This indicator reflects civic participation and community involvement (with insights into gender identity, ethnicity and age diversity among volunteers), level of support for CSOs’ work, and level of appeal, credibility and trust of CSOs in their communities.

Total count of individuals offering their time and effort without monetary compensation to support CSO activities. Engagement can include a variety of activities, such as organising events, providing services, advocacy, capacity building, or administrative support (this is a non-exhaustive list).

To track the indicator, maintain sign-up sheets or databases to record all active volunteers and periodically collect information from participants about their involvement (through a survey for instance). It is also advised to track attendance at events or meetings organised by the CSO and to consolidate data on the participation of volunteers on a regular basis.

If your programme targets women, consider making this indicator gender-specific. If not, this indicator should be disaggregated by self-reported gender (in non-binary terms): female / male / other / prefer not to say. It can also be disaggregated by age, using these categories: young ≤ 29 years old / adult ≥ 30 years old / prefer not to say. Please see the Guidance on the use of the core indicators library.