Volume 6. Issue 1. 2026.
Editorial Preface
The first issue of the sixth volume of the online journal Volunteering Review deals with a previously unexplored area in Hungarian nonprofit and volunteering research: volunteering related to political organizations close to politics. In this spirit, the first theoretical study shows the characteristics of political civil-nonprofit organizations and their volunteers based on long-term nonprofit statistical data. The second study provides a brief overview - based on the basic political science literature on the topic - of the main issues, explanations and characteristics of political volunteering and activism. The main goal of the study, which presents the results of the pilot research conducted by the editorial staff, was - based on the research on Hungarian political volunteers and volunteering - to explore and analyze a sub-area of traditional political volunteering, the sociodemographic characteristics of volunteers affiliated with parties, their involvement and motivations. The study did not aim to capture the characteristics of the volunteers of individual parties, but rather to show what special characteristics this "special" group of volunteers "generally" has. All three studies formulate several recommendations regarding further directions of Hungarian research on political volunteerism. The first of the case studies describes the public policy activities of a nature and environmental protection civil association that has been operating for barely a year. The second case study presents the process and dilemmas of the formalization of an activist group into a civil society organization, embedded in the issue of activism and volunteerism. Finally, the series of case studies concludes with a detailed presentation of a new "phenomenon" in terms of the organizational form of volunteering, local municipal volunteering - which conceals both opportunities and risks. In the review section, we present two recently published, electronically available publications that help people become volunteers and develop effective volunteer management, as well as exploring the past decade and a half of the Hungarian civil sector.
A blank spot in the research of the Hungarian nonprofit sector: Characteristics of politically purposed civil-nonprofit organizations and their volunteers
István Sebestény – Anna Mária Bartal
"Hungarian political nonprofit organisations have had three recruitment sources identified over the past thirty-five years. A gradual decrease in the number of volunteers for political associations has been evident since 2010, and fewer and fewer volunteers worked fewer and fewer hours, as most of them occasionally helped their organizations with their work."
Volunteers and volunteering in Hungarian political arena – Results of a pilot study, 2026
Anna Mária Bartal – Andrea Béla-Csovcsics – László Dorner – Rita Hegedűs – Eszter Nándori Sipos
"The aim of the pilot research was to explore and analyze a sub-area of traditional political volunteering, the sociodemographic characteristics of party-affiliated volunteers, their involvement and motivations, by establishing a foundation for research on Hungarian political volunteers and volunteerism."
Can volunteering be political? – a brief review of literature
László Galambos
"The study discusses theories that deal with the conceptual definition of political volunteerism and explain its motivations, primarily from a demand-supply approach (mainly examining the supply side)."
A year in the life of an unincorporated association – The establishment and activities of "Sukorói Összhang"
Júlia Lázár
"Between January and December 2025, the unincorporated association conducted active public policy activities, protesting in several ways against a government investment classified as "national economic interest", the "Center for Youth" and the associated private investments, which could endanger the wildlife of the Sukoró shoreline and even the entire Lake Velence."
Volunteering at local government
Olga Kutyina
"The emergence of volunteerism in activities organized by mayors' offices raises both opportunities and risks."
Organizing, volunteering and activism in formal and informal groups – case study
Ágnes Fernengel – Éva Tessza Udvarhelyi
"The case study demonstrates that the concepts of activism and volunteerism can be interpreted flexibly, and that language use follows how organizations interpret their goals, how they operate, and their social relationships."
