Op-ed Michael Drew, Volunteering Australia Chair

Recently, I had to attend a trustee meeting at one of Australia’s largest, for-purpose hospitals.

As I walked through the front doors of this nationally-cherished place of healing and hope, I started noticing the people who made the place work.

The first three people I met were the smiling volunteers at reception helping visitors find their way.

The fourth and fifth were delivering books and magazines.

The sixth was walking with an elderly patient to an appointment.

The seventh was gently accompanying a family who were suffering unimaginable grief at the loss of a loved one, supported by an eight volunteer who was holding an iPad so the family could share the terrible news with relatives.

By the time I reached my meeting, the first eight people I had encountered were volunteers.

Eight.

And it struck me that, for many, we still talk about volunteering as if it is a nice-to-have.

Something extra. Something that sits around the edges of the ‘real’ work.

Yet here was a major hospital, of international standing, where volunteers were among the first people creating care, connection, confidence, and trust.

Not on the margins.

At the centre.

And that raises a bigger question for all of us.

If volunteering is so essential, why do many organisations still talk about it as if it’s optional?

The theme of the 2026 National Volunteering Conference held in Adelaide was ‘Reimagining Volunteering’.

I want to suggest that before we reimagine volunteering, we need to reimagine how we think about volunteering.

Because the future is arriving faster than many of our institutions are prepared for.

Over the next five years, forecasting by Jobs Queensland (of which I am Chair) suggests that around 60% of all job growth is expected to come from the care economy – healthcare, aged care, disability services, community services, and education.

Why? Because you can’t outrun demography.

Australia is ageing.

Demand for care is rising.

Communities are becoming more complex.

And loneliness, social isolation, and disconnection are becoming defining challenges of our time.

The question is not whether these pressures are coming.

They are already here.

The question is whether our systems are ready.

For decades we have asked an important question: Are we doing things right?

Efficiency matters.

Governance matters.

Compliance matters.

But the bigger question for all of us today is: Are we doing the right things?

Are we investing in the social fabric that allows communities to thrive?

Are we strengthening the relationships that prevent people from falling through the cracks?

Are we recognising the assets that already exist in our communities?

Because volunteering is not simply a workforce issue.

It is not simply a participation issue.

It is not simply a community issue.

Volunteering is social infrastructure.

Just as roads move people and goods, volunteering moves trust, belonging, care, and connection.

And social infrastructure becomes more valuable, not less valuable, as society becomes more complex.

So why don’t we talk about it that way?

Why don’t governments talk about volunteering as national infrastructure?

Why don’t boards talk about volunteering as a strategic capability?

Why don’t investors talk about volunteering as a source of social resilience?

And perhaps most importantly, why don’t more organisations talk about volunteering as a risk issue?

Allow me ask some provocative questions.

How many boards have volunteering on their enterprise-wide risk register?

How many Chief Risk Officers in Australia’s leading organisations can speak the language of volunteering?

How many organisations understand (and have controls for) the operational risk, reputational risk, and service delivery risk that comes from a declining volunteer base?

Because if volunteers disappeared tomorrow, many services would not simply become less effective.

Some would become impossible.

And yet too often volunteering sits several layers below strategy.

Several layers below first- and second-line risk accountabilities.

Several layers below the conversations that determine the future of organisations.

That has to change.

The future of volunteering is not about finding a few more people to fill shifts.

The future of volunteering is about redesigning institutions so that community participation is recognised as core business.

It is about treating volunteers as strategic assets.

It is about measuring social value as seriously as financial value.

And it is about building organisations that understand that human connection is not a by-product of the mission.

In many cases, it is the mission.

The organisations that thrive in the next decade will be those that understand something simple: Care cannot be delivered by clinicians alone.

Community cannot be built by institutions alone.

And resilience cannot be simply ‘purchased’ after a crisis arrives.

It must be built before it is needed.

That is the opportunity before us.

Not simply to reimagine volunteering.

But to reimagine Australia’s social infrastructure.

To recognise volunteering not as a charitable add-on, but as a strategic national asset.

Because if the future belongs to the care economy, then the future also belongs to those who understand the value of care, connection, and contribution.

For the sake of volunteers – and the communities they support – we can, and we must, do better.

Professor Michael E. Drew
Chair, Volunteering Australia
Adelaide
June 2026

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