The gradual decline of community volunteerism in many developed societies represents a quiet erosion of the social capital on which local communities depend for their resilience, cohesion, and quality of life. Understanding what has driven this decline is essential for designing responses that can reverse it. Several interconnected factors have contributed to falling volunteer participation. The most fundamental is the time pressure that characterises modern working life: longer working hours, longer commutes, and the multiple demands of dual-income family life leave many adults with genuinely limited discretionary time that competing priorities — rest, family, personal health — reasonably claim before volunteering. The fragmentation of community ties that has accompanied increased residential mobility and the replacement of local social life by digital alternatives has also reduced the neighbourhood-level relationships that historically provided the social context in which volunteering felt natural and expected. When people do not know their neighbours, the motivation to invest time in community institutions is correspondingly weaker. Community organisations and local governments can take practical steps to make volunteering more accessible and attractive. Reducing the time commitment required for entry — offering micro-volunteering opportunities that can be completed in a single session rather than requiring regular long-term commitment — lowers the barrier for people who feel unable to take on ongoing responsibilities. Meaningful recognition of volunteers' contributions, through events, communications, and tangible acknowledgement, reinforces the intrinsic motivation that makes volunteering sustainable rather than draining. Employers who grant paid volunteering leave to their staff — a policy already adopted by many organisations in multiple countries — make community participation possible for people who would otherwise be unable to find the time. Local government communications that make community need visible and specific — naming the organisations, describing the roles, and demonstrating the impact — convert abstract goodwill into concrete action far more effectively than generalised appeals to civic duty.