Why measuring voluntering matters?

Risks around the world are escalating and volunteers are on the frontlines of change. From responding to climate emergencies and disasters to tackling deep-seated inequalities, their role in creating social cohesion and accelerating development has never been more essential. And yet, this vital work often remains invisible. Without reliable and comprehensive evidence on the roles, scale and value of volunteering, our understanding of policy remains fragmented and investment decisions remain ill-informed. Consistent and disaggregated data about volunteering is therefore urgently needed – not just to provide evidence of impact, but to enable policymakers to design more effective, inclusive responses and to fully integrate volunteering as a measurable component of national development. This Report builds on more than a decade of research conducted for the State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR). This research has progressively expanded the global understanding of volunteerism – from its role in promoting social inclusion and strengthening resilience  to shaping transformative governance and advancing equality and inclusion.

The Report explores new approaches to capturing volunteer contributions, paying particular attention to informal types of volunteering and the opportunities presented by digital technologies. It also includes voices which are often absent from measurement discussions, particularly those emerging from the growing body of volunteering research and measurement approaches in the Global South. 

This chapter introduces the purpose of the Report: to present diverse, practical and inclusive approaches to measuring volunteering. Volunteer measurement is no longer restricted to academic institutions and governments in the Global North. Today, governments, organizations, civil society and researchers in both the Global North and the Global South are at the forefront of creating innovative ways of measuring the value of volunteering. Volunteers are now not only seen as the subjects of evaluation but are recognized as co-creators of how their work is understood and valued. As a result, there is an increasing understanding that by combining different measurement strategies, more meaningful insights into volunteer contributions can be produced. Measurement tools and approaches that are sensitive to context are important not only to governments, businesses and volunteer organizations, but also to communities and volunteers themselves – those making a difference on a daily basis, regardless of whether their contributions are reflected in existing frameworks. Ultimately, this Report argues that measurement is the tool that transforms these daily acts of solidarity into actionable evidence – evidence that can unlock investment, shape policy and empower volunteers themselves. The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2026 as the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. 5 This Report therefore comes at a critical juncture, directly answering the global call for evidence-based investment in volunteering. Its insights not only celebrate the vast contributions volunteers make on a daily basis but also strive to improve the ways their impact can be measured.