April, 2026
Volunteers underpin many aspects of sport in Australia, from local community clubs to high-performance sport on the international stage. Volunteers in sport actively help to sustain Australian sport across the community. There are also a range of positive community benefits from volunteering in sport, such as fostering social cohesion, community identity, and contributing to population-wide health and wellbeing.
Volunteering Australia is engaging in ongoing policy work and on-the-ground sector support in community and high-performance sport.
Status of volunteering in sport
Volunteering in sport attracts particularly high volunteering participation, with the Australian Sports Commission estimating that 2.8 million Australians aged 15 and over volunteered in sport based on data collected between 2023-2025.
Volunteering is formally recognised as a cross-cutting enabler across all six strategic priorities in the Sports Horizon: National Sport Strategy 2024 – 2034, supporting the vision of a healthy, active, connected communities and a thriving sport system. It is also essential to the success of other national frameworks, such as 2032+ Australia’s High Performance Sport Strategy and Australia’s Sport Participation Strategy.
How is Volunteering Australia engaging on and progressing this work?
Policy position
Volunteering Australia welcomes the opportunity to continue supporting the Australian Government’s vision for a thriving sport ecosystem and a strong sport volunteer workforce.
Our engagement
Volunteering Australia is a core member of the Sport Volunteer Coalition and has partnered with the Australian Sports Commission through an active Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The Australian Sports Commission leads the implementation of the Sport Volunteer Coalition Action Plan 2022 – 26 (SVCAP), which supports a shared agenda to make sport volunteering more visible, accessible, supported, and sustainable. Volunteering Australia’s MOU with the Australian Sports Commission promotes a strategic alignment between SVCAP and the National Strategy for Volunteering, enabling coordinated knowledge-sharing, research alignment, and joint communication initiatives.
Volunteering in sport statistics
Volunteering Australia’s Key Volunteering Statistics report details the most recent available data from the 2022 ANU Poll regarding the portion of volunteers engaged in sport.
Volunteering in sport statistics can also be accessed through AusPlay which collects national, state and territory statistics non-playing roles and volunteering annually from over 600 different sport and activities.
Submissions
We have published a submission on this topic in 2023. You can access this submission, as well as all of our other submission and position statements on our website.
