Common Challenges in Managing Global Corporate Volunteering Events
The following contribution comes from the Goodera website, which describes itself as follows: At Goodera, we create extraordinary experiences focused on simplicity, engagement, and impactful results. Our commitment is to ensure that our volunteers, customers, and nonprofit partners receive the best possible experience.
Abhishek Humbad. Founder and CEO
Abhishek has dedicated more than a decade to building companies with social and environmental impact. Goodera aspires to be the Airbnb of corporate volunteering, integrating volunteering experiences into all workplaces. Recognized twice on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and the MIT Innovators Under 35 list, Abhishek is a leading figure in India’s startup ecosystem for building a global business with Indian roots.
Author: Kumar Siddhant, a member of the team.
Corporate volunteering has become a strategic priority for organizations seeking to strengthen employee engagement, boost their ESG commitments, and generate measurable community impact. However, designing a successful volunteer program for a single office is very different from managing it across multiple countries, cultures, and time zones.
As organizations expand globally, the complexity of volunteer management increases just as rapidly.
Each region has its own ecosystem of nonprofits, cultural expectations, labor regulations, and employee preferences. An event that attracts hundreds of volunteers in one country may generate little interest in others, not because employees are less engaged, but because the activity, communication style, or timing doesn’t fit the local context.
At the same time, expectations surrounding corporate volunteering are changing. Employees are increasingly seeking meaningful opportunities that reflect their skills, values, and communities, rather than generic events. Companies also face increasing pressure to demonstrate quantifiable social impact, making participation figures alone an insufficient indicator of success.
Goodera’s 2026 Volunteer Quotient (VQ) Report, based on data from more than 3,000 companies worldwide, revealed that while employee volunteering continues to grow, the depth of engagement has remained relatively stable. More employees are volunteering for the first time, but fewer are doing so consistently throughout the year. The challenge for global programs is no longer attracting participants, but creating experiences that remain relevant, repeatable, and meaningful across different regions.
This guide explores the most common challenges organizations face when managing global corporate volunteering events, along with practical strategies for overcoming them. Whether your company is coordinating its first Global Day of Service or expanding an established volunteer program into new markets, these best practices will help you create scalable experiences without sacrificing local relevance.
Why do global corporate volunteer programs become more complex as they grow?
Growth introduces complexity into virtually every aspect of a volunteer program. More offices mean more nonprofit partners to manage, more regulations to understand, more languages to communicate in, and a wider range of employee expectations.
What works well at headquarters often fails when implemented globally. Communication campaigns require localization rather than simple translation. Event formats that are successful in one region may seem strange or impractical in another. Even consistently measuring participation becomes difficult when each office tracks volunteer hours differently.
Organizations that are internationally successful recognize that consistency doesn’t mean uniformity.
Instead of standardizing every volunteer activity, they standardize their objectives, governance, and measurement, while giving regional teams the flexibility to deliver experiences tailored to local communities.
Challenge 1: Balancing Global Consistency with Local Relevance
One of the first challenges companies face is deciding how much of a volunteer program should be standardized across all offices.
A single template for global events is appealing because it simplifies planning, branding, budgeting, and reporting. However, what makes administration easier often reduces employee engagement.
- Develop localized strategies instead of a global template.
Employees participate in volunteer activities within the context of their local communities, not the company headquarters.
A beach cleanup day might resonate with employees in Sydney or San Diego, but not be feasible for offices in landlocked regions. Similarly, an after-hours volunteer event might work well in countries where flexible schedules are common, but attract little participation in regions where commuting or family obligations make evening events impractical.
Goodera’s VQ 2026 Report recommends avoiding identical event formats across North America, Europe, and Asia, as regional engagement patterns differ significantly. Employees respond more positively when volunteering reflects the needs of their local communities rather than a centrally designed template.
- Build a global framework instead of global events
The most successful multinational programs distinguish between what should be constant and what should be flexible.
Maintain consistency in:
Program objectives
Cause priorities
Volunteer reporting standards
Brand guidelines
Measurement framework
Allow for regional flexibility in:
Nonprofit partners
Volunteer activities
Event schedule
Group sizes
Communication style
Cultural celebrations
For example, a global sustainability campaign could support environmental conservation around the world, allowing teams in Brazil to restore forests, employees in Singapore to clean urban waterways, and offices in Germany to participate in biodiversity projects. The objective remains the same, but the execution reflects local priorities.
- Actions for program leaders
Before launching a global campaign, identify which elements are non-negotiable and which regional teams can adapt independently. Standardize the program’s purpose, not all volunteer activities.
Challenge 2: Language and cultural barriers reduce participation.
Language is only one part of localization. Cultural expectations often have an even greater influence on employees’ decisions to participate.
Many international volunteer campaigns fail because communications created for one audience are translated instead of adapted for another.
- Translation is not synonymous with localization.
Straight translations often preserve the original wording but lose the original meaning.
Volunteer recruitment messages focused on individual achievement may have a greater impact in some cultures, while others respond better to community impact or team participation. Similarly, images, examples, and calls to action that feel natural in one country may seem strange or irrelevant in another.
Localization should go beyond language and include:
Local examples and success stories
Regional nonprofits
Holidays and cultural celebrations
Appropriate visuals
Tone and style of communication
- Empowering Regional Teams
Local employees know their communities better than headquarters.
Creating regional networks of volunteer ambassadors allows local leaders to recommend nonprofit partners, advise on communication styles, and identify activities that employees genuinely want to support.
This approach also strengthens trust, as employees recognize that volunteering is tailored to local needs rather than imposed globally.
- Offer Multiple Ways to Participate
Each employee prefers different volunteering experiences.
Instead of relying exclusively on a single event format, organizations should offer a combination of:
In-person volunteering
Virtual volunteering
Skills-based volunteering
Micro-volunteering
Self-paced opportunities
Offering multiple participation options makes programs more accessible to employees in different countries, with varying work schedules, and with different preferences.
Actions for Program Leaders
Instead of asking regional offices to translate materials from headquarters, involve them from the outset in campaign planning and give them responsibility for local communications and event organization.
Challenge 3: Coordination Across Different Time Zones and Work Schedules
Planning becomes exponentially more difficult as volunteer programs expand internationally.
A single global launch event might seem like a simple way to unite employees, but a single time slot inevitably favors some regions and excludes others.
World Volunteer Days should not involve simultaneous events.
Often, organizations try to organize a World Volunteer Day with synchronized participation.
In practice, this creates unnecessary obstacles.
An event scheduled during working hours in London could take place late at night in Sydney and before dawn in San Francisco. Employees who work in customer-facing or frontline roles might also be unable to participate, regardless of time zone, as their schedules do not align with fixed volunteer time slots.
Replace single-day events with targeted campaigns
Instead of organizing a single event, establish a global campaign lasting one or two weeks.
Within this shared timeframe, regional teams can:
Schedule activities during local business hours.
Select nonprofits that meet community needs.
Adapt events to local holidays and economic cycles.
Offer asynchronous volunteer opportunities where appropriate.
Employees participate in a global initiative, avoiding scheduling conflicts that reduce participation.
This approach also creates more opportunities for sharing experiences, allowing regional offices to share photos, volunteer experiences, and impact throughout the campaign, rather than concentrating all activity on a single day.
Recommendations for program managers: Measure success by total campaign participation, rather than attendance at a single global event. Giving regional teams flexibility in scheduling often increases participation without sacrificing global alignment.
Challenge 4: Finding Trusted Nonprofits in Every Market
The quality of a volunteer experience often depends on the nonprofit offering it. While many companies maintain strong relationships with nonprofits near their headquarters, replicating that network across dozens of countries is considerably more difficult.
Without trusted local partners, even the best-planned volunteer campaigns can suffer from inconsistent experiences, operational delays, or limited employee engagement.
Why does finding nonprofits become more difficult at scale?
Each country has its own nonprofit landscape, regulatory requirements, and due diligence expectations. Some markets have thousands of registered nonprofits with established volunteer programs, while others have fewer organizations with limited capacity to host large corporate groups.
This creates several challenges:
Verifying the legitimacy and compliance of nonprofits.
Assessing an organization’s capacity to host volunteers.
Coordinate logistics across multiple time zones.
Ensure consistent volunteer experiences across all regions.
