For decades, we've measured volunteering the same way: count the hours, count the heads, move on. The 2026 State of the World's Volunteerism Report argues this approach misses most of what makes volunteering valuable.
The GIVE framework
The UN introduced the Global Index of Volunteer Engagement — GIVE — as a new way to understand volunteering. It measures four dimensions:
Individual value. What does volunteering do for the volunteer? Skills development, wellbeing, social connection, sense of purpose. The research is clear: volunteers are healthier, happier, and more connected than non-volunteers.
Societal value. What does volunteering do for communities? Trust, social cohesion, resilience. When neighbours help neighbours, communities become stronger in ways that can't be bought.
Economic value. What's the financial contribution? Using the ILO's replacement cost method — what would it cost to pay someone to do this work? — New Zealand's volunteer contribution is estimated at billions of dollars annually. On our platform, we calculate your personal economic contribution using Stats NZ's median hourly wage.
Enabling environment. What systems exist to support volunteering? Platforms, policies, organisations, funding. This is where infrastructure like Volunteers fits in — making it easier for people to find, sign up for, and track their contribution.
Why this matters
When you log your hours on Volunteers, you're not just tracking time. You're contributing to a picture of volunteering in Aotearoa that helps policymakers, organisations, and communities understand the true value of what volunteers do.
Informal volunteering — helping a neighbour, coaching a team, organising a community event — accounts for more than double the rate of formal volunteering globally. That's why we built the "Log other volunteering" feature. Every hour, formal or informal, helps tell the story.
2.1 billion people volunteer every month worldwide. You're part of that.