While technology has been embraced, for chief executive Jemma Toohey, the essence of volunteering has become clearer.

"We've had to dive in and make mistakes, which is always good," she said.

"While we need to do these things online, it's still really important that people can connect - there's got to be a mix."

The volunteering participation rate in Victoria was halved during the initial months of the pandemic.

According to the State of Volunteering Report, which is guiding the state government's first volunteering strategy, 40 per cent of Victorians over the age of 15 took part in activities in 2019.

Ms Toohey is providing feedback to the strategy's development.

"I'll be putting forward the regional perspective," she said.

"All my work in the last 35 years has been around volunteering and volunteer co-ordination and with some of the things we've learnt along the way, we've been able to create resources for the community.

"We've created a toolkit for volunteer managers - 15 years ago that came from my experience of going from place to place and not finding anything in the draw to help you get going."

The pandemic has meant this toolkit will be expanded to more sites through state government funding.

The "Way2Go" training was an extension of the organisation's original hardcopy manual and includes 40 modifiable templates that can be adapted for each organisation.

It guides volunteer managers in procedures and national standards.

"We'll be meeting on Zoom for a couple hours each month with organisations, and the best part is it's going to be done with interpreters," Ms Toohey said.

"The most important and current issue is COVID-safe volunteering and that's why Way2Go is going to have that element to it.

"The Volunteer Resource Bureau is very good at making things sustainable and long-term; Way2Go is a good example of that as it's in its 16th year."

But not even three decades' experience could have prepared Ms Toohey and the organisation for the pandemic.

"We did phone and online interviews for people, people still volunteered and we offered to do the basic police checks and referrals for certain organisations," she said.

"But a lot of the places weren't accepting volunteers or gave them a break.

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"We shifted our outreach to Mirambeena with Multicultural NSW funding so participants could walk to us, and do it safely at a difference.

"We want to bring people back into the fold."

As part of the National Network of Volunteer Resource Centres, AWVRB is pushing for long-term federal funding to be secured.

"From a national perspective, we're working very closely with eight other organisations across Australia that are mostly rural and regional - it's about keeping the rural and regional centres thriving," Ms Toohey said.

Consultation on the Victorian volunteering strategy is open until the end of the year with a draft strategy expected early next year.