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Introduction and Consent

Background
*You can change the survey language by clicking the button in the top right corner of the screen.
In December 2023, the UN General Assembly declared 2026 the International Year for Volunteers for Sustainable Development, or ‘IVY 2026.’ The General Assembly resolution declaring the International Year ‘invites all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, other international and regional organizations and other relevant stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector and academia, to observe the International Year, as appropriate, in order to promote the importance of volunteers for sustainable development.’
Following the declaration of the International Year, a Scoping Group led by IAVE was formed in early 2024 comprising four global leading organisations in the volunteer space: the International Association of Volunteer Effort (IAVE), the International Forum for Volunteering in Development (Forum), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and UNICEF Generation Unlimited. This group now also includes the Volunteer Groups Alliance (VGA) and intends to further expand as appropriate and as the initiative develops. The group is also working in alignment with the United Nations Volunteers Program (UNV) with regard to IVY 2026.
The scoping group has identified IVY 2026 as an opportunity to focus attention on the power and potential of volunteering, to deliver greater investment in volunteering, to secure commitments from governments and others on how they will support volunteering and the enabling environment in which volunteering will flourish.
What needs to change, and who has the power to change it?
You are invited to participate in this Global Survey to identify key actions that need to be in place to recognize, enable and deliver greater investment in volunteering worldwide to enhance sustainability for people and planet. This survey will be used to inform a Global Call to Action for the Future of Volunteering to be launched as part of the 2026 International Year of Volunteering.
The Global Call to Action will outline what needs to change, and which actors can provide the leadership to make that change happen. Governments, corporations, philanthropy groups, education and training institutions, leadership organizations for volunteering and volunteer-involving organizations (local/national/global), and volunteers are the intended audience of the Global Call to Action.
Your input is crucial and we need as many voices as possible, through this survey, to help shape the Global Call to Action and give it authority. We invite all those involved in volunteering in whatever capacity to take part, and to share the link to this survey widely with your networks.
The survey will be open until 25 June 2025.
The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete. Your participation is entirely voluntary, and if you decide to exit the survey without submitting your responses, your data will not be saved. However, once you have submitted your answers, you can no longer withdraw them. You will answer this survey anonymously and no personal information will be required. Survey data will be kept in SurveyMonkey and raw data will only be accessible to the research core group. This survey is available in English, Spanish and French. If you require another language, you may use third party application such as Google Translate on Chrome.
Definitions
In this survey, volunteering is understood, following definition by UN Volunteers, as “a wide range of activities, including traditional forms of mutual aid and self-help, formal service delivery and other forms of civic participation, undertaken of free will, for the general public good and where monetary reward is not the principal motivating factor.” (State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2022).
 
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