Largest Charities in New Hampshire: Top 10 Organizations to Donate & Volunteer (2026)

The New Hampshire Food Bank is the only food bank in the state — not one of several, not the largest of a few. One. It has operated as a program of Catholic Charities New Hampshire since 1984 and is a Feeding America member. In 2025, it distributed more than 20 million pounds of food to people experiencing hunger through more than 400 partner agencies statewide — soup kitchens, emergency shelters, senior nutrition centers, food pantries, afterschool programs, and family crisis centers across all 10 counties. For every dollar donated, 93 cents goes directly to programming.

The Food Bank runs several programs beyond distribution. Culinary Job Training prepares SNAP recipients and food-insecure residents for careers in professional kitchens. Mobile Food Pantries reach communities without fixed pantry locations. NH Feeding NH purchases food directly from New Hampshire farmers — 655,000+ pounds from 184 farms in the most recent full season, injecting $725,000 into the local agricultural economy. That program was significantly reduced when the USDA cut Local Food Purchase Assistance funding in March 2025. SNAP Outreach helps eligible residents who aren't enrolled — SNAP underenrollment is a persistent problem in New Hampshire, where an estimated 103,100 food-insecure residents exist but only 77,027 were actually enrolled. A $750,000 national grant secured in spring 2026 will expand fresh food access statewide.

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is the state's community foundation, managing charitable funds, scholarships, and grants for nonprofits statewide. NHCF has been a central coordinating force for the state's nonprofit sector — particularly in emergency situations. During the 2025 SNAP disruption, NHCF worked directly with hunger-relief organizations to help fill gaps, activated emergency hunger-relief funding, and made donor-advised fund grants available to food pantries facing surging demand. Their Purpose newsletter has been one of the clearest ongoing communications about the state's food insecurity situation.

NHCF organizes NH Gives — the state's largest online fundraiser, typically held in June, where 1,000+ NH nonprofits participate in a coordinated giving day. The NH Food Bank raised $24,700 through NH Gives in 2024 and aims for $30,000 in 2025. For donors who want to support multiple NH nonprofits efficiently, NH Gives is the most practical single vehicle. NHCF also manages the NH Hunger Solutions partnership, which focuses on policy advocacy alongside emergency relief.

The Humane Society of New Hampshire is the state's largest private animal welfare organization, operating adoption centers, spay/neuter programs, cruelty investigation, community education, and pet resource programs. New Hampshire's rural landscape creates specific animal welfare challenges — large stray populations in rural counties, limited low-cost veterinary access outside major population centers, and high animal surrender rates when households face economic pressure. The economic squeeze of 2025 — with food costs rising 72% since 2005 in the Northeast and SNAP benefits under threat — has increased the number of pets surrendered by owners who simply can't afford to feed them.

New Hampshire's animal welfare sector includes county humane societies, local shelters, and rescue organizations throughout the state. The Humane Society of New Hampshire coordinates with regional transport programs to move animals from high-intake southern shelters to placement-ready organizations in other regions. Volunteer roles include animal care, dog walking, cat socialization, and foster care. Foster homes for kittens and recovering animals are particularly needed year-round.

Habitat for Humanity of New Hampshire coordinates affiliates across the state — Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Keene, Plymouth, and other communities. New Hampshire's housing market has become increasingly unaffordable: median home prices in southern New Hampshire (particularly Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, within commuting distance of Boston) have been pushed upward by Massachusetts overflow. Workers in Manchester and Nashua face Boston-adjacent housing costs on New Hampshire wages, and the gap between what a service or manufacturing employee earns and what it costs to buy a home has grown sharply.

New Hampshire's Habitat affiliates build affordable homes and provide critical home repair, including addressing safety hazards in aging rural housing stock. The state has significant amounts of older single-family housing in need of weatherization, roof repair, and accessibility improvements — particularly for elderly homeowners on fixed incomes in rural counties. ReStore locations accept building materials and goods. Build days run seasonally, open to first-timers.

Catholic Charities New Hampshire is the parent organization of the New Hampshire Food Bank — the state's only food bank — and separately operates refugee resettlement, immigration legal services, emergency assistance, housing programs, elder care services, and counseling across all 10 New Hampshire counties. New Hampshire resettles refugees from Bhutan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and other countries. The state's small size means Catholic Charities NH is the primary infrastructure for many of these services statewide, without the regional division into multiple dioceses that exists in larger states.

