Points of Light Unveils a $100 Million Plan to Double U.S. Volunteers by 2035

Points of Light launched a $100 million National Volunteer Strategy to grow the number of U.S. volunteers to 150 million by 2035, betting on nonprofit infrastructure and shared standards to close the gap between people who want to help and the groups that need them.

Points of Light Unveils a $100 Million Plan to Double U.S. Volunteers by 2035 Points of Light launched a $100 million National Volunteer Strategy to grow the number of U.S. volunteers to 150 million by 2035, betting on nonprofit infrastructure and shared standards to close the gap between people who want to help and the groups that need them. Aaron Rafferty June 27, 2026 Key Takeaways: Points of Light unveiled a $100 million National Volunteer Strategy, a plan to nearly double the number of U.S. volunteers to 150 million by 2035. The first phase invests in nonprofit infrastructure and shared standards to help organizations recruit, manage, and keep volunteers. The group says the gap is not interest but connection. Americans want to volunteer and nonprofits need them, yet the systems linking the two are thin. Points of Light, the nonprofit founded to promote national service, unveiled a $100 million plan it says will nearly double the number of volunteers in the United States to 150 million by 2035. The first phase, called the National Volunteer Strategy, spends less on recruiting individuals and more on fixing the nonprofit infrastructure that is supposed to put them to work, according to the Associated Press . The premise is that the bottleneck is not willingness. Americans say they want to give their time, and nonprofits badly need the help, but the connective tissue between the two has worn thin. Many organizations lack the tools, training, and standards to bring volunteers in and keep them engaged, so interest leaks away before it turns into hours served. The money goes toward volunteer managers, the often-overlooked staff who coordinate everyone else, and toward shared standards meant to make volunteering more consistent from one group to the next. Points of Light