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Written by David Vandenberg, Director of Partnerships and Engagement
Volunteer Canada had not been to Benevity Live in a few years. This year we went back, and we are glad we did.
The room was full of the people shaping corporate purpose in Canada and beyond, the companies that mobilize hundreds of thousands of employees, the platforms that move money and time to community, and the practitioners doing the work day to day. We went to share our story, to talk about the National Volunteer Action Strategy and the recommendations we are launching this year, and to represent the interests of Canada’s volunteer infrastructure in a conversation that does not always include the non-profit side.
We also went to listen. Here is some of what we heard, and what we think it means for the organizations we work alongside.
What the conversations, and the research, kept pointing to
A few themes came up again and again, both on the mainstage and in Benevity’s State of Corporate Purpose 2026 research.
Corporate purpose did not retreat this year! It became quieter and more deliberate, with the large majority of CEOs still supportive of the work internally. Trust has become the leading reason companies invest, and trust depends on credible storytelling, which in turn depends on real partnership with non-profits rather than data pulled from them. AI is moving quickly into the sector, with genuine optimism about easing administrative burden alongside real concern that it could exclude smaller, community-led organizations. And large one-time volunteering events are increasingly seen by non-profits as offering little lasting value unless they are designed and funded with care.
What struck us is how consistently these themes point in one direction. The value in this work lives in depth, community knowledge, trusted relationships, and protecting the capacity of the non-profits doing the work. Benevity’s own closing recommendation, to invest in the storytellers and not only the stories, and to properly resource non-profit partners, lands in the same place as the principle that has long guided our work: charities should not carry the cost of corporate volunteering.
Two of those themes deserve a closer look, because they speak most directly to the organizations we serve.
Volunteering is ready for its next act, if we design it well
The report named volunteering as the area most ready for reinvention, and the data underneath that headline is worth sitting with. Half of non-profits surveyed said that large, one-time team volunteering events provide little or no long-term capacity. Four in ten said corporate volunteer engagements rarely lead to lasting funding or support.
That finding will not surprise the non-profit leaders reading this. It is the quiet tension many of you have managed for years. A company arrives with energy and goodwill, and you are left to turn a single afternoon into something that actually serves your community, often without the resources to do it.
This is the work Volunteer Canada cares about most. Our activations are built with community, designed alongside the non-profits hosting them so that the experience reflects real needs and leaves the organization stronger. The growth in corporate volunteering is real and welcome. What determines whether it creates impact is how thoughtfully it is designed, and who is at the table when it is.
The sector is being asked for more, and rarely funded for it
As trust becomes the leading reason companies invest in purpose, the demand for reporting and storytelling from non-profit partners keeps climbing. Only one in ten companies expectsto ask for less. Nearly half of non-profits absorb that extra work through unpaid overtime, and roughly the same number say funders rarely cover the cost of producing it.
This is why the call to invest in the storytellers, and not only the stories, matters so much. If corporate volunteerism is going to grow, the organizations receiving it need to be resourced as genuine partners, funded for the work being asked of them or lent the skills to do it.
There is a related tension worth naming. Corporate demand for volunteering is real and growing, and it is increasingly framed as an HR and employee-development strategy, with community impact sitting lower on the list of reasons companies invest. That is exactly the ground a community-first approach exists to hold. Employee engagement and community impact are not at odds, but it takes intention to design volunteering that delivers both, and that intention is the work.
Canada has something to offer this conversation
Spending three days with peers from across the sector reminded us that Canada is doing distinctive work. Companies here are thinking seriously about reconciliation, about multi-year commitments, about depth over volume. That instinct matches where the evidence is pointing.
We also heard honest feedback, including from partners who have stepped back from our ecosystem over the years. That candor is a gift. It tells us where we need to build better on-rampsfor companies and organizations to participate in this work in ways that are meaningful to them. We are listening, and we are building.
Where this goes next
We came home with more ideas than one blog can hold, and with a clearer sense of our role. As Canada’s national voice on volunteerism, Volunteer Canada works on the civic infrastructure underneath the sector, the conditions that let a culture of participation take root and last. The conversations at Benevity Live confirmed how much that work matters right now, and how ready our partners are to do it well together.
The National Volunteer Action Strategy is a big part of how we move this forward. It is an invitation to reimagine how volunteering fits into Canadian life, and we are building it with the people who live the realities of both participation and exclusion: youth, newcomers, older adults, sector leaders, and everyday community members who show up for others, whether or not they call themselves volunteers. The recommendations launching later this year are the next step. If you want to be part of that conversation, we would love to hear from you.
Volunteer Canada is the country’s national voice on volunteerism. Data in this post is drawn from Benevity’s State of Corporate Purpose 2026 report.