As programs expand, asking individual offices to independently identify, evaluate, and manage nonprofit relationships often results in inconsistent quality and duplicated efforts.
Strengthen long-term partnerships instead of one-off events.
Instead of seeking out new nonprofits for each campaign, establish long-term regional partnerships that can support multiple volunteer initiatives throughout the year.
Strong nonprofit partnerships offer several advantages:
Better understanding of employee skills and interests.
Improved event planning and logistics.
Greater confidence in impact reports.
More opportunities for recurring volunteer engagement.
Organizations operating in multiple countries often benefit from working with volunteer platforms or partners that already have networks of verified nonprofits, reducing administrative costs and improving consistency.
Actions for Program Leaders:
Develop a standardized nonprofit evaluation framework that assesses legal compliance, volunteer preparedness, safety procedures, and reporting capabilities. Whether you seek partners internally or through an external platform, applying consistent selection criteria improves both the volunteer experience and program quality.
Challenge 5: Standardize Impact Measurement Across Regions
Measuring global volunteering seems simple until each office starts reporting data differently.
One region counts sign-ups.
Another reports attendance.
A third records volunteer hours.
At the end of the year, management receives multiple reports that are incomparable because each office measured success differently.
Standardize Metrics Before Standardizing Events
Many organizations focus first on creating consistent volunteer experiences. In reality, consistent measurement is far more important.
Before launching a global program, precisely define how each region should measure:
Employee Sign-ups
Participation Rate
Volunteer Hours
Recurring Participation
Skills-Based Volunteer Hours
Nonprofit Feedback
Employee Satisfaction
Community Impact
Creating shared definitions prevents reporting inconsistencies that become increasingly difficult to correct as programs grow.
Beyond Participation Numbers
Participation rates remain one of the most frequently reported volunteer metrics because they are easy to collect. However, participation alone says very little about program quality.
A more comprehensive measurement framework combines three perspectives:
Participation
How many employees volunteered?
Which regions participated?
Which departments were represented?
Engagement
How many volunteers returned?
How many hours did employees dedicate?
How satisfied were the participants?
Impact
What results did partner nonprofits report?
What employee skills were developed?
Did the volunteering contribute to overall employee engagement or retention goals?
Organizations that measure all three dimensions gain a much clearer understanding of the program’s long-term success.
Actions for Program Leaders: Create a centralized reporting framework before launching your next global campaign. There should be regional flexibility in event execution, not in how success is measured.
Challenge 6: Sustaining Employee Engagement Beyond One-Day Events
Many volunteer programs generate excitement during major campaigns but struggle to maintain momentum afterward.
Employees volunteer once, enjoy the experience, and then disappear until the following year.
Goodera’s VQ 2026 Report highlights this challenge: participation is increasing, but recurring participation isn’t growing at the same rate.
Why recurring participation is more important than initial sign-ups: A high participation rate at an event can create the illusion of a strong volunteer culture.
The most reliable indicator is whether employees continue to volunteer throughout the year.
A Benevity study on the State of Corporate Purpose has shown a gradual decline in the average number of volunteer hours per participant in recent years, suggesting that organizations should focus as much on volunteer retention as on recruitment.
Employees who participate regularly tend to:
Strengthen relationships with partner nonprofits.
Develop new professional skills.
Become advocates for volunteering within their teams.
Encourage your colleagues to participate.
Create an ongoing volunteer calendar.
Instead of concentrating activity around a single annual World Day of Service, spread opportunities throughout the year.
For example:
Quarterly team volunteering events.
Monthly virtual volunteering opportunities.
Skills-based consulting projects.
Employee-led volunteering initiatives.
Seasonal campaigns aligned with global celebrations.
Offering multiple opportunities to participate allows employees to volunteer when their schedules allow, rather than waiting for a single annual event.
Actions for program leaders: Track recurring participation alongside first-time participation. If volunteer retention declines year after year, review employee feedback before simply increasing the number of events.
Challenge 7: Manage employee compliance, risk, and safety.
Global volunteering programs operate in diverse legal and regulatory environments. What is considered standard practice in one country may require additional approvals or safeguards in another.
Ignoring these differences can expose organizations to unnecessary legal and operational risks.
Integrate risk management into program design. Risk planning should begin before employees register for an event. Depending on the location, organizations may need to consider:
Volunteer liability waivers
Insurance coverage
Emergency response procedures
Child protection requirements
Background checks
Transportation safety
Health and accessibility considerations. International programs should also take into account local labor laws governing volunteer participation during working hours.
Create global standards with regional adaptation. Instead of asking each office to develop separate risk procedures, establish a global governance framework that defines minimum safety expectations, allowing regional legal teams to adapt the requirements to local regulations.
This approach improves consistency without ignoring country-specific compliance obligations.
Actions for Program Leaders
Annually review volunteer policies with the HR, legal, and risk management teams to ensure they remain aligned with evolving regulations across all operating regions.
Challenge 8: Managing Technology Across Multiple Countries
Many global volunteer programs begin with spreadsheets, email invitations, and local sign-up forms.
While this approach may work for some offices, it quickly becomes difficult to manage as programs expand internationally.
Fragmented Systems Lead to Fragmented Experiences
Without a centralized platform, organizations often struggle to:
Consistently track sign-ups.
Accurately measure volunteer hours.
Generate global reports.
Share volunteer opportunities across regions.
Recognize volunteers fairly.
Employees also experience inconsistent sign-up processes depending on their workplace.
Centralize administration without limiting local flexibility. Technology should simplify program management rather than standardize all volunteer experiences. An effective global volunteering platform should allow organizations to:
Maintain a single source of truth for reporting.
Support multiple languages.
Enable the creation of regional events.
Continuously track participation.
Integrate with HR systems where appropriate.
Automatically generate dashboards for management.
Regional teams can continue designing local experiences, while headquarters gains a consistent view of participation and impact across the organization.
Recommendations for Program Managers
Before expanding into new countries, assess whether your current technology can support multilingual communications, regional event management, and centralized reporting. Investing in scalable infrastructure from the outset often prevents significant administrative challenges later on.
How to Measure the Success of Global Corporate Volunteering Programs
The success of a global corporate volunteering program cannot be measured solely by participation. While sign-ups and volunteer hours provide a useful overview of the activity, they reveal very little about whether employees found the experience meaningful or whether partner nonprofits benefited from the participation.
The most robust measurement frameworks combine participation, experience, and impact into a single reporting model.
Measure Both Participation and Engagement
Participation metrics show how many employees joined a volunteer activity. Engagement metrics reveal whether they found enough value to return.
Goodera’s 2026 Volunteer Quotient (VQ) Report revealed that while participation continues to increase globally, recurring engagement has not kept pace. Similarly, Benevity’s State of Corporate Purpose report indicates that employees contributing fewer than five volunteer hours per year now represent the majority of corporate volunteers, reinforcing the importance of measuring volunteer retention alongside participation.
Track metrics such as:
Overall employee participation rate.
Recurring volunteer rate.
Volunteer hours per participant.
Skills-based volunteer hours.
Geographic participation across all offices.
Leadership participation.
Organizations that consistently monitor recurring participation are often better positioned to identify regions where volunteer experiences need improvement before participation begins to decline.
Measure the experience of employees and nonprofits.
The numbers tell the story.
The comments explain why.
Post-event surveys help organizations understand whether employees found the volunteer experience meaningful, well-organized, and worth repeating.
Ask employees:
Did you find the activity meaningful?
Would you volunteer again?
Was it easy to sign up?
Did the activity align with your interests and skills? Gathering feedback from partner nonprofits is equally important.
Ask nonprofits if:
Volunteers came prepared.
The activities addressed real community needs.
Communication was effective.
They would like to host future events.
Strong relationships with nonprofits are often one of the best indicators of a program’s long-term sustainability.
Connecting Volunteering to Business Results
The most advanced volunteer programs extend measurement beyond event participation. Whenever possible, organizations should explore the relationship between volunteering and broader workforce metrics, such as:
Employee engagement.
Internal mobility.
Leadership development.
Participation in learning and development programs.
Employee retention.
Employer brand perception.
Volunteering leads to improvements in professional skills.
A Deloitte study revealed that 92% of business leaders believe that volunteering improves employees’ professional skills, which explains why volunteering is increasingly seen as part of talent development, rather than simply a CSR initiative.
