State of UK Volunteer Management 2026 

From a report by Rosterfy

Rosterfy a leading provider of volunteer management software, empowering organizations to unlock the full potential of their volunteer community and amplify their impact. They provide services in 77 countries and their software is used by 5 million+ volunteers and staff worldwide.

They have published its second State of UK Volunteer Management report, drawing on the experiences of hundreds of volunteer managers across the UK to find out what's really happening on the ground. Fieldwork ran from April to May 2026. The vast majority of respondents (82%) work in the charity sector, with smaller numbers from sporting, cultural, education institutions and councils. 

This year's findings are both encouraging and revealing:

• 92% of organisations say volunteers are mission-critical
• 46% say recruitment is now easy, up sharply from 35% last year
• 49% report their volunteer numbers have grown
• Connected, integrated systems are the single biggest driver of a great volunteer experience
• Volunteer management is growing in internal visibility
• Volunteer managers have cautious attitude towards AI

The volunteer programmes represented span an enormous range, from as few as 5 volunteers to as many as 72,000, with a median of 143 volunteers per organisation and a mean of 1,592. To make sense of that spread, Rosterfy grouped organisations into four size bands: small (40 or fewer volunteers), medium (41–150), large (151–600) and very large (more than 600). Many of the most interesting findings this year only appear when you look size band by size band. 

Key findings

Eight themes run through this year’s data:

1. Volunteers are mission-critical and increasingly so.Volunteers are valued more than ever. 92% say volunteers are mission-critical, up from 88% in 2025, and engagement is high – 60% say more than three-quarters of their volunteers are active.
2. Recruitment has got easier. 46% now say recruitment is easy, up from 35% last year – a statistically significant shift. There is no single driver, so we treat it as encouraging rather than conclusive.
3. Word of mouth still wins but Gen Z like digital. For most organisations, the single most effective recruitment channel is word of mouth (32%). The exception is organisations with mostly Gen Z volunteers, for whom digital channels come first.
4. Easier to recruit younger volunteers. 84% of organisations whose volunteers are mostly Gen Z say recruitment is easy – far above the sector average. Younger volunteer bases recruit more easily, and through different channels. 
5. Volunteer management is growing in visibility. Volunteer management is now a department in its own right for 30% of organisations – roughly twice the proportion in 2025.
6. Integrated systems enable a great experience. The organisations that reward, thank and train their volunteers well, and that use technology effectively, overwhelmingly share one trait: connected, integrated systems.
7. Challenges are spread and size of organistion specific. There is no single biggest challenge. Recruitment, retention, unrealistic time expectations and burnout are all cited by more than one in four – and the top three challenges change with organisation size.
8. AI has arrived - quietly. Just over half (54%) use AI, almost entirely for writing tasks, and attitudes are broadly neutral. Attitudes are surprisingly neutral, pointing to a sector at an early, cautious stage of its AI journey

Read the full report here.