Volunteering toolkit for 2026

Volunteering programmes tend to experience a boom over the festive period, with the season of good will encouraging more people to donate their time to support causes they care about. 

However, January tells a different story. According to a study commissioned by the Royal Voluntary Service, volunteer applications are likely to drop by 44% in the new year following a “festive spike”.  

Volunteering is not just for Christmas. Charities are finding ways to harness that festive support and make it perennial. Below we share some helpful resources to help charities with their volunteering initiatives, whether it’s using technology to support volunteers or making programmes more inclusive.

Volunteer recruitment 

• How to make volunteering inclusive 

• How charities are excelling at volunteer inclusion in 2025 

• Everything you need to know about volunteers and volunteering 

• How to increase corporate volunteering 

Here we share the benefits of working with corporates and how to encourage their staff to get involved with your charity 

• How volunteers can amplify your cause 

We explore the four key steps to volunteer recruitment and retention to help charity impact go further 

Volunteer management 

• The technology making volunteer management easier 

This article explores how project management technology such as Monday.com (which eligible nonprofits can access for free) can support volunteer management through automation and making data more accessible. 

• Flexible volunteering: How charities can offer better opportunities to volunteers 

We look at how charities can create flexible volunteering opportunities to make volunteering more convenient and more attractive to supporters who want to give their time.  

•  A complete guide to volunteer management 

This article explores volunteer management systems, explains how to use them efficiently and effectively for service delivery, fundraising, and much more, and looks at some of the best systems currently on the market. 

• Royal Voluntary Service: How to supercharge your volunteering 

We share everything you need to know about the Royal Voluntary Service’s free new platform aiming to ease the volunteering process for both charities and the public 

More volunteering resources 

There are many more resources available to charities looking to revamp volunteering programmes in 2026. Below, we share some of the best websites where charities can find support. 

Charities can also find support on the Charity Digital Volunteering hub below. 

Charity Digital Volunteering Hub