Catholic Charities NH's elder care and senior services programs are particularly significant in a state that ranks among the oldest by median age in the country. New Hampshire's rural elderly population — living alone in aging homes, often without transportation, far from services — is one of the most underserved groups in the state. Programs include Meals on Wheels, in-home care coordination, and adult day services. Services are available to people of all faiths.

United Way of New Hampshire manages workplace giving campaigns across the state and distributes grants to nonprofits in education, income stability, and health. They operate 2-1-1 New Hampshire, the helpline connecting residents to food, housing, utility, and emergency resources statewide — a service that saw call volume rise sharply during the 2025 SNAP disruption. New Hampshire's largest employers — BAE Systems, Dartmouth Health, Hitchiner Manufacturing, Liberty Mutual — participate in United Way workplace campaigns, with Southern NH (Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth) generating the most campaign activity.

United Way of New Hampshire differs from larger state chapters in that it coordinates a statewide network rather than operating as a single large city campaign. Regional partnerships in the Lakes Region, North Country, Seacoast, and Monadnock Region extend United Way's reach into communities that larger nonprofits don't always reach. After the 2025 SNAP disruption, 2-1-1 NH played a key role in connecting residents to emergency food pantry locations.

The Red Cross New Hampshire Region responds to home fires, winter storms, flooding, and other disasters statewide. New Hampshire's disaster profile includes ice storms that knock out power to rural homes for days, spring flooding from snowmelt in the White Mountains and along the Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers, and home fires in older wood-frame housing. New Hampshire winters are severe and residents who lose heat due to equipment failure or fire can face life-threatening cold exposure. The Red Cross operates warming center coordination and emergency shelter activation during major winter events.

Blood collection runs at donor centers across the state — Dartmouth Health and Catholic Medical Center are the primary hospital consumers. Blood donation appointments are available within days. If you were displaced by a fire or storm in New Hampshire and need immediate help, call 1-800-RED-CROSS.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire chapter provides mental health education, support groups, and advocacy statewide. New Hampshire has faced a mental health crisis at the intersection of opioid addiction recovery, rural isolation, and insufficient treatment capacity — the state has been in ongoing litigation about mental health emergency department boarding, where patients in psychiatric crisis wait days or weeks in emergency rooms because no inpatient psychiatric bed is available. NAMI NH advocates at the state legislature on these issues while providing direct support programs.

NAMI's free programs include Family to Family (education for families of people with mental health conditions), Peer to Peer (recovery education for adults with serious mental illness), and a crisis support line. New Hampshire's rural geography means many residents live hours from mental health treatment, and NAMI NH's outreach to rural communities — North Country, Monadnock, Carroll County — addresses populations that professional mental health services often don't reach. Volunteer peer support specialists are integral to NAMI's programs.

The Salvation Army operates in Manchester, Laconia, and other New Hampshire communities with emergency food, rent and utility assistance, overnight shelter, and after-school programs. Manchester's Salvation Army runs one of the most active emergency assistance programs in the state — the city is New Hampshire's largest and has the state's most concentrated poverty. Laconia's corps serves the Lakes Region, where seasonal tourism employment creates income volatility for many families.

Red Kettle campaign runs November through Christmas. Thrift stores accept goods year-round. Emergency assistance is available at local corps — call before visiting to confirm program availability.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Hampshire matches children with adult mentors across the state. New Hampshire's child food insecurity rate of 14.4% — and the reality that SNAP underenrollment leaves many eligible families without support — means children face economic pressures that show up in school performance, mental health, and development. BBBS's one-to-one mentoring provides consistency that helps children navigate those pressures. New Hampshire's small size means the chapter covers the full state, with concentrations in Manchester, Nashua, Concord, and Laconia where child poverty is highest.

Community-based mentoring requires meeting 2–4 times per month for at least a year. School-based mentoring runs weekly. New Hampshire's outdoor culture means mentoring activities often include hiking, skiing, canoeing, and other activities that are part of daily NH life — giving urban and suburban children access to experiences available throughout the Granite State.