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
161 – Leadership Principles for Sparking Change – Part 2 with Jenni Field
May 8, 2025 Episode #161: Leadership Principles for Sparking Change – Part 2 with Jenni Field In this powerful follow-up episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson continues her insightful conversation with Jenni Field, diving deeper into the leadership principles [...]
160 – Leadership Principles for Sparking Change – Part 1 with Jenni Field
May 1, 2025 Episode #160: Leadership Principles for Sparking Change – Part 1 with Jenni Field In this episode of Volunteer Nation, Tobi Johnson sits down with leadership and communications expert Jenni Field for an insightful conversation about what it really [...]
159 – How to Hire a Future Proof Volunteer Coordinator
April 24, 2025 Episode #159: How to Hire a Future Proof Volunteer Coordinator In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson breaks down exactly what it takes to hire a future proof volunteer coordinator who can lead with confidence [...]
158 – Nonprofit Capacity Building with the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond
April 17, 2025 Episode #158: Nonprofit Capacity Building with the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond In this episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, host Tobi Johnson sits down with Diana Villarreal and Gail Cavallaro from the Community Foundation for greater [...]
157 – A Fresh Take on Volunteer Position Descriptions
April 10, 2025 Episode #157: A Fresh Take on Volunteer Position Descriptions In this episode of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson challenges the status quo of traditional volunteer position descriptions. She explores why the standard, task-heavy approach often falls flat [...]
156 – People-first Leadership & Strengthening Teams with Dr. Rob Lion
April 3, 2025 Episode #156: People-first Leadership & Strengthening Teams with Dr. Rob Lion In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson invites Dr. Rob Lion onto the show to discuss people-first leadership and fostering stronger collaboration between paid [...]
155 – Entitled or Exploited? Part 2 Volunteer Responsibilities AND Rights
March 27, 2025 Episode #155: Entitled or Exploited? Part 2 Volunteer Responsibilities AND Rights In this episode of Volunteer Nation, host Tobi Johnson dives deep into the ethical and fair treatment of volunteers. She introduces the Volunteer Bill of Rights, outlining ten essential [...]
154 – Entitled or Exploited? Part 1 – Volunteer Bias in Organizations
March 20, 2025 Episode #154: Entitled or Exploited? Part 1 - Volunteer Bias in Organizations In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi discusses the concept of volunteer bias in organizations, focusing on the theme, Entitled or Exploited. Using data [...]
153 – Building Nonprofit Capacity at Hire Heroes with Michele Wiesner
March 13, 2025 Episode #153: Building Nonprofit Capacity at Hire Heroes with Michele Wiesner In this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast, Tobi welcomes Michele Wiesner, Director of Capacity Building at Hire Heroes USA onto the show! Michele discusses her extensive [...]
152 – What Every Nonprofit Executive Should Know About Community Engagement
March 6, 2025 Episode #152: What Every Nonprofit Executive Should Know About Community Engagement In this episode, Tobi draws insights from the Volunteer Management Progress Report and discusses the perennial challenges in engaging volunteers, particularly respect and buy-in from leadership. She [...]
151 – Reimagining Nonprofit Membership & Volunteer Engagement with Alice Glenn
February 27, 2025 Episode #151: Reimagining Nonprofit Membership & Volunteer Engagement with Alice Glenn In this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast, Tobi Johnson is joined by Alice Glenn, President of the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI). Tobi and Alice [...]
150 – Launch a Community-based Advocacy Program in Six Steps
February 20, 2025 Episode #150: Launch a Community-based Advocacy Program in Six Steps In this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast, Tobi focuses on nonprofit advocacy, emphasizing the importance of advocacy in uncertain times. Tobi outlines a detailed six-step plan to [...]