Vanguard Charitable Launches Tool to Help Donors Address Hunger, Homelessness 

In 2020, grant dollars to nonprofits focused on hunger, housing or both categories increased by 96% year over year. Vanguard Charitable donors gave $302 million to more than 11,000 hunger- and homelessness-focused nonprofits across the U.S. 

The organization said grants to these nonprofits in 2021 remain high and are on track to match 2020 giving levels.

It said large, national nonprofits (and those with local chapters) that address hunger and homelessness continue to be a focus for donors. The following are the top grantees, by dollars, as of Oct. 31:

1. Legal Aid Justice Center
2. International Rescue Committee
3. UNICEF
4. Give Directly
5. Philadelphia Kids in Care
6. Feeding America
7. Habitat for Humanity International
8. Tipping Point USA
9. Advocates for Community Choice
10. Braven

Vanguard Charitable noted that hunger and homelessness also tend to be issues donors support most often in their own communities when compared with other cause areas. 

Between Dec. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, some two-thirds of Vanguard Charitable grants to support hunger and homelessness were issued to nonprofits within the same state as the donor, compared with 55% of grants in all other interest areas in the same period.

Vanguard Charitable launched its first iteration of NAVi in fall 2020, with the data focused on pandemic relief and recovery. That free iteration enabled donors to search for geographies most vulnerable to and hit hardest by COVID-19 and the local charities that were providing support.