written by Meg Martin, GM
Every so often, someone says it.
"People just don't volunteer like they used to."
Usually it comes up when an organisation has advertised the same role three times, nobody has applied, and the board is starting to wonder where all the volunteers have gone.
I understand the frustration. Volunteer recruitment is harder in plenty of places than it once was. Roles that might once have attracted a steady stream of interest can now sit empty. Long-serving volunteers are getting tired. Some organisations are relying on the same handful of people to keep everything moving.
But, I'm not convinced that people have stopped wanting to help.
I think they've stopped wanting to help in the same way as they did in days of yore....back when phones were attached to the walls.
For a long time, a lot of community organisations were built around a particular kind of volunteering. You joined a committee. You turned up every Tuesday. You took responsibility for the sausage sizzle for the next seven years. You become the secretary because nobody else put their hand up, and somehow you were still secretary when three board chairs had come and gone.
There are still people who volunteer like that, thankfully. But increasingly, the people I speak to are asking very different questions.
How often will they need me?
Can I do this around work / school / sports / family?
Is it every week?
Can I help with just this one event?
Is there something I could do from home?
What exactly am I signing up for?
These aren't signs that people are less generous. They're sensible questions. Life looks different now.
People are juggling jobs, kids, ageing parents, study, health, bills, and all the invisible life-admin stuff that seems to come with being an adult. Many people work irregular hours. Others are doing several casual jobs instead of one with more predictable hours. Some would genuinely love to volunteer, but can't promise that they'll be available at 10am every Wednesday for the next three years.
And, that matters!
If our volunteer roles still assume that everyone has the time, flexibility, and certainty that volunteers may have had 20 or 30 years ago, we're going to keep wondering why no-one is applying. And sometimes, the problem really is the role.
I've seen volunteer opportunities that effectively read like unpaid employment. You know the ones. The person needs to be available several hours a week, attend meetings, complete training, answer emails, take responsibility for other volunteers, commit long-term, and ideally have previous experience. And then we wonder why no one has put their hand up.
There's nothing wrong with needing a capable, committed volunteer. Some roles genuinely require that. But we have to be realistic about what we're asking.
If a role carries substantial responsibility, limited flexibility, and a serious time commitment, the number of people who can realistically take it on is going to be a lot smaller. That isn't a moral failing on the part of the community. It's simply maths.
We also see people wanting to volunteer in shorter bursts.
They might spend a Saturday planting trees. Help at an event. Join a working bee. Offer professional skills for a specific project. Volunteer during a school holiday or between jobs.
Sometimes organisations dismiss that kind of involvement because what they really need is somebody every week. I understand that, too! One-off volunteering doesn't magically solve a roster problem. But writing those people off can be a mistake. Someone who gives you 3 hours today may give you another 3 hours next month. They may tell a friend. They may eventually join your board or committee.
Or, they may not. That still doesn't make those 3 hours worthless.
We need to get better at allowing people to contribute what they can, without treating every interaction as an audition for lifelong service.
There's another piece to this that we probably don't talk about enough.... People. Have. Options.
Volunteering has to fit into a life that already contains a lot of competing demands. If the first interaction with an organisation involves an unanswered email, a six-page application form, vague expectations, three weeks of silence, and no clear idea what happens next? Plenty of people will simply move on.
Not because they lack commitment. Because the experience has told them something.
The organisations doing well in the area of volunteer engagement tend to make it easy for people to understand what they are being asked to do. They respond. They explain things. They offer some flexibility where they can. They introduce people properly. They notice when someone turns up.
None of that is a revolutionary idea. It is, however, surprisingly easy to overlook when an organisation is stretched and everybody involved is already doing too much.
Which brings me to the uncomfortable part...
Sometimes when we say, "Nobody wants to volunteer anymore", what we really mean is:
"Nobody wants to volunteer in the exact way our organisations needs them to."
Those are not the same thing.
The challenge for community organisations now is not simply finding more people. It's looking at the work honestly and asking what genuinely needs to be done, what can be shared, what can be shortened, what could happen occasionally rather than weekly, what could be done remotely, and what might not need doing at all.
Some roles can't be redesigned. A sports coach needs to be there when the team trains. A driver needs to show up when transport is required. A trustee can't govern an organisation in 15-minute bursts. But there's lots of other things that are more flexible than we first assume.
It might mean giving up some old habits. It might mean designing a 2-hour project instead of advertising for another committee member.
It might mean letting two people share a role that one person used to do, or accepting a volunteer who can help for 6 months instead of 6 years.
And yes, sometimes it still means putting out the call and hoping someone wonderful walks through the door. Volunteer recruitment has always contained a bit of that.
People have not stopped caring about their communities. We see that every day.
They still turn up after emergencies. They help neighbours. They coach teams. They sit on boards. They deliver meals. They restore wetlands. They fundraise, mentor, organise, advocate, drive, plant, bake, build, and quietly do thousands of things most people never see.
But the shape of volunteering IS changing.
Our job is to not spend the next 20 years wishing it would change back. It's to notice what's happening, listen to what people are telling us, and build volunteering opportunities that actually fit the lives people are living now.