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Volunteering Australia

Our shared vision is a future where volunteering is the heart of Australian communities.

Volunteering Australia’s priorities, decisions, policies, and activities are informed by evidence and research. We actively seek to support the research that is needed to advance volunteering policy and practice. 

Our research agenda

We aim to ensure our current policy and advocacy work is informed by data and research evidence, to support the implementation of the National Strategy for Volunteering, and to lay the foundations for future research.  

National Volunteering Research Network

Volunteering Australia established a new National Volunteering Research Network in 2021. The network aims to facilitate the sharing of information and knowledge between researchers and members of the wider volunteering ecosystem. It promotes greater collaboration and policy engagement to advance volunteering in the Australian community. 

Dr Megan Paull and Dr Rachel Winterton are the current Co-chairs of the network.  

If you are undertaking research relevant to volunteering in an academic setting or elsewhere, and would like to join the network, please get in touch via email at research@volunteeringaustralia.org.

Current projects

Volunteering in Australia research

As part of the development of the National Strategy for Volunteering, Volunteering Australia led and published the Volunteering in Australia 2022 reports. The Volunteering in Australia research was a landmark research project that provides insights into why volunteering is declining and how we can address the challenges facing volunteering. Published reports are available on the National Strategy for Volunteering website.  

Data landscape

Our partnership with ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods has resulted in several factsheets and reports, including:

COVID-19 impact research program

The COVID-19 impact research program aims to understand how COVID-19 affected volunteering. Our work includes:

If you are interested in learning more about this research, please contact Jack McDermott.

Informal Volunteering and The Story Project (Scanlon Foundation) 

The Story Project aimed to recognise the breadth of volunteering that takes place within different communities in Australia, and to profile the forms of activities and practices that may be unrecognised or unacknowledged for falling outside our dominant conceptions of volunteering. 

The final report The Story Project: Australian Multiculturalism Through the Prism of (Informal) Volunteering was published in May 2023.  

We are currently undertaking further work on informal volunteering. An Informal Volunteering Landscape paper and a Factsheet on informal volunteering will be published soon.  

If you’re interested in learning more about informal volunteering and/or the Story Project, please contact Heba Al Adawy. 

Developing external research partnerships 

Volunteering Australia is developing external research partnerships to meet critical knowledge gaps. 

We are a partner organisation on two ARC (Australian Research Council) Linkage projects: 

  • Developing a National Rural Volunteering Roadmap which is investigating the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. 
  • Community volunteerism and resilience to loneliness amongst older Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities. 

Data Factsheets & Evidence Reviews  

Our Data Factsheets and Evidence Reviews aim to interpret and synthesise volunteering data and research for use in our policy and advocacy work and to inform the work of the wider volunteering ecosystem. 

We have produced several factsheets drawing on a range of data sources.  The Volunteering Key Statistics document was updated in February 2024.  

Completed research

Below are examples of some of the research projects Volunteering Australia has been a part of.

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