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Home Blog 5 Corporate Volunteering Trends Shaping 2027
“We cannot continue to allow hours to imply impact.”
Lou Cooper
October 6, 2026
That’s the conclusion of Benevity’s State of Corporate Volunteering 2026 report, and it sums up where corporate volunteering is heading. Programs are busier than ever, yet participation has stalled. CECP’s latest research puts average employee volunteering participation at around 25% and calls it a “participation ceiling.”
So if you’re planning your 2027 program now, the question isn’t just how to get more people involved. It’s how to make every moment they give count.
Here are the five trends I’d keep an eye on.
1. Impact is replacing hours as the measure of success
2. Participation has hit a ceiling
3. Shorter, more frequent volunteering is becoming the new normal
4. CSR strategy is being shaped by outside pressure
5. Volunteering is increasingly about engagement and connection
How Be My Eyes fits
For years, “hours volunteered” was the main figure included in CSR reports. But hours only show how much time employees gave, not what that time actually achieved. Nonprofits are starting to say so. Only around 20% of nonprofit leaders say corporate volunteers contribute meaningfully to their long-term capacity, and Benevity found that very few companies measure the outcomes of their volunteering at all.
For CSR and ESG teams, this changes what goes in the report. “4,000 hours volunteered” is an output. “1,200 blind and low-vision people helped with a real task” is an outcome, and stakeholders increasingly want outcomes.
What to plan for in 2027 Agree on the outcome metrics you’ll report before you launch anything. Ask every volunteering partner the same question: what difference does an hour of our people’s time actually make?
Volunteering keeps growing in total, but the share of employees taking part has stalled. Workplace changes are a big part of that.
CECP finds virtual volunteering, volunteer time off, and flexible scheduling have all declined over the past three years, and company-wide days of service dropped by 20.3%.
A return to office-based working for many organizations hasn’t freed up more time to volunteer. Most employees now have fixed schedules and full calendars, with fewer chances to step away during the workday. CECP also found that smaller companies consistently see higher participation than larger ones. That suggests the easier volunteering is to access, the more people take part.
What to plan for in 2027 Look for volunteering that fits into the day wherever people are: at their desk, between meetings, or on their phone. The fewer steps between wanting to help and actually helping, the higher your participation will be.
Employees aren’t giving up on volunteering. They’re just giving time in smaller amounts. The average volunteer’s yearly hours have fallen from 16.4 to 12.7 over six years (Benevity, 2026).
This isn’t a sign that people care less. It shows how people actually work now. Few employees can take a full day out of their calendar, but almost everyone can find ten minutes.
What to plan for in 2027 Build your program around short, repeatable actions, not one big annual day. If the only way to take part is a full-day commitment, you’re designing for a minority of your workforce.
Nearly three-quarters of corporate impact leaders say the political and regulatory environment directly shaped their strategy this year, and two-thirds have changed which nonprofits or programs they support. In Europe, the EU’s Omnibus simplification package has also changed what many companies must report under CSRD.
Commitment hasn’t disappeared, though, with 94% of CEOs remaining supportive of corporate purpose programs, and building trust is still the number one reason companies invest in them.
What to plan for in 2027 Choose causes that are easy to explain and hard to argue with, and that link clearly to your values and stakeholders. Helping people with disabilities get through everyday tasks is a good example. It brings employees together rather than dividing them.
96% of large companies say employee engagement is their main reason for investing in volunteering, with 57% doing so in part to build social connection (Benevity State of Corporate Purpose, 2026).
Those numbers don’t surprise me. Bringing people together is one of the biggest benefits companies tell me they get from volunteering, and I hear it again and again in feedback after our Be My Eyes events. What stays with people isn’t just helping a blind or low-vision person in real time. It’s sharing that experience with their colleagues and talking about it long after the session ends.
That makes sense. People feel more engaged when their workday connects to something bigger than their to-do list. Volunteering together gives teams a shared moment of doing good, and that’s often what builds stronger relationships across a business.
What to plan for in 2027 Treat volunteering as part of how people develop and look for experiences that build real-world skills. This could include things like communication, problem-solving, or accessibility awareness that employees bring back into their day jobs.
Be My Eyes brings together a global community of more than 11 million sighted volunteers and over 1.1 million blind and low-vision people, across 180+ languages and 150 countries. Every day, people use the app to get help with everyday tasks, such as reading a label, checking the settings on the washer, or confirming their outfit looks okay before heading out.
Our corporate volunteering events invite your employees to be part of that community. Through short, live video calls, they can provide visual interpretation for someone in real time, whether they’re at their desk, at home, or on the go. No travel, no lengthy training, just a few minutes to make a real difference.
Every call is a real person helped with a real task. For your people, that’s a moment of connection they’ll remember. For your business, it’s meaningful impact you can actually measure. After every event, we share an impact report with clear, measurable results, such as the number of calls answered, employee participation, and satisfaction, so you can share outcomes with leadership and include them in your CSR and ESG reporting.
If you’re building your 2027 plan, explore our corporate volunteering packages or get in touch.
