Gen Z Is Putting Volunteering First in How They Give

When Gen Z wants to support a cause, the first move usually isn't a donation — it's showing up. According to the second-quarter 2026 American Giving Index from Tiltify Catalyst, released in September 2026 and based on a national survey of 1,000 U.S. donors balanced evenly at 250 per generation, nearly nine in ten donors under 30 took some action in the past year to bring someone else into a cause, roughly triple the rate among the oldest donors. And only 40 percent of Gen Z donors gave money first; most practiced volunteering first, taking part through volunteering, attending events, sharing appeals or advocacy before writing any check.

According to the Index, 55 percent of Gen Z donors personally asked friends or family to give in the past 12 months, 58 percent shared or promoted a fundraiser, and 16 percent ran one of their own. Older donors lagged far behind: only 20 percent personally asked anyone to give and just 3 percent ran a fundraiser themselves. Tiltify CEO Michael Wasserman said in the release that someone who brings friends into a cause creates value "that won't show up in the size of their own donation" — a signal to nonprofits that a volunteering first strategy may matter more than chasing bigger checks.

Volunteering First Starts With Informal, Everyday Acts

The volunteering first pattern runs deeper than one survey. As reported by the Associated Press in March 2026, a poll from the Allstate Foundation and Gallup found that about eight in ten young people ages 12 to 25 had engaged in some form of community service. The most common forms were informal rather than institutional: seven in ten said they had helped someone with a task a few times in the past week, and about half said they had donated or organized donations of food, clothing or other items. Roughly three in ten had fundraised for a cause and two in ten had raised awareness for one.

Zoë Jenkins, 22, who oversees recruitment for the youth engagement nonprofit Civics Unplugged, told the AP that service is "a really broad bucket" — essentially people helping other people. The Gallup analysis found that peers often initiate donation drives together, frequently through social media, because rallying contributions requires neither transportation nor complex scheduling. That low-friction, friend-powered format is the social-life version of this instinct: the gathering is the cause, and the cause is the gathering.

The Volunteering First Generation Is Also the Fastest Growing

The shift is showing up inside the country's biggest charities. According to the AP's reporting, American Red Cross officials saw a 25 percent increase in Gen Z volunteers from 2024 to 2025 — the fastest-growing and largest age group in its volunteer base — driven by more than 1,400 self-run youth clubs, often housed in high schools, where students manage their own engagement. The Red Cross has responded by widening the door: short-term and project-based opportunities, outreach by text and email, and signup flows that let underage applicants trigger parental consent directly. For a nonprofit sector contending with an aging volunteer base, this volunteering first pipeline is becoming the workforce of the future.

Creator-led fundraising is accelerating the same habit. The Index found that 28 percent of donors gave during a creator campaign in the past year, and two-thirds of those donors supported a cause they had no prior interest in. Half of Gen Z donors gave through a creator campaign, compared with just 5 percent of Boomers. Discovery is social too: 48 percent of donors under 30 now find causes by scrolling social media, up from 36 percent in February — keeping the loop going from feed to front door.

Why Volunteering First Works — and What Still Blocks It

There is a counterpoint. For all this recruiting energy, young donors get little credit: when Index respondents were asked which generation is most generous, they picked Gen Z just 176 times out of a thousand responses. Money remains the biggest barrier to deeper giving — 52 percent of donors cite their own finances as the main reason they don't give more, and two in five donors under 30 say milestones such as buying a home feel out of reach, directing what remains after essentials toward causes instead. But the foundation is trust: 89 percent of donors trust charities to use their money as intended, which makes a volunteering first model viable even when budgets are tight.

For readers, the practical takeaway mirrors the data: start with time, not money. A standing short-term commitment, a school or club chapter, or a donation drive co-hosted with friends all count — and nonprofits increasingly design around exactly that instinct. It's the same logic behind Gen Z's two-meeting friendship fix: showing up in person, more than once, does the heavy lifting. More on the beat at the IRL Life topic page. If the pattern holds, the next wave of giving won't start at a checkout screen — it will start with people showing up together, volunteering first and donating second.