, including hourly rewards for volunteer time tracked or volunteer grants, to provide employees with the means and incentive to get involved. But in 2025 alone, $111 million of those rewards were never donated by employees. Considering volunteers are four times more likely to donate, and they give 2.4 times more than non-volunteers—linking volunteering and funding more closely would further benefit nonprofit partners.

Nonprofits and corporate leaders should be working together to design ways to ​unlock​ that already budgeted capital as part of their volunteer experiences.

Bridging the volunteer-funding gap creates greater impact

This is why the future of corporate social impact may be less about choosing between giving and volunteering, and more about designing them to work in concert. Time, talent, and treasure each matter on their own. Designing sustained, meaningful experiences for employees to give their time and expertise, combined with grant funding and “dollars for doers,” can create greater value for volunteers, nonprofits, and corporations—and, in turn, greater impact for their communities.

For companies, that shift also supports internal goals. Integrated efforts are easier to connect to business priorities such as skills development and culture-building. They also offer a clearer way to understand outcomes: not just how many people participated, but what capacity was built, what challenge was addressed, and what changed for the nonprofit—and the employee—as a result.

If purpose is now a business imperative, like any strategic priority, it would benefit from thoughtful design and better measurement. The foundation is already there. If the last several years were about expanding access to corporate volunteering, the next era may be about increasing depth and alignment. With that frame, everyone is likely to realize greater benefit from their volunteering investments, but it will take both mindset and behavior change. And from recent conversations with impact leaders on this topic, it’s clear our space is ready for change.

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