Best practices for managing global corporate volunteering events. Successful global volunteering programs rarely rely on a single event. They are based on replicable systems that allow regional teams to deliver meaningful experiences while maintaining global visibility.
The following practices consistently improve participation, execution, and reporting:
Standardize governance and reporting instead of focusing on individual events.
Establish long-term relationships with trusted nonprofit partners.
Empower regional teams with local implementation responsibility.
Offer diverse volunteer formats, including virtual and skills-based opportunities.
Maintain a year-round volunteer calendar rather than relying on a single flagship event.
Train volunteer ambassadors to promote participation in local offices.
Recognize volunteers consistently across all regions.
Review participation and feedback after each campaign and adjust future events as needed.
Checklist for Implementing Global Corporate Volunteering: Expanding into new countries is much easier when organizations follow a consistent planning framework.
- Before Launch
Define overall goals and success metrics.
Identify regional program managers.
Evaluate nonprofit partners.
Review legal and compliance requirements.
Prepare localized communications.
Set up reporting systems.
- During the Campaign
Monitor registrations and attendance.
Support regional event coordinators.
Capture employee stories and photos.
Quickly resolve operational issues.
Consistently track participation across all regions.
- After the Campaign
Gather employee feedback.
Survey partner nonprofits.
Recognize volunteers.
Publish impact reports.
Analyze participation trends and plan improvements for future campaigns. Risks to Avoid When Expanding a Global Volunteer Program
As organizations expand internationally, two common mistakes are repeated:
- Expanding faster than the infrastructure
Adding multiple countries before establishing partnerships with nonprofits, reporting systems, and a regional accountability structure often leads to inconsistent volunteer experiences and unreliable impact data.
Instead of launching the program in all countries at once, expand in phases and refine processes before entering new markets.
- Over-centralizing decision-making
The opposite problem occurs when headquarters controls every aspect of the volunteer experience.
Requiring identical activities, communications, and timelines across all countries reduces regional accountability and often decreases engagement.
Maintain centralized governance, while allowing local teams the flexibility to adapt implementation.
- Ignoring Volunteer Feedback
Employees often give early warning signs when a volunteer program is becoming repetitive or difficult to access.
Review survey responses after each campaign and consider declining satisfaction scores as key indicators, rather than waiting for participation to drop.
- Measuring Activity Instead of Impact
A high number of participants can mask underlying problems.
Programs should evaluate recurring participation, outcomes for nonprofits, employee experience, and business impact, in addition to volunteer hours.
Organizations that focus solely on attendance often miss opportunities to strengthen long-term commitment.
Conclusion
Global corporate volunteering is entering a new phase.
As distributed work teams become the norm and organizations place greater emphasis on employee engagement, skills development, and measurable social impact, volunteer programs must evolve beyond annual service days.
The most successful organizations will view global volunteering as an ongoing capability, not a one-off event. They will combine consistent governance with local flexibility, invest in partnerships with trusted nonprofits, measure outcomes beyond participation, and continuously adapt based on feedback from employees and the community.
Companies that establish these foundations today will be better prepared to create volunteer experiences that extend across different countries, maintaining their relevance to the people and communities they serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the biggest challenges in managing global corporate volunteering events?
The most common challenges include balancing global consistency with local relevance, finding nonprofit partners in different countries, coordinating time zones, consistently measuring impact, meeting regulatory requirements, and maintaining employee engagement beyond one-off events.
How do multinational companies coordinate volunteering across multiple countries?
Most multinational organizations establish global governance for reporting, branding, and objectives, while empowering regional teams to select nonprofit partners, schedule events, and tailor activities to local communities.
Should all offices participate in the same volunteering activity?
Not necessarily. Maintaining consistent program objectives is more effective than requiring identical events. Regional flexibility often leads to greater participation and a more significant community impact.
How can companies increase employee participation in global volunteer programs?
Organizations can improve participation by offering diverse volunteering formats, granting time off for volunteering, supporting regional volunteer ambassadors, engaging senior management, and maintaining a year-round volunteer calendar.
What metrics should companies measure in global volunteer programs?
In addition to volunteer hours and participation rates, companies should measure recurring participation, employee satisfaction, feedback from nonprofits, leadership involvement, skills-based volunteering, and long-term business outcomes such as engagement and retention.
How do companies find nonprofit partners across multiple countries?
Organizations typically establish regional partnerships with nonprofits, collaborate with local community organizations, or partner with global volunteering platforms that maintain networks of verified nonprofits in multiple markets.
What role does technology play in managing global volunteer programs?
Technology centralizes event management, volunteer registration, reporting, communication, and impact measurement, while enabling regional teams to manage local events more efficiently.
How often should companies organize corporate volunteering events?
Instead of relying on a single annual volunteer day, many organizations maintain annual calendars that include monthly, quarterly, and seasonal opportunities to encourage ongoing participation.
How can companies measure the business impact of corporate volunteering?
Organizations typically evaluate changes in employee engagement, leadership development, retention, employer branding, and professional skills development, in addition to traditional volunteering metrics.
Why is local flexibility important in global volunteer programs?
Employees are more likely to participate when volunteer opportunities reflect local community needs, cultural expectations, partnerships with nonprofits, and work schedules. Local flexibility improves both participation and long-term program sustainability, while maintaining alignment with global objectives.
The volunteer shortage is a talent management problem.
The following contribution comes from the Association for Talent Development (ATD), which defines itself as follows: Celebrating our 80th anniversary, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) is a professional organization that supports those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees worldwide. Our members and clients are professionals who help others reach their full potential by enhancing their knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the workplace. They are known by various titles: talent development managers, trainers, instructional designers, performance consultants, frontline managers, workplace learning professionals, and more.
ATD members come from over 100 countries and work in organizations of all sizes and sectors. Interested in learning more about membership? You can also join a local chapter or find out about international membership.
This article is by Matt Miszewski, CEO of Catchafire, who was born and raised in a family of labor activists. Social justice and the empowerment of marginalized communities have been central to Matt’s personal and professional life. A civil rights lawyer by training, Matt continued his career in government, working to strengthen the deficient infrastructure of local communities. Since then, he has combined his commitment to improving social inequalities with deploying technology solutions for social good at companies such as Microsoft, Salesforce, and Socrata. Matt brings years of experience building groundbreaking and innovative technology sales programs and global go-to-market strategies that transformed the status quo. He has also built exceptional teams and leaders who have achieved substantial results together. Matt’s previous experience includes developing and leading public sector businesses for both Microsoft and Salesforce, building the global revenue organization for Digital Realty, and leading the revenue function at Socrata as a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), where he helped governments use data more strategically in designing their programs, mission, and open government initiatives.
Even before the pandemic, nonprofits and other organizations in the United States have struggled to recruit and retain volunteers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps survey, volunteer participation stood at 23.2%, a 7% drop between 2019 and 2021—the largest decline since the survey began in 2002. Whether due to financial hardship stemming from job insecurity or a lack of time, more and more people are choosing not to donate their most valuable resource: time.
Even before the pandemic, nonprofits and other organizations in the United States have struggled to recruit and retain volunteers. According to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, volunteer participation stood at 23.2%, a 7% drop between 2019 and 2021—the largest decline recorded since the survey began in 2002. Whether due to financial hardship stemming from job insecurity or a lack of time, more and more people are choosing not to donate their most valuable resource: time.
Furthermore, because nonprofits typically manage multiple priorities, projects, and responsibilities, their leaders find it difficult to find the time to address volunteer recruitment and retention issues. However, if they don’t tackle this urgent problem, they risk losing the volunteer talent needed to continue fulfilling their goals and missions.
Content: Addressing this shortage will require innovative thinking and a new approach to attracting quality volunteers. Essentially, nonprofits must adopt talent management techniques traditionally used by private companies to recruit and retain staff in order to survive the national shortage. Effective talent management policies not only enable companies to attract and retain top talent, but also help that talent reach its full potential and incentivize long-term commitment. This approach can also help nonprofits attract and retain volunteers. The question then becomes: How do nonprofits adopt talent management, and what are the best tips? Here are four talent management techniques to implement:
Addressing this shortage will require innovative thinking and a new approach to attracting quality volunteers.
