The Volunteer Crisis in Charities: Why the "Relational Core" is the Key to Resilience

Why are Volunteer Numbers Dropping in the UK?

I have lived that 4:55 PM scramble, juggling urgent needs while trying to protect long-term sustainability. But what if that scramble isn’t just resourcing? What if it’s a warning light we’ve learned to ignore?

Volunteers are not merely “extra hands.” In many organisations, they provide vital and often overlooked contributions that underpin operational resilience. When that pool shrinks, the problem is rarely just about numbers. More often, it points to a system that has not been fully recognised, supported, or protected.

ONS data have shown a sustained decline in formal volunteering in recent years. Formal volunteering has been declining for years. While COVID-19 disrupted engagement, the downward shift began well before the pandemic. This points to a model under sustained pressure. One that struggles to balance formal structures with the informal motivations that actually keep people showing up. This article examines three places where that strain often shows up and offers practical steps charities can take today.

Understanding the Relational Core vs. Formal Systems

Most charities run on two interdependent systems:

• the formal one: roles, rotas, budgets

  
  

• the people-led one: last-minute cover, small on-the-ground adaptations, the “I’ll stay on and finish this” moments.

  
  

I define this as a charity’s Relational Core: the adaptive capacity of the informal network of trust and human judgment that allows a service to remain safe when the unexpected happens. It’s the trust-and-judgement layer that makes services work when plans meet reality.

Volunteers often carry critical components of that core, which is why a drop in volunteer numbers feels disproportionately large. Take for example a community food programme. On paper volunteers pack boxes and hand out food; in practice they coordinate rota changes, adapt meals to meet client needs, and tidy up long after others have gone. As one volunteer put it,

“I’m not just packing boxes. I’m the glue holding this together.”

It is a sentiment we hear often but rarely capture formally. Without those informal contributions, our programmes and services would simply not run. The solution, then, is not only about recruiting more people but about building systems that reflect how work really gets done.

Try this

Goal: make invisible work visible so it is not lost when people move on.

• Dependency mapping: bring staff and volunteers together and map what actually happens when someone is off, late or a delivery changes. Ask, “Who steps in when X fails?”

  
  

• Volunteer Insight Logs: Invite volunteers to share the practical day-to-day extras (focused on process, not personal client details) they use to keep things running smoothly. Keep entries anonymised and aligned with your data protection and safeguarding policies. Crucially, treat these as raw data for staff review. Use these insights to update your formal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), ensuring that "what actually works" is both safe and documented.

  
  

How to Break the "Crisis Innovation Loop" in Charities

Charities are excellent at improvising under pressure. When a funder pulls back, demand spikes, or a key volunteer is away, someone finds an agile solution. Once the crisis passes, the organisation often snaps back to “normal,” and the emergent practices disappear. I call this the Crisis Innovation Loop: a cycle where brilliant, field-tested solutions are lost the moment the immediate pressure subsides.

A practical example of this occurred during my work with assistance dog charities. Faced with volunteer gaps during holiday periods, many organisations developed a holiday home placement scheme. These were short-term, highly skilled fosterer solutions that successfully stabilised summer operations across several organisations. Over time that workaround evolved into a viable ‘business-as-usual’ model, integrated within formal SOPs, helping ease future holiday challenges while maintaining the highest standards of care.

While some situations are incredibly difficult at the time, valuable innovation often lives in those front-line moments, but only if you notice, test, refine, and integrate them into formal safety standards.

Try this

Goal: Evaluate and integrate reactive, field-tested fixes into your formal framework.

• Record the saves: Start a simple 'Fixes to Keep' log (using a physical wall, a Miro board, or a dedicated Slack channel) so that when the next crisis hits, you are halfway to a solution already.

  
  

• Innovation spotlight: create an easy mechanism (e.g., a slack channel) for teams to share problem → fix → result stories.

  
  

• Volunteer innovation ambassadors: appoint one or two volunteers who can help spot front-line opportunities, collating them for staff review.

Solving Pipeline Friction in Volunteer Recruitment

Sometimes recruitment brings a wave of new volunteers, but the welcome quickly stalls because local teams are not ready, role descriptions are vague and training is patchy. Volunteers are left confused or underused, staff pick up the slack and trust between teams frays. That is pipeline friction. It is not about volume; it is about fit, clarity and follow-through.

Imagine a viral national campaign that floods you with offers of help while local teams are unprepared. Role descriptions are vague, training is inconsistent, and the pipeline stalls. Experienced volunteers leave amid the chaos and others remain confused and underutilised. Operational staff absorb the added work and begin to lose trust in the organisation’s ability to coordinate effectively. This creates a double deficit: you lose the operational output and, more importantly, you erode the relational trust required to sustain the mission.

Try this

Goal: protect the relationships that make volunteering work, instead of only chasing volume.

• Frustration check-ins: once a month ask staff and volunteers, “What made this harder than it needed to be?” Commit to acting on one issue and tell people what changed.

  
  

• Simple dropout alerts: if someone misses a shift or stops responding, trigger a human check-in. Use the contact details and preferences you already hold. A short call often re-engages a volunteer or surfaces an issue you can fix.

Burnout is often less about volunteer numbers and more about systemic misalignment. That misalignment usually springs from eroded trust and weakened connections, the very relational integrity upon which charity resilience relies. As technology reshapes operations, protecting those bonds is essential to sustaining volunteer impact.

What next for charities in a volunteer crisis?

The current volunteer crisis in charities is more than a numbers problem. It is a prompt to revalue and protect the trust and relationships quietly powering your work as the world changes around you. The goal is not to do more for its own sake; it is to make what you are already doing visible, valued and sustainable.

You do not have to fix everything at once. Most of these steps fit into existing meetings, check-ins or operational updates. Start with one team and one tool, learn from that work and then build outward.

Q&A FAQ: Navigating the Volunteer Crisis

Q1. Why is there a volunteer crisis in the UK?

You are not imagining it. In the blog I mention UK ONS data that shows formal volunteering has been falling for years, so it is not just your organisation. Covid made it more visible, but the downward trend had already started. The reason it feels sharper in charities is that many of us are still using a model that was built for a different reality.

Q2. How can charities improve volunteer retention?

Start by seeing the work they actually do, not only the role description, and celebrating it. In the blog I suggest a simple dependency-mapping session with staff and volunteers: “who steps in when X fails?” and “what always happens but is never on the rota?” When people see that their quiet, load-bearing work is noticed and written down, they are more likely to stay. You can also let volunteers document their own routines and have staff review it, so it stays safe.

Q3. We can recruit in spikes, but teams can’t absorb them. What do we do?

I call this pipeline friction. The problem is not “not enough volunteers,” it is “not enough clarity.” Before the next wave, make sure roles, training and follow-up are ready. Then run a monthly “what made this harder than it needed to be?” check-in with staff and volunteers and fix one thing visibly. That protects the relationships that make volunteering work, instead of only chasing numbers.

Q4. How can charities use AI without losing the human touch?

The answer is about sequencing. We must first map the human, relational system to ensure that when we do introduce AI, it augments rather than disrupts the work volunteers do. Tidy and protect the people-led system first, then add tech when the system is ready.

Change does not start with a workshop; It starts with one honest conversation

Let's Chat

Note: These insights are based on practitioner experience and do not constitute legal or regulatory advice. Always review your specific funder contracts, data protection policies (GDPR) and safeguarding policies before making significant changes to your operations. Examples are for illustrative purposes only; no official affiliation with the organisations or tools mentioned is claimed.