Bart Wolput

The through-line

Across these sources Bart Wolput returns again and again to one claim: willingness to volunteer is not the bottleneck, the hassle around it is. "Meer mensen dan ooit willen zich engageren, en toch daalt de tijd die vrijwilligers geven. Het probleem is niet de bereidheid. Het is de rompslomp eromheen." Everything else he posts, from cost-reimbursement rules to platform consolidation for municipalities to training for coordinators to a nationwide fair calendar , is aimed at stripping away that rompslomp so that the willingness people already have can actually turn into hours given. Over the period covered, this shifts from purely operational posts (fairs, reimbursement rules, platform launches) toward campaign-building and visibility work (Iedereen Vrijwilliger, corporate volunteering, media coverage), suggesting a move from fixing the plumbing to scaling the message once the plumbing exists.

On helping without the hassle

His core diagnosis is explicit: "Helpen zou eenvoudig moeten zijn. Te vaak is het dat niet." He frames his own blog and platform as evidence-based rather than theoretical: "Op onze blog delen we wat 100.000+ matches ons leren: wat werkt in vrijwilligerswerk, vrijwilligerscoördinatie en het engagement van bedrijven. Uit de praktijk, niet uit de theorie." The same logic drives his practical, rule-heavy posts, like the breakdown of what a volunteer may legally be paid, because getting this wrong is "een van de meest gemaakte fouten rond kostenvergoedingen" , and his consolidation of scattered volunteer-fair announcements into one overview because that information is "verspreid over tientallen aparte aankondigingen" .

On vrijwilligerscoördinatie als vak

Wolput insists that coordinating volunteers is a genuine profession, not an informal add-on task: "Vrijwilligerscoördinator is een vak. Er bestaat ook een opleiding voor!" He praises organizations and local governments that build structure rather than just talk about the issue, citing Sint-Katelijne-Waver's platform consolidation as "een mooi voorbeeld van een gemeente die vrijwilligerswerk structureel ondersteunt in plaats van er alleen over te communiceren" , and pointing to the postgraduate program's promise to teach people "slimmer werven, onboarden, coachen, waarderen en behouden" .

On snelheid en resultaat

When challenged publicly, Wolput defends a results-first, move-fast ethic rooted in a stated utilitarian outlook: "Ik ben dan ook een Benthamiaanse utilitarist en geen Kantiaan ;). Resultaat is het belangrijkste." He accepts that this approach produces errors but treats that as the cost of pace: "En dat doet ge niet op een trotinette. Maar op een TGV van trial and error. En dan mist ge al wel eens iets, maar maakt ge wel snelheid in impact." He also frames himself, half self-deprecatingly, as someone driven by urgency rather than polish: "een lomp naïef boerke van de Kempen, dat de wereld in brand ziet staan en daar iets aan wil doen" , while stating he readily owns mistakes: "Ben de eerste om een gemaakte fout toe te geven en te corrigeren."

On zichtbaarheid en campagnevoering

A recurring later theme is making volunteering visible and socially normal, not just logistically easier. The Vrijwilligerschallenge asks public figures to model the behavior: "Wat als je burgemeester een halve dag komt vrijwilligen, en dat verhaal zelf deelt?" He frames the Iedereen Vrijwilliger campaign as a collective effort behind the scenes as much as in front of the camera: "Achter elk sterk verhaal staan mensen die ervoor kiezen om het mee te vertellen." The same visibility goal is voiced through a partner's language on corporate engagement: "Vrijwilligerswerk zichtbaarder, toegankelijker en inclusiever maken."

From the stage

In the Corda X talk, Wolput describes Give a Day directly as "Tinder for volunteering," a matching platform between company employees and non-profits working on social challenges ¹⁶. Unlike the written posts, which mostly announce finished features, campaigns, or rules, here he frames the platform as still in active development and explicitly invites the audience's input on which features to build and how to get businesses to collaborate with non-profits ¹⁶.

Takeaways

• Before recruiting volunteers, fix friction first: the willingness exists, the barrier is administrative and logistical rompslomp .
• Know the 2026 Belgian rules before paying volunteers anything: no hourly wages, forfait maximums of €44,02/day and €1.760,83/year (raised forfait €3.233,91/year for sport, oppashulp, ziekenvervoer), or reële kosten with proof .
• Treat volunteer coordination as a trainable profession: the AP Hogeschool postgraduate program covers recruiting, onboarding, coaching, valuing and retaining volunteers .
• Consolidate scattered logistics into one place, whether that is a municipality's vacatures (Sint-Katelijne-Waver) or a national fair calendar spanning eight confirmed events from September 2026 to April 2027 .
• Use visible, public commitments (a mayor volunteering for half a day, a national campaign) to shift volunteering from private goodwill to normalized public behavior .
• Expect trial-and-error and occasional public friction as the tradeoff for moving fast toward impact, a tradeoff Wolput states as a personal, utilitarian choice .