Essentially, nonprofits must adopt talent management techniques traditionally used by private companies to recruit and retain staff in order to survive the national shortage. Effective talent management policies not only enable companies to hire and retain top talent, but also help that talent reach its full potential and incentivize long-term commitment. This approach can help nonprofits recruit and retain their volunteers.
The question then becomes: How can nonprofits adopt talent management, and what are the best tips?
Here are four talent management techniques to implement:
Focus on the Volunteer Experience
Content: A fundamental principle in talent management is the emphasis on the employee experience, which encompasses talent touchpoints and their experiences with the organization, from initial contact during recruitment through onboarding, promotions, and departure. Similarly, nonprofits must also focus on the volunteer experience. Since potential volunteers often face financial and time constraints, nonprofits must create an experience that motivates them to contribute. They should focus, for example, on the onboarding process and how to make volunteers feel welcome and valued. What about the organization’s work culture? Is it inclusive of new volunteers? How can it be improved by considering the volunteer experience? By emphasizing the volunteer experience, just as leading organizations emphasize the employee experience, nonprofits can create the necessary environment and volunteer culture to attract volunteers to their mission and, at the same time, encourage them to stay with the organization or return.
A fundamental principle in talent management is the emphasis on the employee experience, which encompasses talent touchpoints and their experiences with the organization, from the initial contact during recruitment through onboarding, promotions, and departure. Similarly, nonprofits must also focus on the volunteer experience. Since potential volunteers often face financial and time constraints, these organizations must create an experience that motivates them to contribute. They should focus, for example, on the onboarding process and how to make volunteers feel welcome and valued. What about the organization’s work culture? Is it inclusive for new volunteers?
How can this be improved by considering the volunteer experience? By emphasizing the volunteer experience, just as leading organizations highlight the employee experience, nonprofits can create the necessary environment and volunteer culture to attract volunteers to their mission and, at the same time, encourage them to stay with the organization or return.
Valuing Volunteers as Talent Resources
To combat volunteer shortages, nonprofits must shift their perspective and consider volunteers as valuable talent resources, rather than simply temporary “helpers.” Volunteers can be encouraged to return to or remain with the nonprofit organization by offering them work that aligns with their career goals and helping them enhance their skills. Volunteer perspectives can also be incorporated into senior management decisions, communicating the importance of their contribution to the organization. Nonprofits can provide opportunities for skills development and professional growth within the organization, creating a mutually beneficial relationship that fosters long-term volunteer engagement. Recognizing the unique skills, experiences, and perspectives that volunteers bring will instill a greater sense of purpose and commitment, leading to higher levels of participation, engagement, and overall satisfaction with their volunteer experience.
To combat the volunteer shortage, nonprofits must shift their perspective and view volunteers as valuable talent resources rather than simply temporary “helpers.” Volunteers can be incentivized to return to or remain with the nonprofit by offering work that aligns with their career goals and supporting their skills development. Volunteer perspectives can also be incorporated into senior management decisions, communicating the importance of their contribution to the organization. Nonprofits can provide opportunities for skills development and professional growth within the organization, creating a mutually beneficial relationship that fosters long-term volunteer engagement. Recognizing the unique skills, experiences, and perspectives that volunteers bring will instill a greater sense of purpose and commitment, leading to higher levels of participation, involvement, and overall satisfaction with their volunteer work.
Promoting Recognition and Rewards
While volunteering is often perceived as thankless (albeit altruistic) work, it shouldn’t be. Another principle of talent management is to reward outstanding or high-contributing volunteers with benefits, financial incentives, awards, or other forms of recognition. While nonprofits often lack the budgets of large corporations, they shouldn’t overlook the intention behind these activities. Recognizing volunteers’ dedication and impact can foster a sense of worth and satisfaction, leading to greater volunteer retention and attracting new individuals seeking to make a positive impact in their communities. By embracing the principles of recognition and rewards, nonprofits can cultivate a culture of appreciation and inspire volunteers to continue their valuable contributions. Recognizing exemplary volunteer work doesn’t have to be expensive. An exceptional volunteer can receive a simple award, such as being named volunteer of the week, accompanied by a small celebration. Or a high-performing volunteer team can be invited to a potluck lunch. There are many ways to reward and recognize volunteers, and it’s important to do so.
While volunteering is often perceived as thankless (albeit altruistic) work, it shouldn’t be. Another principle of talent management is to reward outstanding or high-contributing volunteers with benefits, financial incentives, awards, or other forms of recognition. Although nonprofits often lack the budgets of large corporations, they shouldn’t overlook the intention behind these activities. Recognizing volunteers’ dedication and impact can foster a sense of worth and satisfaction, leading to greater volunteer retention and attracting new individuals seeking to make a meaningful difference in their communities. By embracing the principles of recognition and reward, nonprofits can cultivate a culture of appreciation and inspire volunteers to continue their valuable contributions. Recognizing exemplary volunteer work doesn’t have to be expensive. An exceptional volunteer can receive a simple award, such as being named volunteer of the week, accompanied by a small celebration. Or a high-performing volunteer team can be treated to a potluck lunch. There are many ways to reward and recognize volunteers, and it’s important to do so.
Leveraging Partnerships Between Nonprofits and the Private Sector
Collaborating with private sector companies can be crucial for increasing the number of volunteers. Nonprofits can form partnerships to leverage the resources, expertise, and networks of corporations, expanding their reach and attracting more volunteers. In turn, private sector companies can offer their employees volunteer opportunities during work hours or provide incentives to encourage participation with their nonprofit partners. These partnerships address volunteer shortages, enhance corporate social responsibility initiatives, and strengthen ties with the community.
Collaborating with private sector companies can be crucial for increasing the number of volunteers. Nonprofit organizations can form partnerships to leverage the resources, expertise, and networks of corporations, expanding their reach and attracting more volunteers. In turn, private sector companies can offer their employees volunteer opportunities during work hours or provide incentives to encourage participation with their nonprofit partners. These partnerships address the volunteer shortage, enhance corporate social responsibility initiatives, and strengthen ties with the community.
The nationwide volunteer shortage demands a new approach. Adopting a talent management perspective is key to finding a solution. By valuing volunteers as valuable resources, employing talent management techniques, and forming partnerships with the private sector, nonprofits can address the pressing issue of volunteer shortages. Recognizing the importance of volunteer engagement and retention is fundamental to building a sustainable volunteer base that contributes to the continued success of nonprofits in their vital work. Let’s take advantage of these practical ideas and work together to recognize and value volunteers, creating a society enriched by the generosity of its people.
The volunteer shortage being experienced across the country demands a new approach.
Adopting a talent management perspective is key to finding a solution. By valuing volunteers as valuable resources, employing talent management techniques, and forging partnerships with the private sector, nonprofits can address the pressing problem of the volunteer shortage. Recognizing the importance of volunteer engagement and retention is fundamental to building a sustainable volunteer base that contributes to the continued success of nonprofits in their vital work. Let’s take advantage of these valuable ideas and work together to recognize and value volunteers, creating a society enriched by the generosity of its people.
Corporate Volunteering Doesn’t Work: Science-Backed Strategies That Do
The following contribution comes from the BPI portal, which defines itself as follows: Best Practice Institute is an award-winning leadership development center, think tank, product development incubator, solutions provider, peer network, research institute, and online learning portal with more than 10,000 corporate and individual members worldwide.
It is authored by Louis Carter, CEO and founder of Best Practice Institute, a social and organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author of more than 11 books on leadership and management, including his most recent book, published by McGraw Hill: “In Great Company: How to Spark Peak Performance by Creating an Emotionally Connected Workplace.” He has lectured worldwide in the United States, the Middle East, and Asia on his work and research in organizational and leadership development, and is an executive coach and advisor to CEOs and senior managers of mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. He was named one of the world’s leading gurus of organizational culture by Global Gurus and was selected from among 14,000 coaches to be included in the MG100 (Marshall Goldsmith) as one of the top 100 coaches in the world.
What is corporate volunteering?
Why don’t corporate volunteering programs perform at their best?
What commonly goes wrong with corporate volunteering programs?
- Programs are designed for convenience, not results.
- Measurement focuses on hours rather than impact.
- Mandatory participation reduces commitment.
- Partner preparation is often ignored. 5. Learning is unstructured and undocumented.
What does research reveal about why volunteering works or fails?
Skills-based volunteering requires structure.
Hybrid and virtual volunteering can work, with discipline.
