Globally, the volunteer workforce is larger than the employed population of more than half of the world's 10 most populous countries. The immense effort of the volunteer workforce, vital for local volunteer initiatives and community resilience, is primarily informal, accounting for 70 percent of all volunteering, with women leading 57 percent of these efforts.
Yet, a significant disconnect emerges as the United Nations prepares to launch the global International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026). The vast majority of volunteering happens informally and locally, often without the formal recognition or adequate support that top-down initiatives tend to favor.
Without a deliberate shift to empower and integrate these grassroots efforts, global volunteer initiatives risk becoming symbolic gestures. They could miss the true drivers of community resilience, especially in 2026 and beyond.
The Unseen Engine of Global Society
The global volunteer workforce dwarfs the employed populations of over half the world's 10 most populous countries, according to csd data. The global volunteer workforce isn't just isolated goodwill; it's a foundational, often uncompensated, pillar of global society. A remarkable 70 percent of this effort is informal, with women leading 57 percent of all volunteering globally.. The informal nature of this effort, with women leading 57 percent of all volunteering globally, creates a vast, largely unrecognized parallel economy of social support. Beyond immediate aid, volunteering offers significant health advantages, including reduced mortality and increased functioning for participants, according to an umbrella review published in pmc. Yet, this research often skews towards formal, Western, older adult contexts. The narrow focus of this research, skewing towards formal, Western, older adult contexts, means we fundamentally misunderstand the needs and impacts of the global informal volunteer majority—especially women-led efforts—leaving a critical gap in effective policy and support.
Global Recognition vs. Local Realities
The United Nations is launching IVY 2026, with International Volunteer Day 2025 marking its official global kickoff, according to Welcome to the United Nations. The launch of IVY 2026 aims to elevate volunteering’s profile. However, a global focus on formal recognition for IVY 2026 fundamentally disconnects from reality when 70 percent of volunteering happens informally. Compounding this, academic research on volunteering's benefits disproportionately focuses on older adults in the USA, as the pmc review revealed. The disproportionate focus of academic research on older adults in the USA creates a critical blind spot. It ignores the experiences and impacts of the largest demographic of volunteers globally: informal, women-led efforts. IVY 2026, despite its good intentions, risks becoming an echo chamber for formal organizations. It must directly engage and empower the 70% of volunteers who operate informally, predominantly women, as highlighted by csd data.
Bridging the Gap: Empowering Local Action
Thankfully, some local initiatives are already bridging this gap. They actively empower grassroots efforts rather than just recognizing them. For instance, the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) develops new strategies to increase training and support for volunteers, as reported by the BBC. Secamb's proactive approach broadens the role of volunteers in saving lives across Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Such local initiatives move beyond mere recognition. They actively empower, integrating spontaneous, local volunteerism with formal support structures. Companies and governments seeking genuine community resilience should look beyond grand global declarations. Instead, they must emulate local initiatives like Secamb's, which directly invest in training and supporting the informal, grassroots volunteers. These individuals form the true backbone of local support.
True community resilience in 2026 will not stem from symbolic global gestures alone. It will emerge from deliberate, sustained investment in the informal networks already doing the heavy lifting. The focus must shift from general celebration to active enablement, especially for the women forming the majority of this critical workforce. Local governments, non-profits, and corporations have a clear path: identify these informal groups and provide tailored resources, training, and logistical support. This means less emphasis on rigid formal structures, and more on flexible, responsive systems that mirror grassroots volunteerism's organic nature. Without this targeted approach, we miss the chance to truly strengthen communities from the ground up.
By Q3 2026, local authorities and organizations that embrace this bottom-up support model, similar to Secamb's strategy, will likely see a significant increase in both volunteer engagement and demonstrable community preparedness, fostering genuine resilience.
