State of Volunteering in Aotearoa New Zealand 2024

Published in September 2024, the State of Volunteering report marks the sixth edition in Volunteering New Zealand’s ongoing series.

Read the full SOV report

SOV Key findings at a glance

  • The state of volunteering is fairly positive, though the recent Covid-19 pandemic, and the emerging cost-of-living situation, cast a long shadow over some aspects of volunteering.
  • Volunteers are re-evaluating their priorities and expect volunteering to be values-driven.
  • Most volunteers enjoy their volunteering work and are treated fairly and respectfully, although there are some disparities across age and ethnic groups.
  • Key motivations for volunteering include a desire to give back to the community, to make friends or form social connections, to learn new skills, and for mental health and wellbeing.
  • Key barriers to volunteering include being time poor and needing to prioritise paid employment, health and safety concerns, onerous training requirements, and lack of reimbursement and recognition.
  • Regional variations in volunteering statistics persist, with different turnover rates and challenges experienced across the regions.
Read SOV Key findings 

State of Volunteering in Aotearoa New Zealand 2022

The 2022 State of Volunteering report published in December 2022 is the fifth in Volunteering New Zealand’s series.

These flagship reports provide an overview of the state of volunteering in Aotearoa New Zealand and recommendations for improvement.

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State of Volunteering Regional Report 2023

Volunteering in Aotearoa New Zealand remains strong, yet the volunteering experience can differ across regions. This report provides a finer-grained account of how volunteering practices and challenges differ across regions.

It focuses on key parameters in volunteering, including turnover rates, attitudes to the state of volunteering and volunteers’ subjective experience ratings (among other indicators), and how these differ across regions.

Read the report.

The Contributions of Tūao Māori report

Māori are amongst the highest likely to volunteer yet their contributions are under-represented in volunteering research. This gap has been filled by this important work stemming from focus group and surveys of volunteers as part of the State of Volunteering research 2021-22.

Grouped around five themes, the report has recommendations for organisations engaging with Māori, and commitments for Volunteering New Zealand to advocate for support for Tūao Māori.

Read the Executive Summary
Read the whole report.

State of the World’s Volunteerism Report 2022 

The 2022 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report has been just released. As countries and regions faced enormous challenges during 2021, the 2022 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) hights the vital role of partnerships to address the most pressing challenges. The SWVR explores how volunteers collaborate with state authorities, and how volunteers play a significant and diverse role in decision making, producing services, and developing innovative solutions. The report sheds light on the new ground of volunteerism and provides insights on volunteerism are linked to human rights.

Find out more

State of Volunteering in New Zealand Report 2020

The 2020 State of Volunteering Survey published in June 2020 is the fourth in VNZ’s series of regular surveys.
These surveys are designed to capture a snapshot of the state of volunteering in New Zealand.

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State of Volunteering in New Zealand Report 2017

The 2017 State of Volunteering Survey published in 2018 is the third in VNZ’s series of regular surveys.

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State of the World’s Volunteerism Report 2018

The thread that binds – volunteerism and community resilience: This report explores how governments and development actors can best engage with volunteerism to nurture its most beneficial characteristics, while mitigating against potential harms to the most vulnerable. In doing so, the report provides an important contribution to the evidence base on inclusive, citizen-led approaches to resilience-building.

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Overview Paper on the State of Volunteering

This important contribution to the New Zealand literature on volunteering is a report written by a Volunteering New Zealand reference group, with the support of the Department of Internal Affairs

The report contains:

  • Recommendations
  • Issues affecting volunteering in New Zealand
  • Issues/barriers for volunteer-involving organisations and volunteers
  • Looking to the future: possibilities for support, and other opportunities

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State of Volunteering in New Zealand Report 2016

The second State of Volunteering in New Zealand report, released in early 2017, provides telling insights from 1260 registered charities in New Zealand and an update on overall findings for the volunteering sector in New Zealand.

 

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Charity Viewpoint 2016

Organisations often talk about the importance of collaboration; a new publication demonstrates this collaboration in action.

Charity Viewpoint 2016: Perspectives on sustainability in the community sector is a report published by Volunteering New Zealand, the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand and Philanthropy New Zealand. It identifies and explores issues in governance, fundraising, volunteering and corporate/charity relations and how to achieve sustainability in the community and voluntary sector.

Charity Viewpoint 2016 reflects our views at this point in time. Our aim is to inspire and inform and to provide food for thought for those working in the community sector.

 

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State of The World’s Volunteerism Report 2016

This summary report represents VNZ’s interpretation of the key points of the United Nations’ State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (2015), and focuses on key points relevant to the New Zealand volunteering context. It is not written to replace or otherwise substitute the UN report, which readers are encouraged to engage with independently of this report.

 

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State of Volunteering in New Zealand Report 2015

The first State of Volunteering in New Zealand report was released in early 2016. This is the first report of its kind in New Zealand, and with responses from 1500 registered charities, insights from this survey are telling, including that recruiting volunteers remains challenging. Download the Report.

 

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