The capacity of nonprofits limits outcomes.
Autonomy fosters long-term commitment.
Short-term goals undermine long-term impact.
Evidence-based strategies that improve volunteer outcomes.
What do high-impact programs do differently?
Design principles for high-impact corporate volunteering: Start with results.
Assign responsibilities and accountability.
Incorporate reflection and competency mapping.
Evaluate and support partners. Capacity: Measure to learn, then iterate.
Frequently asked questions about corporate volunteering.
Conclusions.
What is corporate volunteering? Corporate volunteering is a company-sponsored program that allows employees to contribute their time or skills to nonprofit or community organizations, often during paid work hours.
Its expected outcomes include:
Community impact
Employee skills development
Employer brand credibility
Leadership and capacity building
Most programs fail when they prioritize visibility over results.
Key takeaway: Most corporate volunteering programs fail not because of bad intentions, but because of poor design: misaligned tasks, inadequate measurement, and an overemphasis on image rather than results.
Why do corporate volunteering programs fall short of expectations?
Corporate volunteering expanded rapidly after the pandemic, but research shows that scale outpaced design quality.
Executives often expect volunteering to:
Strengthen the employer brand
Develop leadership skills
Improve engagement and retention
In practice, many programs have a low impact because they treat volunteering as a marketing activity rather than a structured learning system.
What commonly goes wrong with corporate volunteering programs?
- Programs are designed for convenience, not results
Many organizations select volunteer activities based on availability or ease, rather than community needs or learning opportunities.
This results in:
Low-value outcomes for partner nonprofits
Unclear scope and expectations
Loss of partner trust
Volunteer coordinator reports consistently show that misaligned tasks waste time and reduce impact.
- Measurement focuses on hours rather than impact
Tracking volunteer hours measures activity, not value.
Research shows that hour-based metrics:
Mask the low quality of participation
Hinder conversations about return on investment with financial decision-makers
Fail to capture learning or community outcomes
Outcome-based measurement is needed to link volunteering to business value.
- Mandatory participation reduces commitment
Behavioral and longitudinal studies show that mandatory volunteering decreases motivation and future participation.
Forced programs:
Undermine intrinsic motivation
Damage program credibility
Reduce long-term commitment
Autonomy and choice are essential design principles.
- Partner readiness is often ignored
Many partner nonprofits lack the capacity to effectively integrate corporate volunteers.
Common problems include:
Insufficient oversight
Limited systems or infrastructure
Misaligned expectations
When readiness is ignored, short-term activity leads to long-term harm.
- Learning is unstructured and undocumented
Volunteer assignments without reflection or mentorship produce minimal development of transferable skills.
Research shows that learning requires:
Structured reflection
Feedback loops
Connection to competency frameworks
Without scaffolding, volunteering fails to develop talent.
Key finding: Corporate volunteering often prioritizes convenience and image, resulting in misaligned tasks, low value for partners, and an over-reliance on superficial metrics.
What does research reveal about why volunteering works or fails?
Skills-based volunteering requires structure. A 2025 research synthesis shows that skills-based volunteering outperforms hands-on service only when programs include:
Clear Scope
Training
Feedback
Skills alone don’t generate value without structure.
Hybrid and virtual volunteering can work, with discipline.
Recent research on hybrid models shows positive results only when programs include:
Defined deliverables
Project management support
Digital checkpoints
Convenience doesn’t replace rigor in design.
The capacity of nonprofits limits results.
Volunteer management surveys consistently show that partner nonprofits struggle with:
Supervisory capacity
Alignment
Volunteer coordination
Partner readiness assessments are a prerequisite, not an optional step.
Autonomy fosters long-term commitment.
Decades of behavioral research confirm this:
Autonomy increases learning and retention.
Coercion reduces motivation and credibility.
Volunteering must remain voluntary to be successful.
Short-term initiatives undermine long-term impact.
National reports on volunteering show a decline in engagement in programs that prioritize one-off initiatives.
To achieve sustained impact, the following are required:
Training
Supervision
Recognition
Ongoing relationships
Main conclusion: Volunteering generates value only when programs include structure, support, and partner preparation.
Evidence-based strategies that improve volunteering outcomes
What makes high-impact programs different?
- Align skills with partners’ real needs
Skills alignment transforms volunteer time into value for the community and capacity building for employees.
- Require structured reflection
Guided briefings, mentor feedback, and skills mapping transform the activity into a learning experience.
- Co-design projects with partners
Preparation checklists and shared scope definition reduce the risk of failure and protect communities.
- Treat hybrid volunteering like real work
Digital projects need milestones, quality control, and accountability.
- Measure the results that matter
Track:
Skills applied
Project deliverables
Partner feedback
Internal talent mobility
These metrics enable informed conversations about return on investment (ROI).
Key takeaway: The most effective programs align skills with partner needs, integrate reflection, and measure results, not hours.
Design principles for high-impact corporate volunteering
Start with results
Define success for both:
The community partner
Employee learning
Clarity in outcomes prevents superficial activities.
Assign responsibility and accountability
Projects succeed when volunteers:
Are accountable for deliverables
Receive mentorship
Are responsible for outcomes
Accountability drives deeper learning and creates value for the partner.
Incorporate reflection and skills mapping
Reflection facilitates skills transfer and retention.
Programs should require:
Written reflection
Discussion with the manager
Skills documentation
Assess and support partner capacity
Programs work best when partners have:
Basic supervisory capacity
Clear project needs
If capacity is insufficient, organizations should invest or seek alternatives.
Measure to learn, then iterate
High-performing programs use simple dashboards that combine:
Project completion
Partner satisfaction
Skills outcomes
Data-driven iteration prevents repeating mistakes.
Key finding: Clarity of outcomes, skills alignment, partner readiness, and measurement systems form the foundation for high-impact volunteering.
Frequently Asked Questions about Corporate Volunteering
Why aren’t volunteer hours enough?
Hours measure activity, not value. Research recommends tracking outcomes, such as partner achievements and employee skills development.
Should volunteering be mandatory?
No. Studies show that mandatory programs reduce motivation and long-term commitment.
When should programs be scaled up?
Only after pilot programs demonstrate partner suitability, learning outcomes, and internal capacity.
Why is a PR-centric approach risky?
Employees quickly recognize superficial efforts. Credibility comes from content, not promotion.
What’s the best way to get started?
Conduct a three-month pilot program with a partner, with a clear scope, defined skills, and opportunities for reflection and feedback from the partner.
What causes most programs to fail?
Focusing on image, counting hours, ignoring partner preparation, and omitting reflection.
Main takeaway: A structured three-month pilot program with a partner, a clear scope, defined skills, and opportunities for reflection and feedback from the partner is the most reliable way to achieve sustainable impact.
Conclusion: Corporate volunteering fails when it’s treated as marketing.
It succeeds when it’s designed as a learning system with outcomes, structure, and accountability.
Organizations that apply evidence-based design create:
Real value for the community
Measurable employee capacity building
Credible impact on employer branding
Volunteer recruitment remains a challenge, according to a survey showing no signs of improvement
The following article is from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and was written by team member Helen Breese.
More than half of all volunteer organizations are still struggling to recruit volunteers, according to a major industry survey that reveals the situation has not improved in the last 12 months.
Six out of ten organizations are still struggling to recruit volunteers.
The report, “Current Struggles, Origins of the Past: Today’s Volunteering Challenges Amid Two Decades of Decline,” produced by the Nottingham Trent University Voluntary, Business and Social Sector Data and Insights (VCSE) National Observatory and Pro Bono Economics (PBE), is part of a quarterly barometer assessing the state of the volunteering sector. More than 560 organizations responded to the latest edition.
When the survey last focused on volunteering in spring 2023, charities expressed concern about declining volunteer numbers. While the latest barometer does not show a significant drop, six out of ten organizations are still struggling to recruit volunteers, and nearly half (47%) have not seen an increase in volunteer numbers in the past twelve months.
Lack of time (59%) and lack of interest (50%) were cited as the main barriers to recruitment.
Furthermore, little improvement has been observed among organizations that do not have enough volunteers to meet their targets: four out of ten remain in this situation, and 82% of them are finding it difficult to recruit volunteers.
