Welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast!
Weekly interviews, big hat thinking, quick wins, and smart strategy to help you
engage your community and make a bigger impact.
Welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast!
Weekly interviews, big hat thinking, quick wins, and smart strategy to help you
engage your community and make a bigger impact.
The Volunteer Nation Podcast
Join Tobi and her special guests each week to learn how charities, causes, campaigns, congregations, and companies leverage the power of volunteerism to create a better world.
About the Show
Nonprofit leadership author, coach, and expert Tobi Johnson shares weekly tips to help charities build, grow, and scale exceptional volunteer teams. Discover how your nonprofit can effectively coordinate volunteers who are reliable, equipped, and ready to help you bring about BIG change for the better.
Rather than continuing to “do more with less,” achieve abundance for your organization by engaging community talent that helps you do more with more.
Society is evolving and so, too, is volunteerism. With over 25 years of experience working in nonprofits, public sector agencies, and grassroots campaigns Tobi is known for her modern “big hat” thinking and straight talk about what it takes to achieve success in today’s world.
You will learn how to coordinate volunteers, improve the volunteer experience, recruit volunteers, appreciate volunteers, and do it all more efficiently with the right volunteer management software and digital tools. It’s a mix of interviews and solo shows you’re not going to want to miss.
So, if you’re ready to ditch the stress and harness the power of people to fuel your good work, you’re in exactly the right place. Hit subscribe and let’s DO this!
Your Host
Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA is an internationally sought-after expert, consultant, advisor, and master trainer in volunteer engagement. She is known for her modern thought leadership, highly practical evidence-based strategies, and innovative, “big hat” thinking around engaging, supporting, and acknowledging the work of volunteers. She is the President of Tobi Johnson & Associates, a consulting firm whose mission is to help nonprofit organizations make connections with remarkable volunteers. In 2015, she founded VolunteerPro, an online training and networking community for leaders of volunteers. She is also co-host of the Time + Talent Podcast with Jennifer Bennett of VolunteerMatch.
Tobi has over 30 years direct experience in nonprofit management, program development, program coordination, training delivery and learning design across a wide range of charities and government agencies. She wrote Chapter 1 of Volunteer Engagement 2.0: Ideas and Insights for Transforming Volunteer Programs in a Changing World. Each year, her firm also conducts the Volunteer Management Progress Report, a global state-of-the-industry survey. In 2022, over 1,300 professionals from 28 countries participated.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Tobi is a graduate of the University of Washington and has a master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She now lives in East Tennessee with her husband and feline office assistant, Bailey.
Latest Episodes
205 – My Top Time Management Tips for Overwhelmed Volunteer Managers
March 12, 2026 Episode #205: My Top Time Management Tips for Overwhelmed Volunteer Managers Managing volunteers often means juggling a wide range of responsibilities. From responding to emails and coordinating schedules to planning events and maintaining relationships, volunteer leaders frequently feel pulled in many directions [...]
204 – Transforming Your Volunteer Strategy: A Case Study with ScholarMatch
March 5, 2026 Episode #204: Transforming Your Volunteer Strategy: A Case Study with ScholarMatch Strengthening a volunteer strategy is not always about fixing a struggling program. Sometimes it is about preparing a successful program for growth. In this episode, Tobi Johnson [...]
203 – Preventing Volunteer Burnout – New Research with Paul Clarke
February 26, 2026 Episode #203: Preventing Volunteer Burnout - New Research with Paul Clarke Volunteer burnout is not always caused by time, workload, or lack of commitment. In many cases, it happens when leaders begin to feel less effective in their [...]
202 – Volunteer Events without the Headaches – My Training Takeaways
February 19, 2026 Episode #202: Volunteer Events without the Headaches - My Training Takeaways Volunteer events can be some of the most powerful tools nonprofits have, but they can also be some of the most stressful. In this episode, Tobi Johnson shares key [...]
201 – How a Lead Magnet Can Help You Recruit On-Demand Volunteers
February 12, 2026 Episode #201: How a Lead Magnet Can Help You Recruit On-Demand Volunteers What if you never had to panic-recruit volunteers again? Scrambling to find 25 volunteers by next week is stressful, reactive, and exhausting. In this episode of [...]
200 – 10 Lessons from 200 Episodes – The Volunteer Nation Through the Years
February 5, 2026 Episode #200: 10 Lessons from 200 Episodes - The Volunteer Nation Through the Years The 200th episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast marks a major milestone. After four years, hundreds of conversations, and insights from volunteer leaders around [...]
199 – The Future of Volunteerism – Trends & Predictions Part 2
January 29, 2026 Episode #199: The Future of Volunteerism - Trends & Predictions Part 2 In this episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson continues her deep dive into the future of volunteerism with Part 2 of her trends and predictions series. Building on the first [...]
198 – The Future of Volunteerism – Trends & Predictions Part 1
January 22, 2026 Episode #198: The Future of Volunteerism - Trends & Predictions Part 1 In this episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson shares Part 1 of her 2026 trends and predictions for the future of volunteerism. This is the first half [...]
197 – Behind the Scenes of 10 Years of Industry Research with Allison Russell – Part 2
January 15, 2026 Episode #197: Behind the Scenes of 10 Years of Industry Research with Allison Russell – Part 2 In part 2 of our behind-the-scenes series on the Volunteer Management Progress Report, Tobi Johnson returns with Allison Russell, Assistant Professor of [...]
196 – Behind the Scenes of 10 Years of Industry Research with Pam Kappelides & Allison Russell – Part 1
January 8, 2026 Episode #196: Behind the Scenes of 10 Years of Industry Research with Pam Kappelides & Allison Russell – Part 1 To mark 10 years of the Volunteer Management Progress Report (VMPR), Tobi Johnson hands the mic to nonprofit scholar Allison [...]
195 – The Top 10 Volunteer Nation Podcast Episodes for 2025 – Our Countdown
January 1, 2026 Episode #195: The Top 10 Volunteer Nation Podcast for 2025 - Our Countdown As we step into a brand-new year, Tobi takes listeners on a reflective walk through the most popular Volunteer Nation Podcast episodes of 2025, sharing [...]
194 – Beyond the Performative – The Price of Nice with Amira Barger
December 24, 2025 Episode #194: Beyond the Performative - The Price of Nice with Amira Barger In this episode of Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson welcomes back Amira Barger, award-winning communications executive, educator, and author of The Price of Nice: Why Comfort [...]