Before 2010, there was a conceptual and policy shift in youth volunteering but with the adoption of the National Volunteer Strategy 2012-2020 (Nemzeti Önkéntes Stratégia 2012-2020), due to the greater emphasis on the socialisation of young people through compulsory school community service for secondary school students, volunteering in Hungary became interwoven mainly with the so-called 'civil sector'.

Formerly, between 2012 and 2022, volunteering was administered by the defunct Ministry of Human Capacities within the Deputy State Secretariat for Youth Policy and Equal Opportunities. As of the election in 2022, the Deputy State Secretariat for Young People in the Ministry of Culture and Innovation (Kulturális és Innovációs Minisztérium) took over the tasks related to youth, including volunteering. An essential Government actor in funding volunteering is the National Cooperation Fund (Nemzeti Együttműködési Alap).

Volunteering is first defined in the 2005 Act on voluntary activities and the National Volunteer Strategy. There is no strategy or law specifically regarding youth volunteering; also, the National Volunteer Strategy 2012-2020 does not define explicit goals to achieve concerning with young people, yet they are mentioned several times among the target groups.

In higher education, the legislation opens the possibility to include voluntary activities in one's studies.