The results also indicate that organizations are less likely to invest in recruitment methods that require time, money, and skills, with a decline in in-person recruitment events and social media activity. Eighty-four percent primarily use word-of-mouth to recruit volunteers.
Daniel King, Professor Daniel King, National Voluntary, Cultural and Business Sector Data and Insights Observatory (VCSE)
Organizations continue to struggle to retain volunteers, with little change since 2023 and one in three reporting difficulties. Nearly 70% stated that volunteers’ family and caregiving responsibilities were a significant barrier to retention, with work responsibilities and reduced work flexibility also having an impact.
Almost twice as many (42%, compared to 23%) indicated that the commitment was too great for their volunteers, and 42% noted that the time volunteers dedicated had increased over the past year, a slight increase from the previous spring (35%).
Some of the charities that responded to the survey reported that they are modifying their methods to try to improve volunteer recruitment:
“We have a part-time volunteer coordinator, which has simplified volunteer recruitment and retention, as well as scheduling. She has introduced incentives and social activities to keep morale high. She has also collaborated with the local study center to recruit young people from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Programme, which has slightly shifted the age profile. Some of these young people have stayed on after completing their internships.”
“Our pool of older and more experienced volunteers has decreased since COVID-19, which means we currently lack the capacity to train new ones. We have piloted some training days and workshops to try to expedite the onboarding of new volunteers, allowing them to come and use our facilities to practice or complete part of the training individually. We have also created a training pack for new volunteers, which contains practical activities they can do at home while they wait for a more experienced volunteer to become available to mentor them.”
Professor Daniel King, Director of the National Voluntary, Community and Social Sector Data and Insights Observatory at NTU’s Nottingham Business School, said: “The results of this wave are very similar to those of last spring, demonstrating that voluntary organizations face some recurring challenges.
“The situation is difficult, and while some organizations are adapting and achieving some success, others are experiencing strain as they try to balance the needs of the organization with those of volunteers.”
Volunteer Week highlights the positive impact that volunteering has on individuals and organizations, but the persistent challenges highlighted in our report require the sector to rethink volunteer engagement.
For more information, visit the Voluntary, Community and Social Sector (VCSE) Data and Insights Observatory website.
The World’s Largest Workforce: Nobody Counts
The following contribution comes from the UN Volunteers website and is authored by Toily Kurbanov, Executive Coordinator of UNV.
United Nations Volunteers (UNV) is headquartered on the UN campus in Bonn.
The World’s Largest Workforce: Nobody Counts
From any reasonable perspective, volunteering is one of the largest, yet least understood, systems underpinning global stability. The State of the World’s Volunteering Report, recently published by United Nations Volunteers (UNV), indicates that approximately 2.1 billion people—around one-third of the world’s working-age population—participate in some form of volunteering throughout the year. Therefore, volunteering is not a fringe pastime of the middle class, but a massive civic activity. This includes not only the well-known UN or NGO volunteer, but also the neighbor organizing food distribution, the young person coordinating mutual aid, the women maintaining informal support networks in communities rarely reached by the state, and the corporate volunteer working online to share knowledge with a remote community.
In effect, countries and their governments already preside over a de facto national “volunteer corps,” without a specific budget allocation for it. Citizens actively participate in the co-production of public goods—healthcare, educational support, disaster response, and social assistance—without appearing in official records. Increasingly, national institutions are willing to recognize and collaborate with this effort, rather than considering it invisible and incidental. In 2025, 23 countries recognized the positive impact of volunteers on the Sustainable Development Goals in their voluntary national reviews of the 2030 Agenda at the United Nations.
However, despite its magnitude and importance, comparable, high-quality data on volunteering remains scarce. National data are often sporadic, definitions vary widely, and informal volunteering is systematically underestimated.
In the absence of verifiable evidence, governments extol the “spirit of volunteering” while relying on incomplete surveys or intuition to understand it.
Measuring volunteering is not merely a technical note; it is a policy gap that needs to be addressed.
Designing effective strategies for social protection, crisis response, or social cohesion without a deep understanding of the actual patterns of citizen contribution implies mismanagement of one of a country’s most important assets.
In this context, several findings from the State of the World’s Volunteering report stand out for their immediate applicability.
First, informal volunteering—everyday mutual aid, peer support, and community self-help—outnumbers formal, organization-based volunteering by roughly two to one globally. Thus, most volunteer work takes place outside of registered organizations and official programs. When communities self-organize to respond to floods before official services arrive, when diaspora networks mobilize medicines during crises, or when neighbors create their own care systems where formal services are lacking, they are performing volunteer work that strengthens national resilience.
For governments in developing countries, this means that informal networks are already reliably and cost-effectively providing large-scale health services, educational support, and disaster response. In developed economies, this same pattern reveals untapped potential in community solidarity, as many observed during the global pandemic.
The next step is clear: integrate informal volunteering into national development strategies and statistical systems.
Provide targeted support—micro-grants, digital coordination tools, and opportunities for recognition and training—without imposing excessive bureaucracy that could stifle spontaneity. Align workforce surveys with the standards of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme to record volunteer contributions more reliably.
The report also proposes the Global Voluntary Participation Index (GIVE): a standardized, multidimensional framework designed to measure volunteering more comprehensively and across countries.
By capturing the value of volunteering for individuals, societies, and economies, as well as the enabling environment for volunteering, GIVE offers a way to strengthen evidence and inform policies and investment in volunteering globally.
Taken together, these findings point to one conclusion: unless governments measure, develop, and strategically support volunteerism, they will be mismanaging one of their countries’ most important assets.
These insights come at a crucial time. The United Nations General Assembly has designated 2026 as the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. Many governments, civil society organizations, and private sector actors are commemorating this year by improving the enabling environment for volunteer work and investing in tools that allow societies to measure and value it. Meanwhile, UN Volunteers is helping to share knowledge and innovations across borders so that lessons learned from communities and countries around the world can inform global standards.
The alternative—leaving 2.1 billion contributors undervalued and invisible—means overlooking one of the most powerful accelerators for peace and development available today.
It’s Time to Be More Competitive in Volunteer Recruitment
The following contribution comes from the ESAE portal, which defines itself as follows: ESAE fosters the professionalization of association management through knowledge sharing and peer collaboration.
As part of our community, association professionals learn from each other, gain in-depth industry knowledge, overcome common challenges, and develop the skills needed to create effective strategies for success.
Author: Alexandra Henry
In this article published by our partners at Boardroom Magazine, Alexandra Henry, manager of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) at the European Society of Cardiology, explores the evolving landscape of volunteer recruitment in associations. Drawing on her research for the Solvay School of Economics, she highlights the motivations and challenges faced by young volunteers in associations, offering insights and strategies for effective volunteer management.
Associations rely on volunteers for vision, strategy, and content creation. Previously, volunteers enthusiastically offered their time and effort, sometimes even more than expected. However, this trend is changing, and organizations now face challenges in recruiting and retaining volunteers.
To address this, organizations must invest in effective volunteer recruitment and management tactics. Research is crucial for understanding volunteers, their motivations, and challenges, especially with the new generation of young volunteers, who differ significantly from their predecessors.
This is a crucial time for organizations to develop recruitment strategies that emphasize transparency, inclusion, diversity, equity, and other values important to the next generation of volunteers.
This article is based on personal experience and research conducted for the Solvay Business School of Economics (Executive Master in International Partnership Management) entitled: “Using User Profiles to Create a Value Proposition for Volunteer Management in Associations,” which can be accessed here. The research focused on the motivations and challenges of young volunteers in medical associations, using a marketing model to develop user profiles. The opinions expressed in this article and document are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the ESC.
Why is volunteer recruitment important?
Van Puyvelde et al. wrote in 2016: “Maintaining active member participation in the management of their association is another important challenge for associations. […] The recruitment of leaders is often personalistic and informal, based on friendships and weak ties (friends of friends), which can foster oligarchy and elitism.”
Associations struggle to recruit volunteers effectively, ensure diversity and representation on their boards and volunteer teams, and, more specifically, to recruit young volunteers.
Traditional approaches to volunteer management often fail to adequately address the specific challenges faced by volunteer leaders. Generic recruitment strategies don’t take into account individual motivations or the challenges young volunteers might face in their roles. Understanding the unique needs and motivations of young volunteers is crucial.
What do volunteers want?
