Media release: 24 September 2024

More volunteers are casual, giving a few hours a month to their chosen charity, a new State of Volunteering report has found.

“This new trend overturns the idea of the ‘civic core’ of a few people doing the most voluntary work. We’re now hearing that a quarter of volunteers in organisations perform up to five hours of volunteer work a month, while only 7% do 20 hours or more,” says Michelle Kitney, Chief Executive of Volunteering New Zealand.

The research, The State of Volunteering in Aotearoa New Zealand 2024, highlights changes and challenges for community organisations who involve volunteers.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic, and the cost-of-living situation have affected volunteering. Many organisations have struggled to recruit new volunteers, while there has also been an increase in online-only organisations.

Organisations say their biggest challenges are not enough volunteers, and not enough time or resources to support their volunteers. There are also important regional differences, for example, smaller rural areas (such as Gisborne-Tairawhiti and Southland) had fewer volunteers who had been volunteering for less than a year; while Northland, Southland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki, had many more volunteers of over 15 years’ duration.

“Organisations are adapting to the changing landscape of volunteering. They need to be prepared to change their practices to enable volunteer participation in the face of ongoing challenges, Michelle says.

“All volunteer-involving organisations should value volunteers. We encourage them to tap into resources, such as our Best Practice Guidelines, to ensure volunteers have a great experience.”

The State of Volunteering 2024 report is published on the Volunteering New Zealand website.