SUMMARY

1. Volunteerism is a major driver of sustainable development, yet it remains underrecognized

Persistent evidence gaps limit our understanding of the impacts of volunteering on individuals and communities, particularly in a world facing multiple crises.

• Volunteering affects individual health, well-being, skills and employability in complex ways.
• Mixed methods and disaggregated data are key to understanding how volunteering advances health, education, and economic development without reinforcing existing inequalities.
• During crises, volunteers play cross-cutting roles that evolve over time. Inclusive and context-appropriate measurement can provide recognition of how volunteers strengthen solidarity, trust, and social cohesion, while highlighting challenges that need to be addressed.

2. Volunteers are working at an unprecedented scale worldwide

Enhanced methodological tools and updated baseline data capture diverse volunteer efforts, revealing that:

• 2.1 billion people, i.e. 34.5% of the global working-age population, volunteer monthly.
• Informal volunteering (25.0%) is more than double the rate of formal, organization-based volunteering (11.7%). This suggests that community-led networks are the main contributors to social cohesion and local resilience.
• Africa reports the highest rates of volunteer engagement globally, also underscoring the importance of equitable measurement and inclusion of evidence from all regions.

3. The Global Index of Volunteer Engagement (GIVE)

Data gaps persist and numbers alone do not tell the whole story of the impact of volunteering. There is a need for a holistic and accountable evidence base which also shows the limits of measurement.

• The 2026 SWVR introduces the GIVE as a framework for systematically measuring the scope, significance, and impact of volunteerism. This practical and adaptable tool identifies consistent ways to assess volunteering across varied contexts.
• The GIVE assesses volunteering across four dimensions: individual value, societal value, economic value and an environment that promotes volunteerism.

4. Strategic roadmap: Integrating measurement for impact 

Generating robust evidence is a collective responsibility and requires engagement of governments, civil society, private sector, communities and volunteers. Key recommendations to advance volunteer measurement: 

• Why: Clarify the purpose and limits of volunteer measurement, ensuring findings support learning and accountability.
  • What: Define and consider different forms of volunteering, across projects and crises.
  • How: Combine measurement approaches; volunteer numbers show scale, qualitative insights add depth and meaning.
  • Who: Make volunteer measurement inclusive at every stage, from design to dissemination, so its results are trusted and more widely used.
  • When: Plan and implement measurement from the outset, maintaining consistency to capture long-term impacts of volunteering beyond project timelines.
  • Where: Design and conduct measurement in context-specific ways, playing particular attention to missing evidence from the Global South.