Out with the “old folks club” (but not out with the old folks: turning to the younger generation doesn’t mean turning our backs on older generations, though that’s a whole other issue)! We need to be perceived as open, inclusive, fair, and transparent. Here are some things that will help.
Vision, Mission, and Values
Research shows that the younger generation carefully chooses where they volunteer their time. Their first considerations will be the association’s vision, mission, and values. Showcase your association’s impact in a way that your volunteers can relate to. Let’s be realistic: they won’t read your annual report, and even if they do, they may not be impressed by the numbers on increased membership, growing conference attendance, and so on. But they will be more interested in reading about the impact your activities have on your community (for example, how your conference participants gain tangible benefits that impact their professional practice and directly affect their patients).
Professional associations must promote and disseminate their values, but, even more importantly, demonstrate how they put them into practice. It’s not enough to state that gender balance or geographic diversity are important to your organization (especially if your board composition demonstrates otherwise): you need to show how you will achieve it. It’s time to update your bylaws and election regulations, and to deliver on these commitments.
The International Association of Public Transport (UITP), recently awarded the European Association’s DEI Award, published its “UITP Gender Equality Policy” in 2021 and implemented a series of initiatives and actions to maximize stakeholder engagement. This is yielding concrete results today: the UITP Executive Board is now one-third female, the Board of Directors is gender-balanced, and the number of women participating as speakers on UITP panels has doubled. Notably, the UITP now has its first female president in its 140-year history.
Inclusion and ethics are crucial values for new generations.
Demonstrate your commitment to these values by ensuring equal opportunities for all volunteers and combating discrimination. Maintaining high ethical standards and transparency in operations is essential. Take proactive steps: establish an Ethics Committee, publish and actively promote your Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics, and engage your stakeholders. Be transparent about how complaints are submitted and handled within your Association.
The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, for example, promotes integrity, transparency, independence, and social responsibility as core values. Chapter 8 of its Regulations explains the role and responsibilities of the Appeals and Complaints Committee, as well as the procedure for submitting complaints.
Traditional approaches to volunteer management often fail to adequately address the specific challenges faced by volunteer leaders. Generic engagement strategies do not take into account individual motivations or the difficulties volunteers may encounter in their role.
Transparent and fair recruitment process
Make it easy for volunteers to understand how they can contribute to your organization. Provide details and transparency about the selection process, and offer feedback to volunteers, even if they are not selected. Be sure to provide clear terms of reference, precise responsibilities and expectations for the role, as well as an idea of the time commitment required each week and the amount of travel involved. Show them that there are different ways to get involved so they can find the one that best suits their needs.
Support Systems, Training, and Recognition
To encourage their participation, show them how you will support them throughout their experience. Explain your onboarding process, what kind of support they will receive from permanent staff, whether you offer technical assistance, training, etc.
Finally, implement strategies to recognize the contributions of volunteers. Highlighting testimonials on your website, newsletter, social media, and at your annual conference is an effective way to showcase volunteers and demonstrate the benefits of active participation. For example, the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology publishes testimonials annually during its congress, celebrating the impact of volunteers and engaging members in the lead-up to its 20th anniversary. This approach not only honors volunteers but also inspires others to get involved.
Go a step further: develop your user profiles.
If your organization wants to understand its volunteers, their motivations, and their challenges, it should invest in market research. One particularly useful model is the development of Personas.
The Persona creation process involves collecting data through interviews, surveys, and/or observations. This data is analyzed to identify trends and groupings, which form the basis of the Personas. Each Persona includes a name, demographics, goals, problems, and behavioral traits. By understanding the specific needs and preferences of different Personas, organizations can create a personalized value proposition that includes messages and solutions targeted to each segment, resulting in increased engagement and satisfaction.
The diverse roles and motivations of volunteer leaders in professional associations make the use of People particularly relevant. A People-based approach to volunteer management can be invaluable for associations to become more competitive in recruiting and retaining volunteers, creating a more inclusive and supportive work environment that caters to a wide range of people.
This is a very exciting time for associations: the next generation of young volunteers is within our reach. By fully integrating them, we will open our associations to a new range of possibilities.
The Decline of Volunteering: Understanding the Change, Taking Action
The following contribution comes from the Volunteer Bureau of Montreal, which defines itself as follows: “Promoting social participation is one of the most beautiful missions there is. By fostering solidarity, empowering organizations, and building a caring community, we amplify the power of volunteer action and increase its impact every day.”
Author: Team
A recent study by Statistics Canada, analyzed by Henri Ouellette-Vézina in La Presse on June 24, 2025, presents a worrying picture. Between 2018 and 2023, volunteering experienced a significant decline across the country, both in participation rates and total hours dedicated. Behind this trend, we observe a transformation in how people get involved and structural barriers that must be acknowledged.
In Montreal, as elsewhere, the volunteer landscape is changing. And to continue mobilizing citizens, we must first understand what is really happening.
The study reveals that:
The overall volunteer rate fell from 79% to 73%;
Total volunteer hours decreased by 18%, from 5 billion to 4.1 billion;
Formal volunteering (within organizations) was particularly affected, with participation dropping from 41% to 32% and hours dedicated falling by 28%.
Young adults (ages 25-34) and women were the most affected.
Even informal volunteering (neighborhood assistance, spontaneous participation) is declining, especially in collective initiatives.
While this data is national, it reflects what we observe at the Montreal Volunteer Bureau (VBM). In our opinion, this is not a sign of widespread disinterest; these figures point to changes in expectations, availability, and the conditions for participation.
More detailed provincial data will be published soon. Meanwhile, here are our reflections and observations.
Three Key Groups in Transition
The decline in volunteering among women should be carefully analyzed. It may reflect a societal burden that leads them to withdraw, but also a shift toward more intentional, balanced, and less gender-biased forms of participation.
Among young adults, many face job insecurity, increasing family responsibilities, rising housing costs, and the need to align with their values. They seek flexible, short-term jobs with a tangible impact, something not always available in the current landscape.
Among older adults, despite seemingly stable statistics, a certain decline has been observed since the pandemic. Whether due to health issues, a desire to reorient their lifestyles, family responsibilities such as caring for children or grandchildren, or a return to paid work to make ends meet, many traditional pillars of the community sector are no longer present in the same way as before.
Significant Blind Spots
Like any statistical report, this one doesn’t reflect the whole picture. Some problems are less visible but crucial. For example, many newcomers to the country want to participate but face significant obstacles: credential recognition, language barriers, immigration status, lack of awareness of community norms, and social isolation.
The same applies to people with disabilities or anyone experiencing exclusion, whether social, physical, cultural, linguistic, economic, or related to systemic discrimination (racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.).
If we want to build a truly inclusive environment, these realities must be addressed in our proposed solutions.
What We Observe in Practice
At VBM, we observe that volunteering today is often short-term or episodic, driven by a need for personal connection and a desire to make a meaningful contribution.
As a result, a volunteer position that was once held by a single person for years can now be divided into two or three smaller roles, which are filled successively. This creates constant pressure on organizations, which find themselves caught in a continuous cycle of recruitment, training, and onboarding.
The challenge, therefore, is twofold: to respond to this new reality while simultaneously maintaining the capacity of organizations to welcome, structure, and support these constantly evolving forms of participation.
This shift is occurring at a time when community needs are increasing in the areas of mental health, food security, social support, and combating isolation, while organizational resources are stagnating or dwindling.
Basic funding is insufficient, funders are becoming increasingly demanding, and volunteer management positions are often precarious, with overburdened teams.
Organizations are increasingly seeking specialized volunteers, and boards of directors are becoming more professional. These positions involve specific expectations and are often more difficult to fill.
This imbalance weakens our social safety net, making mobilization even more urgent and complex.
Evolving Needs and Motivations
“The social fabric is far from gone. People still want to participate, but their needs are more specific and their expectations different.”
Geneviève Fecteau, Executive Director of VBM, in La Presse, June 24, 2025
Today’s volunteers are no longer simply looking to “donate their time.” They seek meaningful experiences aligned with their values, experiences that allow them to learn, connect, and grow. Their participation is often more flexible, modular, or exploratory. It becomes a personal journey that must adapt to their availability, abilities, and aspirations.
This change is not a step backward, but an evolution that we must support with agility, empathy, and creativity.
