Volunteer Nation Podcast2023-04-11T14:41:41-04:00

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

033-New Research on Volunteer Funding with Dana Litwin

By |November 24th, 2022|Categories: Scale, Sustain, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , , |

November 24, 2022 Episode #033: New Research on Volunteer Funding with Dana Litwin This week, Tobi sits down with strategic volunteer engagement expert and consultant Dana Litwin to talk about a brand new research project in the volunteer sector, and how the [...]

032-How to Utilize Volunteers for Giving Tuesday with Julia Campbell

By |November 17th, 2022|Categories: Grow, Scale, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , , |

November 17, 2022 Episode #032: How to Utilize Volunteers for Giving Tuesday with Julia Campbell  This week, Tobi sits down with author and fundraising expert Julia Campbell to talk about ways for nonprofits to get involved in Giving Tuesday, and how to [...]

031-Rethinking the Volunteer Engagement Cycle with Lori Gotlieb

By |November 10th, 2022|Categories: Grow, Sustain, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , , |

November 9, 2022 Episode #031: Rethinking the Volunteer Engagement Cycle with Lori Gotlieb This week Tobi welcomes Lori Gotlieb to the show to talk about the volunteer engagement cycle, and some of the innovations going on throughout the sector right now.  Defining [...]

030-From Volunteer Disruption to Impact with Beth Steinhorn and Jerome Tennille

By |November 3rd, 2022|Categories: Sustain, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , , |

November 3, 2022 Episode #030: From Volunteer Disruption to Impact with Beth Steinhorn and Jerome Tennille This week, Tobi welcomes authors Beth Steinhorn and Jerome Tennille to discuss how organizations have responded to the volunteer disruption they’ve experienced over the past few [...]

029-Evolutions in Corporate Social Responsibility with Chris Jarvis

By |October 27th, 2022|Categories: Envision, featured, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , , |

October 27, 2022 Episode #029: Evolutions in Corporate Social Responsibility with Chris Jarvis This week, Tobi sits down with Chris Jarvis from Realized Worth to talk about corporate social responsibility (and what that oft-used term really means), as well as how to [...]

028-How Nonprofits Can Use Podcasts to Build Community with Anthony Wilson

By |October 20th, 2022|Categories: Build, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , , |

October 20, 2022 Episode #028: How Nonprofits Can Use Podcasts to Build Community with Anthony Wilson  Have you ever considered starting a podcast to tell the world about your organization? Podcast creators can strategically use podcasts to build community around a common [...]

026-Hiring? What to Include in Your Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

By |October 6th, 2022|Categories: Sustain, Volunteer Nation Podcast|Tags: , |

October 6, 2022 Episode #026: Hiring? What to Include in Your Volunteer Coordinator Job Description  What should be included in a volunteer coordinator job description? And is that even the right title for the job you're hiring for? Leaders of volunteers can [...]

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