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America’s volunteer infrastructure is struggling at the exact moment people most need connection. The same broken system is undermining your talent strategy.
Two years ago, I worked with the leadership team and board of the nonprofit founded by former President George H.W. Bush, Points of Light. Last week the organization launched its National Volunteer Strategy, the first phase of a $100 million plan to double U.S. volunteerism to 150 million people by 2035.
The announcement arrives at a challenging time: the Trump administration’s decision to gut AmeriCorps in 2025 eliminated thousands of service positions. Many nonprofits absorbed the loss of those workers while demand for their services kept rising.
Volunteer rates are still at just 28 percent of the adult population, below pre-pandemic levels.
In announcing the strategy, Points of Light’s CEO Jennifer Sirangelo described volunteer service as “essential infrastructure for trust, connection, and stronger communities. And it’s time we started treating it that way.”
The volunteer gap is fundamentally an infrastructure problem. Points of Light’s research found that interest in volunteering is strong, yet nearly seven in ten respondents cite lack of time as the primary barrier. Individuals are unsure how to easily find ways to contribute service, and organizations are under-resourced to engage them effectively.
When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Points of Light’s own research tells an important story. Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents cite lack of time as the primary barrier to volunteering, with 65 percent also pointing to unpredictable schedules.
And even more critical: 44 percent said they didn’t sign up because they weren’t sure they’d feel welcome. 43 percent stopped when they felt they didn’t belong.
On top of this, social trust is fracturing, with only 44 percent of Americans saying they trust their neighbors.
Volunteerism can help rebuild trust by creating meaningful connections across differences. 65 percent of survey respondents said volunteering had helped them connect with other people different from themselves.
The Corporate Volunteering Business Case
The shipping giant UPS set an internal goal in 2011 for employees to volunteer 30 million hours by 2030. The company achieved that target in April 2026, four years early. Cathy Scott, UPS’s vice president for social impact at The UPS Foundation, said the company knows that volunteerism increases well-being and that doing good is good for business. The tangible benefits are seen in employee retention for example. The technology firm Benevity says that employees most engaged in volunteering and workplace giving were 57 percent less likely to leave their employer than those with the lowest engagement.
The companies building durable cultures that leverage volunteering share a few common strategies:
- Anchor service to talent goals. Corporate volunteer programs tied to specific business outcomes like retention, skills development, and team well-being consistently outperform those that exist only as annual charity events.
- Design for belonging. Forty-four percent of potential volunteers said uncertainty about feeling welcome stopped them before they ever showed up. So, use communication and create environments where people know they will fit and be welcomed.
- Connect service to business outcomes. Track how volunteering affects retention, engagement, and team cohesion alongside participation rates, then use that data to build the case for sustained investment.
Why This Matters Now
Sirangelo’s framing is worth remembering: volunteerism is infrastructure, and infrastructure has to be built and funded. Inside companies, when leaders create systems that make it genuinely easy for people to contribute to something meaningful, retention improves, engagement rises, and culture strengthens. The question is whether you’re treating service as a strategic investment or an annual footnote.
This Week
Ask yourself whether your organization’s approach to service in your community truly feels meaningful to your people. Find out what percentage participate in any volunteer programs you offer, or what they do on their own. Then, explore ways to link community-based service to your talent development goals.
When you give people the opportunity to contribute to something larger than themselves, they grow in ways that ultimately grow your business.
Soren Kaplan helps leaders leapfrog to what’s next by cutting through noise, aligning faster, and making smarter decisions. He speaks at corporate events and conferences worldwide. Learn more at sorenkaplan.com. Go even deeper on this topic with Soren’s podcast on Apple, YouTube, or Spotify.
This post originally appeared at inc.com.
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