The practice- and transfer-oriented research project ‘Changes in Individual Engagement and New and Innovative Organisational (Re)forms’ is being carried out in co-operation with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and is funded by the German Foundation for Civic Engagement and Volunteering (DSEE). It focuses on changes in individual engagement and their impact on the processes and structures involved in organising engagement within a fundamentally altered social context. Specifically, the project investigates: 1. how changes in individual engagement affect the organisation(s) of engagement, 2. what ideas, concepts and strategies practitioners have for managing this change and for recruiting and retaining volunteers, and 3. what new and innovative organisational (re)structures are being developed within the field of volunteering.
The project began in spring 2025 with a (inter-)national literature review on new and innovative forms of civic engagement. Using the criteria ‘rural in character’ and ‘relatively structurally weak economically’, one study region each was selected in western and eastern Germany. From September 2025 to May 2026, qualitative individual and group interviews were conducted, and quantitative data was collected via an online questionnaire. Initial findings from these surveys are now available.
As part of a knowledge-transfer event held in the study region in western Germany in early October, selected findings from the research project were presented and discussed with the participants. The participants then formed working groups and jointly developed recommendations for practice, policy and administration.
A similar event is also planned for November in the second study region in eastern Germany.
The findings and recommendations will then also be discussed with the practice partners (the Federal Association of Volunteer Agencies (Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Freiwilligenagenturen e. V.) and the Active Citizenship Foundation (Stiftung Aktive Bürgerschaft)) and incorporated into the project’s final report. The report will be published by the DSEE at the start of next year (further details to follow).