Food bank, homeless shelter donations spike in wake of pandemic, Fidelity Charitable says

The pandemic has not only changed the way Americans work, but the way they give as well.

According to the recently released 2023 Geography of Giving report by Fidelity Charitable, donations to human services organizations surged in the wake of the pandemic, making it the most commonly supported type of cause in the majority of the 30 cities tracked by Fidelity Charitable.

The nation’s largest grantmaker compared geographic giving trends in 30 U.S. cities in 2022, when the world emerged from the Covid-19 crisis, to those in the most recent pre-pandemic year of 2019, and found that donors in multiple areas increased grant recommendations for charities like food banks, homeless shelters and youth programs.

Human services ranks as the top priority in 16 cities last year, doubling the prevalence from 2019, when it ranked No. 1 in only eight cities, Fidelity Charitable said.

The report showed the trend toward human services donations followed geographic lines, with 7 of the 8 cities where human services became the new top sector in 2022 being located on the East and West coasts. Previously, the most popular sector in 6 of the 8 cities was education.

Religion remained highly popular among donors, ranking as the most commonly supported type of cause in 12 of 18 cities across the central and southern U.S., the study said.

Fidelity Charitable says donors recommended a total of $11.2 billion in grant funding to 189,000 unique charities worldwide in 2022.

“So much of the giving that happens in this country is influenced locally by the communities where people live, work, and pray,” Jacob Pruitt, president of Fidelity Charitable, said in a statement. “By looking at the more than 2 million donor-recommended grants we made in 2022 through the lens of the communities where our donors live, we can help jump-start conversations about giving priorities and creating local impact.”

In terms of the top cities for overall giving, St. Louis ranked first, followed by Salt Lake City and greater Atlanta. To measure support for local charities, the study analyzed the percentage of grant dollars sent to local nonprofits. The report said St. Louis and Salt Lake City remained as the two cities in which local donors recommended the highest percentage of grant dollars to nonprofits located in their own communities.

Elsewhere in the report, the rankings for giving to arts and culture charities remained largely steady from 2019, with Boston and San Francisco claiming the top two spots in 2022. Meanwhile, seven of the top 10 cities for education giving maintained their same positions in 2022 from 2019, with greater Stamford, Connecticut, and greater Boston leading the way, and Miami joining the ranks in 10th place.

The study showed greater Boston and greater Portland, Oregon, leading in terms of support for environmental and animal charities, holding even in 2022. And the three top-ranked cities for donations to health charities in 2019 — Boston, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Miami— stayed atop the rankings in 2022, the study said.

Fidelity Charitable reported that international affairs saw the greatest increase in donor support since 2019, with Washington, D.C., leading the way. During 2022, 32% of Fidelity Charitable donor-advised funds sent support to international affairs charities, such as international development, relief, and human rights organizations.  

Finally, the report showed city rankings in the religion sector demonstrated significant year-to-year consistency, with all cities on the top 10 list from 2019 reappearing in the rankings for 2022. That said, despite no newcomers to the list this year, Indianapolis climbed four spots to claim the top ranking.