Is volunteering a doomed activity? Where will the volunteers of the future come from? What will motivate them? What might volunteering look like in the future? What forms might volunteering take (eg corporate volunteering, time-limited or project-based etc)? These are all questions which need to be considered in understanding the drivers of volunteering. The Future of Volunteering is an innovative project which will, for the first time in the world, use narrative research processes, tools and proprietary software Sensemaker developed by Cognitive Edge to explore an issue of critical public policy. The key objectives of the project are to develop an understanding of policy issues and implications given the changes in demographics and patterns of volunteering , as well as guidance for those organisations funding and managing volunteers.