The article presents the results of analysis of two empirical studies - public opinion polls of Sverdlovsk region’s residents. Based on a unified methodology assessing the participation of region’s residents in volunteer projects and actions, changes in volunteer practices that have occurred over the past three years are analyzed in the context of changes in the country’s socio-political agenda and taking into account active attention to this phenomenon from the authorities. The context of inhabitants’ volunteer activity in economic, political and sociocultural space of the Sverdlovsk region is described. The authors consider such institutional conditions as public assistance to volunteer initiatives, agenda, infrastructure and organizational changes in the third sector and regional government executive bodies, management decisions and actions of regional officials. The researchers turn to the survey of volunteers in the Sverdlovsk region, implemented in 2014, analyze the results of a survey of public opinion in the region, made in 2017. Unified methodological approaches and methodical grounds have determined the possibilities for assessing the dynamics of the Sverdlovsk region’s volunteer community. The article highlights key trends in the activity of the region's volunteers, and gives these processes a sociological assessment.