How charities are excelling at volunteer inclusion in 2025

The communities that many charities serve are richly diverse, and their volunteers should be no different. That’s the approach of organisations like Bradford 2025 and London Youth Games, who have committed to volunteer diversity and inclusion in 2025 to enrich their cultural events, foster more engaged volunteer communities, and create meaningful opportunities for personal and professional growth among their diverse volunteers.

 

Making services a success with the right volunteers is proving a challenge for many charities, with the number of people volunteering at the lowest figure since 2016. Today, barriers to volunteering include accessibility and physical barriers, time and scheduling conflicts, lack of awareness and understanding, financial barriers, and cultural and language barriers. Making volunteering inclusive means overcoming these barriers to engagement, making opportunities accessible for everyone.

 

And as volunteer management experts Rosterfy explain, that can mean re-energising the whole volunteer recruitment and management journey. In this article, we explore how to do just that in order to excel at volunteer inclusion in 2025.

 

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Understanding patterns

 

Data can help you understand who your charity’s volunteers are, as well as who is missing out on those opportunities. You may find that certain demographics are underrepresented among your volunteers, highlighting where improvements are needed.

 

In the UK, specific groups volunteer less frequently overall. These are people from the global majority (all ethnic groups except white British and other white groups), people with disabilities, and lower-income communities.

 

Rosterfy note that “Without data, organisations may unknowingly reinforce systemic barriers, limiting opportunities for diverse groups. Tracking these DEI metrics enables proactive, evidence-based improvements that foster a more representative and engaged volunteer base.”

 

In some cases, barriers to participation may overlap, for example financial limitations, digital exclusion, and cultural expectations. Data can help reveal hidden trends where multiple barriers overlap to help your charity take an intersectional approach to diversity and inclusion.

 

 

Targeting outreach

 

Once you know who is missing from the volunteer pool, you can target outreach towards them. Bradford 2025 achieved this by establishing partnerships with local organisations such as Race Equality Network. This helped the programme to connect with different ethnic groups to promote their volunteering opportunities.

 

Targeting outreach also means making the application process accessible to the specific demographics you would like to engage, making sure it is simple to follow, and that role descriptions and materials are inclusive.

 

For example, when The Literacy Pirates identified a drop-off point in recruitment and subsequently streamlined the application steps, they were able to increase their volunteer conversion rate by over 30%.

 

 

Adapting volunteer roles

 

Not only should the application process be accessible and inclusive, but the roles themselves should be designed to enable diverse participation.

 

Data can reveal barriers such as financial constraints, transport issues, and rigid time commitments. Once you know the main barriers in the way of diverse volunteers getting involved, you can adapt the opportunities available accordingly, for example offering flexible, remote, or short-term options, travel reimbursements, or adaptive resources.

 

Inclusive communication is key. To ensure this, Bradford 2025 give volunteers detailed access information, and training materials that are translated into the 13 major languages of the district.

 

The result is a volunteer base with strong representation from culturally diverse communities, individuals with disabilities, a higher number than average of young volunteers aged 18–27, and that 59% of their volunteers identified as being from the global majority.

 

 

Monitoring progress

 

Find out if strategies are making an impact by regularly assessing the DEI data of your volunteers – and then adapt accordingly. Using real-time insights into volunteer demographics, London Youth Games were able to achieve a 14% increase in young leaders with disabilities.

 

 

Sharing findings and learnings

 

Let the world know about your work in DEI. Transparently sharing progress with volunteers, funders, and other stakeholders can demonstrate that your charity is committed and help to keep attracting more diverse volunteers.

 

But the journey doesn’t end there! As you continue to monitor progress over time, continue to iterate and report regularly on improvements to stay accountable to funders, partners, and the communities your charity serves.

 

Download the full white paper