Nearly 90% of Americans engaging with nonprofits do not realize it, researchers find

Many Americans encounter nonprofits in everyday life without recognizing those interactions as nonprofit service use, according to a new report from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, What Americans Think About Nonprofits & Philanthropy 2026. While only 7.4% of respondents reported that they or someone in their immediate family had received or used services from a charitable organization in the past year, 71.9% reported engaging in at least one activity typically provided by nonprofits. That means nearly 90% of nonprofit users did not initially identify themselves as such.