Benevity Releases Its Top 10 Charitable Causes Supported by Companies and Their People in 2021

$2.3 billion donated to global nonprofits amid ongoing pandemic

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Benevity, Inc., the leading provider of global corporate purpose software, today announced its annual top 10 causes and giving trends data for 2021, demonstrating that global events and crises continued to impact giving behaviors.

In 2021, nearly 1.6 million people from over 700 companies donated $2.3 billion on the Benevity platform to more than 200,000 nonprofit organizations around the world.

A year after the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice movement caused major shifts in giving and record-setting donation amounts through Benevity (a 63% increase in 2020 compared to 2019), in 2021 Benevity’s growing community of corporate clients maintained record-high levels of donations and support for a variety of humanitarian causes, indicating that purpose is becoming a strategic business imperative.

Key Findings

• Nonprofits supporting India’s COVID-19 crisis received a groundswell of support, including Sewa International (ranked 10 vs. 375 in 2020), Give2Asia (23 vs. 63), Pratham USA (26 vs. 75) and Goonj (30 vs. 384).
• The crisis in India also drove additional giving to UNICEF and was part of the reason the organization’s support through Benevity almost doubled year over year ($13.5 million vs. $7.3 million in 2020).
• Causes fighting Asian hate, including Chinese for Affirmative Action and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, came into focus and moved from being ranked ~49,000 and ~76,000 to 34 and 36, respectively.
• Five of the 10 top causes from 2020 remained on the list in 2021, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Red Cross, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Doctors Without Borders and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.
• Five organizations moved off the top 10 list: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, Thousand Currents, Feeding America and Armenia Fund.
• Health-focused nonprofits, including national and state cancer societies, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Planned Parenthood, returned to the top 10 in 2021.

“When the Delta variant hit India last year, we saw companies and their employees mobilize to help,” said Birger Stamperdahl, Give2Asia’s President and CEO. “Their generosity made possible lifesaving projects that delivered oxygen concentrators, protective gear for health workers and emergency food rations to those hit hardest by the pandemic.”

“It looks like we are starting to experience a slight ‘return to normal’ in the causes that were supported last year,” said Sona Khosla, Benevity’s Chief Impact Officer. “Despite the change in the top 10 causes, we saw people continuing to leverage the power of their giving in times and places of need in 2021. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen a shift in behavior. That is, philanthropy is no longer just for the wealthy trying to change society or corporations trying to be seen as responsible. It’s also becoming entrenched as a way for new generations of purpose-driven individuals and companies to act on what matters.”

About Benevity
Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leader in global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. Recognized as one of Fortune’s Impact 20, Benevity offers cloud solutions that power purpose for many iconic brands in ways that better attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 22 languages, Benevity has processed more than $8 billion in donations and 43 million hours of volunteering time to support 326,000 nonprofits worldwide. The company’s solutions have also facilitated 530,000 positive actions and awarded 1.2 million grants worth $12 billion. For more information, visit benevity.com.