Faith-based nonprofits operate where religious life and community service meet. The available figures show a large nonprofit sector, substantial government grant involvement, changing religious identity, and especially strong volunteer participation among faith-based organizations.
Contents
- Nonprofit scale and government grants
- Where government grant funding reaches
- Religious service participation
- Congregational membership
- Religious identity and change
- Volunteers in faith-based organizations
Nonprofit scale and government grants
The Urban Institute reported about 1.2 million nonprofits with a 501(c)(3) designation across the United States. That broad count provides context for understanding the size of the charitable environment in which many faith-based organizations work.
More than 80,000 501(c)(3) nonprofits electronically filed a full IRS Form 990 and reported receiving government grants in every year from 2021 through 2023. These organizations represented about one-third of 501(c)(3) nonprofits that electronically filed a full Form 990 in each of those years.
The value of government grants reported by this group changed across the three-year period:
| Year | Government grants received by the studied nonprofits |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $304 billion |
| 2022 | $294 billion |
| 2023 | $240 billion |
Source: Urban Institute, What Is the Financial Risk of Nonprofits Losing Government Grants?
The Urban Institute said these government grants were more than double the most recent estimates of foundation giving. That comparison places public grant funding in a different scale category from foundation support, although the figures describe different funding sources rather than the total income of every faith-based nonprofit.
The same analysis found that, in every state, at least 60 percent of the nonprofits studied would have been operating at a loss without their government grants in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This is a finding about the studied nonprofit group and those specific years; it is not a claim that every faith-based organization depends on government funding.
Where government grant funding reaches
Government support for public charities appears across the country and across levels of government. The Urban Institute reported that, in every congressional district, public charities received grants from local, state, federal, territory, and foreign governments.
The geographic reach also extends beyond congressional districts. In more than 95 percent of U.S. counties, public charities received government grants. For faith-based nonprofits providing food assistance, housing support, disaster response, education, or other services, these figures illustrate why local context matters when assessing nonprofit funding.
The grant statistics cover public charities and the studied 501(c)(3) population, not a separately identified national count of faith-based nonprofits. They are therefore useful as sector context rather than as a precise measure of faith-based funding. The Urban Institute source is What Is the Financial Risk of Nonprofits Losing Government Grants?
Religious service participation
Religious participation is not limited to one pattern of attendance. Pew Research Center reported that one-third of U.S. adults attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, while 25 percent attend in person at least once a week. At the other end of the frequency range, 67 percent attend in person a few times a year or less often.
Online and television participation adds another dimension. Pew reported that 23 percent of U.S. adults watch religious services online or on television at least once a month. Within that group, 16 percent watch at least once a week, and 7 percent watch once or twice a month. Another 11 percent watch a few times a year, while 65 percent seldom or never watch religious services online or on television.
Looking across formats, 40 percent of U.S. adults say they participate in religious services at least once a month either in person, online, or through both channels. The combined measure should not be added to the in-person or online percentages because the categories can overlap.
These participation measures come from Pew Research Center’s Religious service attendance & belonging to religious, nonreligious orgs in the US. They describe U.S. adults and distinguish frequency from membership. Someone may participate without reporting membership, while a member may participate at a different frequency.
Congregational membership
Pew Research Center reported that 37 percent of U.S. adults personally belong to a church, synagogue, mosque, or other house of worship. Among Christians, the share is 54 percent. Membership varies across the traditions identified in the research:
| Group | Share reporting membership or belonging |
|---|---|
| Latter-day Saints | 86% |
| Evangelical Protestants | 61% |
| Historically Black Protestant tradition | 56% |
| Christians overall | 54% |
| Jewish Americans | 42% |
| U.S. adults overall | 37% |
| Atheist or nonbeliever organizations | 3% |
The 3 percent figure refers to U.S. adults who say they participate in organizations for atheists or nonbelievers, which is a different type of organization from a house of worship. The comparison is included to show the range of reported organizational participation, not to treat all groups as equivalent institutions.
For faith-based nonprofits, these numbers suggest that connection to a congregation is an important but not universal route into community life. A service organization may reach people who attend weekly, people who attend less often, online participants, and people who do not report membership in a house of worship.
Religious identity and change
Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study found that 62 percent of U.S. adults identify as Christian. In that study, 7 percent identify with religions other than Christianity. The study also found that 35 percent of U.S. adults have switched religions since childhood.
The 2023-24 study identified several smaller religious groups within the U.S. adult population. Jewish adults account for 2 percent, while Muslim adults account for 1 percent, Buddhist adults account for 1 percent, and Hindu adults account for 1 percent. Members of historically Black Protestant churches make up 5 percent of U.S. adults, and the United Methodist Church makes up slightly fewer than 3 percent.
Earlier Pew measurements provide historical context, but they should not be treated as interchangeable with the 2023-24 study. The Christian share was 71 percent in the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Study and 78 percent in the 2007 Pew Religious Landscape Study. The 2007 study also reported that 16.1 percent of adults were religiously unaffiliated.
The 2007 Pew Religious Landscape Survey reported 1.7 percent Jewish, 0.7 percent Buddhist, 0.6 percent Muslim, and 0.4 percent Hindu. It found that less than 0.3 percent belonged to other world religions, while about 5 percent belonged to other faiths. Another 2007 measure found that 61 percent of adults said they or their family were members of a local church or other house of worship, and the survey reported that 78.4 percent identified as Christian.
The older figures are measurements from 2007, not current estimates. The 2014 and 2023-24 figures are separate Pew studies and are best read as points in a changing series rather than as a single uniform survey design.
Volunteers in faith-based organizations
The Urban Institute’s 2007-08 survey of faith-based and community organizations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Houston measured volunteer use in a post-hurricane human services context. Across all respondents, 76.7 percent used volunteers. Faith-based organizations reported a higher figure of 85.8 percent, compared with 63.4 percent among secular nonprofits.
The survey also reported median volunteer counts. The median was 20 volunteers across all respondents, 21 for faith-based organizations, and 18 for secular nonprofits. Mississippi organizations had a median of 24 volunteers.
| Survey group | Used volunteers | Median number of volunteers |
|---|---|---|
| All respondents | 76.7% | 20 |
| Faith-based organizations | 85.8% | 21 |
| Secular nonprofits | 63.4% | 18 |
| Mississippi organizations | Not reported in the supplied measure | 24 |
In the same survey, 49.5 percent of faith-based organizations were still providing long-term recovery services. The geography and timing are important: the survey covered Louisiana, Mississippi, and Houston in 2007-08, and its service figures relate to post-hurricane relief and recovery. They should not be generalized as a current national rate for all faith-based nonprofits.
Taken together, the volunteer figures show how faith-based organizations contributed to human services in that specific recovery setting. The broader religious participation and identity measures show the varied audience that faith-related community work may encounter, while the national nonprofit figures show the larger funding environment surrounding public charities.