Levers for Action
Instead of trying to reboot the system as it was, we believe the volunteer ecosystem needs to be reinvented. Here are some strategies:
Adapt practices, review recruitment models, simplify volunteer tasks, offer modular roles, and recognize daily contributions;
Reach out to people traditionally excluded from volunteering and adopt inclusive approaches;
Value all forms of participation, even if the top 10% of volunteers account for 61% of total hours; every contribution counts. Foster a sense of belonging and demonstrate tangible impact;
Reignite collective commitment by supporting local civic initiatives, intergenerational community projects, and multiplying opportunities for informal mutual support in neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, or shared spaces;
Improve youth volunteer programs to make them more accessible, attractive, and aligned with the values and realities of young people;
Supporting innovation, particularly through corporate volunteering, where employers and companies encourage their employees’ social participation, is a highly effective structuring solution, especially when participation is recognized, valued, and supported through flexible work schedules.
These tools are not mutually exclusive; it is their intelligent combination, adapted to each context and community, that will allow us to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and attractive future for volunteering.
Collective Solutions
An entire ecosystem is already underway: the network of volunteer centers, their federation, community coalitions, and non-profit organizations. Many have already implemented effective strategies.
From our perspective, volunteering should never be viewed competitively. It is based on values of solidarity, shared responsibility, and social justice. What we observe is a rich ecosystem of organizations, each in its own way striving to meet community needs and connect with citizens wherever they may be.
At CABM, we firmly believe that collaboration, coordination, and complementarity are the key to building a more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable volunteering landscape.
In our view, the growing number of recruitment channels doesn’t weaken participation; rather, it offers more entry points for those wishing to begin their volunteering journey. Instead of opposing different approaches, we seek to foster dialogue, share knowledge, and strengthen the network of committed stakeholders in our sector.
A very significant editorial decision: La Presse published your article in the “Cost of Living” section—a revealing choice. Inflation, economic instability, and financial pressure are increasingly impacting people’s ability to volunteer, even when they want to.
Volunteering is not a luxury. It is a vital resource for our social cohesion, a key factor in individual and collective well-being, and an engine of transformation. It is time we fully recognize this and create the conditions for it to thrive.
Corporate Volunteering Is Booming: Why It Matters Now
The following contribution comes from the Forbes website and is authored by Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen and author of Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World (Wiley: 2024). Global Citizen is a global advocacy and education movement focused on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. I serve as Director of Policy, Impact, and Government Relations. I oversee international advocacy campaigns that support universal sanitation, climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, access to education, food security, gender equality, and disease prevention and elimination. Since 2009, our advocacy work has resulted in the distribution of over US$48 billion to support anti-poverty efforts. We estimate that this has helped fund over one billion life-transforming interventions.
Volunteers from the Legg Mason company participate in a local community garden project as part of a growing movement that uses workplace volunteering to foster connection, purpose, and social impact.
Corporate volunteering is booming. As trust in institutions declines and loneliness becomes a public health issue, more companies are offering something surprisingly powerful: structured ways for their employees to do good together.
New trends are being discussed in boardrooms and at HR summits. At the recent Global Volunteer Summit in Palo Alto, Abhishek Humbad, founder and CEO of Goodera, a platform he describes as the “Airbnb of corporate volunteering,” addressed a packed audience of HR leaders and employee engagement officers. Behind him, a slide showed astonishing growth: In 2023, 183,745 employees volunteered at 4,137 events organized by Goodera. By 2024, these numbers had nearly doubled: 352,892 volunteers across 7,263 programs.
Corporate volunteering is becoming more mainstream.
Goodera isn’t alone. Other platforms are seeing similar increases. Benevity, which helps companies engage their employees in causes through donations, volunteering, and activism, experienced more than 50% year-over-year growth in participation between 2021 and 2023. At Cisco, a Bay Area-based company, 80% of employees participated in actions supporting causes they care about in 2024. What was once the domain of a few purpose-driven companies is now becoming more mainstream.
What’s behind this boom?
“I think the world is yearning for connection and purpose,” Humbad says. The data supports this belief. According to a survey of 6,000 Americans by the nonprofit organization More in Common US, 74% of Americans say they want to collaborate with others on a common goal that improves their community.
The Social Roots of Corporate Volunteering
This desire points to an even deeper explanation. Corporate volunteering can offer a counterweight to the disillusionment, anxiety, loneliness, and apathy that characterize much of modern life.
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The recent documentary “Join or Die” has reignited interest in the work of political scientist Robert Putnam, whose book “Bowling Alone” examines the decline in club membership and civic engagement in the United States, and the resulting rise in social fragmentation. As participation in civic life decreased, trust and social cohesion also eroded.
However, our desire for connection hasn’t disappeared. What has disappeared are the access points—clubs, congregations, and neighborhood associations—that once fostered a sense of belonging.
Life today is very different from what it was when civic engagement was at its peak several decades ago. People are busier. Childcare is expensive. Family time is filled with commitments. Work is demanding. Screens compete for attention. As a result, of those who responded affirmatively in the U.S. “More in Common” survey about their desire to collaborate with others toward a common goal that improves their community, only 17% actually did so last year.
Against this backdrop, the rising demand for corporate volunteering opportunities is a modern response to both this desire for connection and, more broadly, to our social challenges. A 2024 Harvard study reinforces this point: 75% of 1,500 respondents agreed that “finding ways to help others”—even through the workplace—could be a solution to the loneliness crisis and could help explain the popularity of structured volunteer programs.
However, despite more and more employees expressing a desire for connection, many, including small and medium-sized businesses, are unsure how to respond to this need.
As Humbad said in his address at the World Volunteer Summit:
“People want to do good, but often they don’t know where to start.”
Corporate Volunteering in Action: The Case of Community Gardens
Goodera is one of the platforms working to bridge this gap, making it easier for people to act on their desire to help. It offers thousands of corporate volunteering opportunities in cities around the world, both virtual and in-person, for individuals and teams. The causes range from education and health to sustainability and local resilience.
One example that is gaining popularity? Community gardens.
Across the United States, organizations like Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) invite both community members and corporate teams to actively participate and transform urban spaces into places of renewal and connection.
These efforts are undeniably beneficial for the environment and public health. In cities dominated by asphalt, gardens help freshen the air, foster biodiversity, and restore soil health. Even a small plot in a densely populated urban area can make a difference, including for those who volunteer.
As Linda Appel Lipsius, executive director of DUG, recently told me, “Volunteer efforts in community gardens promote mental health, social connection, and physical well-being.”
A military veteran who had struggled with depression found purpose as a garden leader with DUG. “Leading a garden gave him a purpose and pulled him out of that darkness. Gardens fulfill a basic human need: to feel useful,” Linda explained.
Doug Wooley, a longtime volunteer with DUG in the western Denver area, echoed that impact:
“Why gardens? Because they make me feel good. Because they nourish the soul. They are spaces of healing and connection.”
Doug draws a telling parallel:
“Religion used to be that nexus of community: people would gather to eat, pray, and connect. As more people move away from that practice, we’ve lost those meeting points. Gardens can fill that void. There’s no single ‘right’ way to garden, just different approaches. That openness makes it easier to connect with people from different cultures.”
He shared the story of a spring workday that coincided with Ramadan. A volunteer who was fasting sparked a profound conversation about inclusive planning, from rethinking physically demanding tasks to supporting each other across cultures.
“It deepened our empathy,” Doug says. “And strengthened our sense of community.”
These stories reflect what research shows about how volunteering can foster both connection and, quite literally, healing. It’s well-documented that acts of service trigger the release of dopamine, which improves mood and overall life satisfaction. On the other hand, a Carnegie Mellon study with over 1,000 participants found that older adults who regularly participated in volunteer activities had lower blood pressure. Other research has linked volunteering to greater longevity. However, the latest World Happiness Report reveals that witnessing the good deeds of others, and not just participating oneself as a volunteer, increases happiness and social trust.
As Humbad states:
“When people volunteer, barriers are broken down. Communities are strengthened. And a chain reaction of positive impact is set in motion. It’s not linear, but exponential.”
In a world where many feel disconnected from institutions, from each other, and even from a sense of purpose, corporate volunteering offers a practical, people-centered response. For companies willing to embrace this moment, whether through community garden projects or other volunteer opportunities, the opportunity is clear: help people do good together, and that good will extend outward to the workplace, the community, and beyond.