Editor's note: This post was updated with new data in October 2025.
Contrary to what recent U.S. census data might have you believe, volunteering has made a remarkable recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest in volunteering and actual volunteer participation have not only rebounded to pre-pandemic levels but have exceeded them in many cases.
Across a number of data sources — Google Search trends, our own analysis of Civic Champs’ volunteer activities and hours logged, and research from our partners in the nonprofit technology sector like VolunteerMatch and others — we see the same result. Post-pandemic, more people than ever are seeking out ways to volunteer in their communities.
Google search trends reveal that searches for "volunteer opportunities near me" plummeted at the beginning of lockdowns in 2020. However, ever since then, search interest has surpassed even 2018–2019 levels and has continued to grow into 2025, showing an overall trend line going steadily up since the pandemic.
VolunteerMatch, the largest volunteer engagement network, saw a staggering 23 percent increase in the number of volunteer searches on its platform from 2022 to 2023 alone. This surge in interest shows that people are thinking more about volunteering and actively looking for ways to get involved.
Data from VolunteerMatch shows a significant increase in volunteer interest in 2023.
At Civic Champs, the data from our volunteer management platform also aligns with this pattern of rising participation as we get farther away from pandemic lockdowns. In 2023, Civic Champs clients saw an average of 206 active volunteers per organization. By 2024, that number climbed to an average of 275 volunteers per organization — a 34 percent increase following at least two years of increases in the years preceding.
The total number of volunteer hours has grown as well. Civic Champs data shows that the average number of hours volunteered per organization increased by 9 percent from 2023 to 2024. This translated to each organization receiving an additional nearly $9,700 worth of volunteer time on average. Perhaps the most electrifying statistic is the increase in activities per organization, going from 730 in 2022 to an astounding 1,887 in 2024. That’s a 159 percent increase!
What's more, existing volunteers are getting into a pattern of working more, but shorter, volunteer shifts. In 2024, the average hours per volunteer was 13.3 spread across 6.9 shifts. The figures from 2023 were 16.3 average hours per volunteer across only 6.3 shifts. Both of those years’ numbers, however, remain consistently higher than those of 2022, suggesting that volunteers are finding more flexible ways to work volunteering into their busy lives.
The Do Good Institute surveyed nonprofit executives and found that many organizations had fewer staff members and resources during the pandemic, but the need for their services increased at the same time. This helps explain why, in 2022, more organizations said it was more difficult to find volunteers with the right skills than it was in 2019. As demand for services increases, the need for volunteers has also increased. So even as volunteering has grown, for many nonprofits, this growth has been surpassed by the demand for services.
The percentage of nonprofit executives reporting difficulty finding volunteers with needed skills has doubled post-pandemic. Source: The State of Volunteer Engagement report (PDF) by the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, published 2022.
Fortunately, the numbers suggest that America’s volunteers have stepped up to the plate and rushed in to fill the need. According to VolunteerPro’s 2025 Volunteer Management Progress Report, more organizations are reporting a higher number of volunteers as compared to just a few years ago. While in 2024, the report’s question about volunteer numbers was updated to be specifically about currently active volunteers (as opposed to volunteers who have engaged in the prior 12 months), numbers remained starkly higher than pandemic-era volunteerism rates.
While formal volunteering through nonprofits and other organizations dropped by 7 percentage points during the pandemic, from 30 percent in 2019 to 23 percent in 2022, informal helping held steady. Just over half of Americans participated in an informal helping activity during that same time period.
The rise in work-from-home models for businesses also powered a rapid increase in virtual volunteering and microvolunteering. In 2023, over 90 percent of companies reported offering a virtual volunteer program.
Corporate volunteering is another accelerating trend post-pandemic. Data from corporate engagement platform Benevity shows a 57 percent increase year-over-year in employee volunteer program participation and a 41 percent increase in hours logged. Notably, over half of the hours logged on the Benevity platform were remote or hybrid.
As the above data about volunteers taking on shorter bursts of volunteerism across an increased number of engagements would suggest, smart nonprofit organizations are learning to adapt to the changing lives of American workers. In the words of volunteerism consultant Rob Jackson back in 2023:
“If we are not prepared and set-up to be flexible, to let volunteers take a break, to switch roles, to walk away, then our retention efforts will stall and likely fail …”
For many organizations, this flexibility takes the shape of offering microvolunteering and microdonation opportunities where people can give with a lower overall commitment. Microvolunteering refers to shorter, more specialized volunteer activities that typically require less than an hour and let you engage with a broader audience. Likewise, microdonations are small dollar donations often tied to a specific activity or event.
Psychologists have long known that inviting someone to make a small, manageable commitment first — what’s called the "foot-in-the-door" technique (Freedman and Fraser, 1966) — significantly increases the odds they’ll later accept a larger commitment. In that study, it was found that if someone agreed to a very small ask, like answering a question about what’s in their kitchen, they are more likely to acquiesce to a larger request like a home visit to look at the kitchen later on. This is why microvolunteering and short-term episodic roles are proving so effective: they act as the foot in the door that helps turn interest into sustained involvement.
In a recent case study conducted by Civic Champs partner Vinit Tipnis at Indiana University, he found that these microvolunteering engagements provide ample opportunities for organizations to retain more “short burst” volunteers through intentional community building. At Gleaners Food Bank in Indianapolis, 15,000 annual volunteers come in and out through corporate and other events, while they maintain a roster of 238 “regular” volunteers. The data tells us that when at least one of those regular volunteers was present, retention increased by 14.6 percent.
While the initial lockdowns in 2020 dealt a temporary blow to volunteering, the sector has demonstrated immense resilience. People are clearly eager to give back to their communities through volunteering, perhaps now more than ever. Interest is increasing, and organizations are working to capture it.
As organizations adapt to the changing volunteer landscape with more flexible offerings and episodic volunteer roles, and volunteers bring renewed energy and commitment to their roles, the future of volunteer engagement post-COVID looks extremely bright.
Geng Wang is CEO at Civic Champs, a TechSoup partner, where he leads a team of passionate change leaders to deliver the most intuitive and impactful volunteer management software for nonprofits and their champions.
Civic Champs' volunteer management platform is available to eligible TechSoup member organizations at a discount.