Corporate Volunteering Is On The Rise—Here's Why That Matters Now

Forbes

01-05-2025

Corporate volunteering is having a moment. As trust in institutions declines and loneliness becomes a public health concern, more companies are stepping in to offer something surprisingly powerful: structured ways for their employees to do good together.
Across boardrooms and HR summits, new trends are being discussed. At the recent Global Volunteering Summit in Palo Alto, Abhishek Humbad—founder and CEO of Goodera, a platform he describes as the 'Airbnb of employee volunteering'—stood before a packed audience of HR leaders and heads of workforce engagement. Behind him, a slide showed staggering growth: in 2023, 183,745 employees volunteered through 4,137 events facilitated by Goodera. By 2024, those numbers had nearly doubled—352,892 volunteers across 7,263 programs.
Goodera isn't alone. Other platforms are reporting similar surges. Benevity, which helps companies engage employees in causes through donations, volunteering, and advocacy, saw annual participation growth of over 50% between 2021 and 2023. At one company headquartered in the Bay Area, Cisco, 80% of employees in 2024 took action to support causes they care about. Once the domain of a few purpose-driven companies, workplace volunteering is now going mainstream.
So what's behind this surge?
'I believe the world is hungry for connection and purpose,' says Humbad. The data supports that belief. According to a survey of 6,000 Americans conducted by the nonprofit group More in Common US, 74% of Americans say they want to work with others on a shared goal that improves their community.
This desire points to an even deeper explanation. Corporate volunteering may offer a counterforce to the disillusionment, anxiety, loneliness, and apathy that define much of modern life.
The recent documentary "Join or Die" has reignited interest in the work of political scientist Robert Putnam, whose book "Bowling Alone" traces the decline of club membership and civic participation in America—and the rise in social fragmentation that followed. As participation in civic life waned, social trust and cohesion also eroded.
Yet our desire for connection hasn't disappeared. What has disappeared are the on-ramps—clubs, congregations, and neighborhood associations—that once made it easy to belong.
Today, life looks very different from what it was like when civic participation was at its peak many decades ago. People are busier. Childcare is costly. Family time is packed with commitments. Work is demanding. Screens compete for attention. As a result, of those who responded positively in the More in Common US survey wanting to work with others on a shared goal to improve their community, only 17% actually did so in the past year.
In that context, the surge in demand for corporate volunteering opportunities is a modern response to both this desire to connect and, more broadly, to our social issues. A 2024 Harvard study reinforces this point, with 75% of 1500 respondents agreeing that 'finding ways to help others'—including through workplaces—could be one solution to the loneliness crisis and may help explain the popularity of structured volunteer programs.
Yet even as more employees express a desire for connection, many, including small and medium-sized businesses, aren't sure how to respond to this need.
As Humbad said in his remarks at the Global Volunteering Summit,
'People want to do good, but often don't know where to begin.'
Goodera is one of the platforms working to close that gap, making it easier for people to act on their desire to help. It offers thousands of corporate volunteering opportunities across cities worldwide, both virtual and in person, for individuals and teams alike. The causes range from education and health to sustainability and local resilience.
One example that's been gaining momentum? Community gardening.
Across the U.S., organizations like Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) are welcoming both community members and corporate teams to roll up their sleeves and transform urban plots into places of restoration and connection.
Such efforts are undoubtedly good for the environment and public health. In cities dominated by asphalt, gardens help cool the air, boost biodiversity, and restore soil health. Even a small plot of land in a dense urban area can make a difference, including for those volunteering.
As DUG CEO Linda Appel Lipsius recently said to me, 'They [community garden volunteer efforts] support mental health, social connection, and physical well-being.'
One military veteran who had struggled with depression found purpose as a garden leader with DUG. 'Leading a garden gave him purpose and pulled him out of that darkness. Gardens meet a basic human need: to feel needed,' Linda explained.
Doug Wooley, a longtime volunteer in the Denver West area with DUG, echoed that impact:
'Why gardens? Because they let me in. Because they feed the soul. They're spaces for healing and connection.'
Doug draws a powerful parallel:
'Religion used to be that communal glue—people gathered to eat, pray, and connect. As more people move away from that, we've lost those touchpoints. Gardens can fill that gap. There's no 'right' way to garden—just different approaches. That openness makes it easier to connect across divides.'
He shared a story of a spring workday that fell during Ramadan. A fasting volunteer sparked a thoughtful conversation about inclusive planning, from reconsidering physically intensive tasks to supporting one another across cultures.
'It deepened our empathy,' Doug says. 'And strengthened our sense of community.'
These stories mirror what research shows about how volunteering can nurture both connection and, quite literally, healing. It is well-documented that acts of service trigger the release of dopamine, which improves mood and overall life satisfaction. Meanwhile, a Carnegie Mellon study of more than 1000 respondents found that older adults who volunteered regularly had lower blood pressure. Other research has linked volunteering to increased longevity. However, the latest World Happiness Report finds that witnessing others do good, not just volunteering yourself, boosts happiness and social trust.
As Humbad puts it:
'When people volunteer, walls come down. Communities strengthen. And a chain reaction of positive impact begins. It's not linear—it's exponential.'
In a world where many feel disconnected from institutions, from one another, and even from a sense of purpose, corporate volunteering offers a practical, human-centered response. For companies ready to meet this moment, whether that is through community garden projects or other volunteer opportunities, the opportunity is clear: help people do good together, and that good will ripple outward—into the workplace, the community, and beyond.