CBS reported on 11 June 2026 that 47.0 percent of Dutch residents aged 15 or older did volunteer work in 2025. That is close to 2019, when the rate was 46.7 percent, and below 2024 at 49.5 percent and 2023 at 48.7 percent.
The signal has to become readable
At a local sports club, the sponsor board is the easy part. The hard part is the canteen shift, the VOG check, the parent messages, the bank reconciliation, and the board member who keeps it all moving after work.
That is the real reading of the number. Dutch civic energy is still there. What feels thinner is the dependable capacity underneath it.
Good numbers, thinner hours
CBS counts people who volunteered at least once in the previous twelve months. That matters, but it is only the entrance gate. It says less about whether the same person can fill a roster, close the till, and answer the treasurer's questions every week.
In 2025, 60 percent of volunteers were active weekly or monthly. Average time spent was 3.9 hours per week, unchanged from 2023 and 2024, but lower than 4.8 hours in 2022. The largest group, 42 percent, spent less than one hour per week.
That is how a club can look healthy and still feel short. There are enough hands for the big event. There are fewer people for the repetitive work: the bar shift, the keys, the accounts, the grant form, the broken coffee machine, the parents who want an answer before school starts.
The roster is the real test
Age makes the same point. Volunteers aged 65 to 75 were the most regular group, with 77.8 percent active weekly or monthly. Among volunteers aged 75 or older, the share was 71.0 percent.
Older regulars are a strength. They are also a succession risk if no one below them steps in. CBS reports that people aged 15 to 35 volunteered less often in 2025. Among volunteers aged 35 to 45, 53.0 percent were incidental rather than regular.
What the signal changes
That is not a question of goodwill. It is a question of fit. People in that stage of life are often carrying paid work, children, care, travel, and bills. A two-hour task with a clear end is easier to accept than an open-ended plea for help.
For micro and small businesses, this is not just a civic story. Sport associations were the largest volunteer setting in the 2025 CBS data. A local club is also a customer network, a sponsor platform, a meeting place, a buyer of services, and sometimes a tenant or landlord.
When reliable unpaid capacity weakens, costs move. Cleaning becomes an invoice. Bookkeeping becomes an outside fee. The canteen opens less often and loses margin. A tournament shrinks because nobody can coordinate the teams. A board delays a subsidy report and loses trust with the municipality.
Board work carries the load
CBS reports that 17 percent of volunteers held a board position in 2025. Among volunteers without such a role, 13.9 percent said they might want one in the future. The larger answers were no interest at 37.7 percent and no time at 23.4 percent. Smaller groups mentioned responsibility, lack of knowledge or experience, and legal liability.
That is a story about load. KVK says every association has a board and members, and that the board is responsible for daily management and decision-making. An association must also keep an administration and prepare a board report and financial overview.
KVK also says board members can be held liable for improper performance or mismanagement, including voluntary boards and voluntary board members. The mistakes are ordinary: a treasurer forgetting a tax return, errors in the administration, private use of association money, or signing a contract the association cannot fulfil.
These are not distant corporate failures. They are the mistakes that happen when the same tired person does everything after work.
Safety sits beside the ledger
Rijksoverheid says the Arbowet applies to volunteer work with major risks, such as dangerous substances, working at height, or heavy lifting. It also applies to volunteers younger than 18 and to volunteers who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
What founders should check
Volunteers working with vulnerable people, such as children or older people, need a VOG through the relevant scheme. Personal data also needs a good reason and proper handling.
Small payments need a ledger
Volunteer work often carries small money: petrol, a gift card, an hourly allowance, a meal, a reimbursement. Small does not mean invisible.
For 2026, the Belastingdienst sets the untaxed volunteer allowance at no more than €5.75 per hour for volunteers aged 21 or older and €3.40 for younger volunteers. The monthly maximum is €220 and the annual maximum is €2,200.
If a volunteer receives both an allowance for effort and an expense reimbursement, the Belastingdienst counts them together for those limits. UWV uses the same €220 monthly and €2,200 annual limits alongside benefits, and says volunteer work must be reported even if no allowance is received.
If the allowance goes over the limit, UWV treats the work as paid work and offsets it against the benefit according to the benefit type. That is where a small business habit helps. Dates, names, roles, expenses, reimbursements, and totals are ordinary safeguards. They protect the volunteer as much as the organisation.
Make help possible
CBS found that association membership averaged 62 percent in 2023 and 2024, down from 70 percent between 2012 and 2014. That matters because members often carry the boring work: votes, dues, meetings, shifts, minutes, and continuity.
Back at the sponsor table, the founder should not only ask where the logo will appear. A better question is whether the organisation has enough people to deliver the event without leaning on one exhausted treasurer. Support is still good business. Blind support is weaker.
The treasurer at the club table is rarely asking for applause. Usually, that person is asking for a structure that makes help possible. In 2026, that may be the real volunteer question in the Netherlands. Not whether people are willing. Whether the work has been made possible for the people who still are.
Sources
- CBS labour market data
- CBS – Detailed 2025 volunteer workload and organisation types
- CBS – Social cohesion, informal help, and participation
- CBS – Trust and civic connection in 2025
- CBS – Association membership decline
- CBS – Low-income participation and association membership
- CBS – Paid labour market pressure and available time
- CBS – Labour participation by age and gender
Referenced in the article
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