Workplace charitable giving includes more than employee donations. In 2024, Benevity’s corporate-client platform recorded $3.4 billion in donations, 23 million volunteer hours, and 38.5 million Acts of Goodness. CECP data shows that 93% of surveyed companies offered at least one matching-gift program that year, while average employee participation in matching gifts was 21%.
Contents
- The scale of workplace giving and engagement
- Matching gifts and employee contributions
- Changes from 2022 to 2024
- Volunteering and participation
- Programs companies offer
- Engagement beyond matching gifts
The scale of workplace giving and engagement
The Benevity 2024 Annual Impact Report describes activity recorded on Benevity’s corporate-client platform during calendar year 2024. The platform recorded $3.4 billion in total donations and supported 321,000 nonprofits worldwide. It also recorded 23 million volunteer hours and 38.5 million Acts of Goodness.
Three million unique changemakers participated on the platform during 2024 by donating, logging volunteer time, or taking part in Missions. These figures describe recorded activity on Benevity’s platform and are not a census of every workplace giving program.
The Volunteering and Civic Life in America: 2024 Research Summary, published by AmeriCorps and reporting on 2023, provides a broader view of how workers perceive employer involvement. About nine in ten American workers said their workplace contributes to the community, and about nine in ten said they were proud to work for their employer. More than eight in ten said they contribute to the community through their work.
The same AmeriCorps summary reports that the share of employed Americans saying their employer encouraged them to volunteer or donate to charity was 5 percentage points higher in 2023 than when the measure began in 2021. The comparison covers 2021–2023, while the other worker-attitude measures refer specifically to 2023.
Matching gifts and employee contributions
The CECP Giving in Numbers: 2025 Edition reports on surveyed companies in 2024. Matching gifts were widely available: 93% offered at least one employee matching-gift program. Year-Round Policy was the most common type, offered by 84%, while Disaster Relief matching programs were offered by 27%.
The median corporate matching-gift total was $1.6 million in 2024. At the upper end of the distribution, the top quartile reached $6.2 million. Matching-gift programs represented an average of 15% of companies’ cash community investments.
The distribution is therefore uneven: the median describes the midpoint company in the reported set, while the top-quartile figure identifies a substantially higher level among companies near the upper end. Neither figure is an average, and neither should be interpreted as a typical donation made by an individual employee. The employee participation rate likewise measures the share taking part in a company program, not the size of each employee contribution.
Industry mix mattered. Matching gifts accounted for 28% of cash community investment at Technology companies, the highest industry share reported by CECP. The corresponding share at Consumer Staples companies was 7%.
Employee participation was lower than program availability. The average employee participation rate in matching-gift programs was 21%. Employees gave a median $2.4 million per company through their employer when matched and unmatched employee contributions were counted.
| 2024 workplace giving measure | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Companies offering at least one matching-gift program | 93% |
| Companies offering Year-Round Policy | 84% |
| Companies offering Disaster Relief matching | 27% |
| Average matching-gift participation | 21% |
| Median corporate matching-gift total | $1.6 million |
| Top-quartile matching-gift total | $6.2 million |
| Average share of cash community investment from matching gifts | 15% |
| Median employee giving through employer, matched and unmatched | $2.4 million |
Changes from 2022 to 2024
CECP also compared an inflation-adjusted matched company set across 2022 and 2024. In that comparison, the median corporate matching-gift value fell 9%, even as average employee participation rose 2 percentage points. The percentage of companies offering at least one matching-gift program increased by 1 percentage point.
Matching gifts’ average allocation as a share of total cash community investment increased by 1 percentage point from 2022 to 2024. Program types moved in different directions. Median Disaster Relief matching-gift investment decreased 85%, while median Dollars for Doers investment increased 18%, the largest increase among the matching-gift types CECP compared.
Median Workplace-Giving Campaign investment increased 13%, and median Year-Round Policy investment increased 15%. The share of companies offering Disaster Relief matching programs declined by 3 percentage points, while the share offering Year-Round Policy programs rose 8 percentage points.
These are changes within CECP’s inflation-adjusted matched set. They should not be read as a universal trend for every employer or as a direct comparison of all companies in the market.
Volunteering and participation
The CECP 2025 edition reports an average employee volunteer participation rate of 25% in 2024. Company size was associated with a different reported rate: companies with fewer than 10,000 employees had a 31% volunteer participation rate, compared with 16% at companies with more than 100,000 employees.
The reported 15-percentage-point difference between those size groups provides useful context for interpreting company-wide participation. A rate for a smaller or larger employer cannot be substituted for the overall average, because the figures describe separate company-size groupings. Similarly, the 43% Materials rate and 16% Consumer Staples rate are industry-specific results rather than estimates for all employers.
Industry differences were also substantial. Materials companies had the highest industry volunteer participation rate at 43%, while Consumer Staples companies had the lowest at 16%.
The median number of volunteer hours per company was 47,000 in 2024, and median volunteer time was 1.8 hours per employee. The CECP Giving in Numbers: 2024 Edition reported a median employee volunteer participation rate of 23% in 2023. In its matched company set, median volunteer hours grew 75% from 2021 to 2023.
| Volunteer measure | Reported figure and period |
|---|---|
| Average employee volunteer participation | 25% in 2024 |
| Companies with fewer than 10,000 employees | 31% in 2024 |
| Companies with more than 100,000 employees | 16% in 2024 |
| Materials companies | 43% in 2024 |
| Consumer Staples companies | 16% in 2024 |
| Median volunteer hours per company | 47,000 in 2024 |
| Median volunteer time per employee | 1.8 hours in 2024 |
| Median employee volunteer participation | 23% in 2023 |
Programs companies offer
Workplace charitable programs can provide time, expertise, flexible scheduling, or grants in addition to direct gifts. In 2024, virtual volunteering was offered to domestic employees by 82% of surveyed companies, while Pro Bono Service was offered domestically by 66%.
Extended Volunteer Campaigns were offered to domestic employees by 46%, and Ambassador Programs by 34%. Team Grants were less common domestically, at 14%, but were offered internationally by 21%. Virtual volunteering was offered internationally by 47%, and Board Leadership was offered internationally by 13%.
Participation varied by program. The average employee participation rate for Flexible Scheduling volunteer programs was 43% in 2024, the highest among the defined program types reported by CECP. Ambassador Programs had an average participation rate of 1%, and Board Leadership programs had an average participation rate of 2%.
Engagement beyond matching gifts
The CECP 2025 edition also measured community and employee initiatives that extend beyond matching gifts. Employee Resource Groups were present at 94% of surveyed companies in 2024. Sustainability initiatives were reported by 73%, and employee mentorship programs were offered by 72%.
Learning or development opportunities focused on inclusion, belonging, or broader societal issues were provided by 67% of surveyed companies. Voter-registration or Election Day initiatives were reported by 31%, while Acts of Kindness programs were reported by 23%.
Ambassador Programs were uncommon in participation terms, but companies with one had a 27% average overall volunteer participation rate in 2024, compared with 24% for companies without one. This is a comparison between companies with and without the program; it does not establish that the program caused the difference.
Together, these figures show several dimensions of workplace charitable giving: money donated through employer channels, matching-gift availability, employee participation, volunteer time, and wider community programs. The measurement periods and populations differ by source, so Benevity platform totals, CECP company-survey results, and AmeriCorps worker responses describe related but distinct parts of workplace community engagement.