North Carolinians were quite a bit more generous in their charitable giving in North Carolina last year, according to a report released on Monday from the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office.
The newly released 2024-2025 North Carolina Secretary of State Charitable Solicitation Licensing (CSL) Division Annual Report states that charities licensed by CSL collected $48.14 million from July 2024 through June 2025, a $21 million increase from last year’s total of just over $27 million.
Approximately $35.88 million of this year’s total was allocated directly to charities for their programs, a $19.4 million increase from the amount netted in 2023-2024. The aggregate percentage of 74.53% going to charities’ programs represents an increase of almost 14% for each dollar donated, from the aggregate percentage that went to charities in the report for 2023-2024. The remainder went to fundraising and administrative costs.
The 2024-25 figure is still down significantly from the 2022-23 report, which showed that North Carolinians gave $58 million to charities between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, an increase of $10.4 million from overall giving in the state in 2021-2022.
“Despite the effects of rising cost of living concerns and other economic challenges, North Carolinians responded to growing needs with generosity and focused on making wise choices with their charitable donations, creating impressive growth in overall giving and in the percentage being netted by charities,” Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said in a press release. “We’ve seen an incredible response to relief efforts in our western counties following the devastation of Hurricane Helene. I always encourage North Carolina’s giving public to use our Annual Report and Charitable Solicitation registry to research nonprofits as they make decisions with their charitable donations this holiday season and all year.”
She released the report at the Durham Rescue Mission, which has served the Durham community for more than five decades through emergency services, long-term recovery programs, education, and employment support.
In addition to fundraising efforts for Helene recovery, Marshall said the increase in this year’s report is also due in part to fundraising activity of four groups involved in economic development and civic issues in the state that may not fit the traditional connotation of “charity.” A total of $10,871,511 in gross receipts from giving resulted from campaigns for four economic development organizations across North Carolina, including the Surry County Economic Development Partnership, the Raleigh Chamber, Rowan Growth Partners, and the Craven 100 Alliance.
In national or multi-state fundraising campaigns that included North Carolina donors, over $1 billion was raised, representing an increase of almost $718 million from the previous year. Of that total, charities netted a little over $838 million, or 77.85%, representing an 11.78% increase from the aggregate percentage allocated to charitable services in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
The Secretary of State’s Office licenses charities and nonprofit organizations that use professional fundraising services for their solicitation campaigns, compensate their officers, or raise at least $50,000 a year. These organizations are not exempt from state law for reasons such as being a religious institution, a volunteer fire department, or an educational institution.
The office also noted that although it regulates fundraising activity under federal case law, it cannot legally penalize a charity for using most of its donations on fundraising or administrative overhead.
People with questions about individual charities or charitable solicitation activities can call the Secretary of State’s Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division at 1-888-830-4989.
