The European sport sector is fundamentally sustained by volunteers, making sport the largest hub of voluntary engagement across the continent (Eurobarometer, 2018). Volunteers form the foundation of clubs, community sport associations, national federations, and international events, playing a central role in ensuring both operational success and long-term sustainability. Without this voluntary workforce, much of European sport would simply not function. Despite this, many organisations lack structured and professional approaches to volunteer management, which limits their efficiency, sustainability, and ability to respond to emerging challenges. Research from the European Observatory on Sport and Employment (EOSE), particularly through the V4V project, has highlighted persistent difficulties, including structural, financial, and organisational barriers that undermine volunteering in sport. Community sports associations (CSAs) face particular problems, as their informal structures and limited management capacity make volunteer recruitment and retention highly challenging. In this context, the UVMIS project, funded by the Erasmus+ sport initiative of the European Union and coordinated by the Rotterdam School of Management, was established. The project seeks to explore new approaches to strengthening volunteer management and aims to design post-experience learning resources to support its professionalisation.
Objectives
The study had three core objectives:
To examine the current state of volunteer management across different European contexts.
To identify challenges and needs in volunteer recruitment, retention, and training.
To propose pathways for strengthening volunteer management