
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.
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
062 – 10 Ways to Create an Exceptional Volunteer Experience
June 15, 2023 Episode #62: 10 Ways to Create an Exceptional Volunteer Experience Not all volunteer experience are equal and the same. To truly make an impact, organizations must focus on creating exceptional volunteer experiences that not only benefit the organization, [...]
061 – Training for Nonprofits – How We’ve Got it All Wrong
June 8, 2023 Episode #61: Training for Nonprofits - How We've Got it All Wrong In today's episode, Tobi discusses about training for nonprofits and how we've got it all wrong. When we do launches and promotions at VolunteerPro, we ask our [...]
060 – Giving Circles and Collective Philanthropy with Sara Lomelin
June 1, 2023 Episode #60: Giving Circles and Collective Philanthropy with Sara Lomelin In today's episode, Tobi interviews Sara Lomelin who is an expert in Giving Circles and collective philanthropy. Here at VolunteerPro, we're also very interested in doing that when [...]
059 – 6 Must Have Strategies to Recruit Volunteers Using Your Website
May 25, 2023 Episode #059: 6 Must Have Strategies to Recruit Volunteers Using Your Website In today's episode, Tobi talks about how to improve your recruiting volunteers on your website. Tobi worked with many coaching clients around their volunteer recruitment strategies, [...]
058 – Innovative Models in Volunteerism Research with Lucas Meijs
May 18, 2023 Episode #058: Innovative Models in Volunteerism Research with Lucas Meijs In today's episode, Tobi interviews Lucas Meijs about innovative models in volunteerism research. Lucas has been writing about and researching volunteerism for three decades. The discussion revolves around [...]
057 – The Compassionate Instinct & Bringing Wonder Back to Work with Dacher Keltner
May 11, 2023 Episode #057: The Compassionate Instinct & Bringing Wonder Back to Work with Dacher Keltner In today's episode, Tobi features Dacher Keltner and discusses the compassionate instinct, bringing wonder and awe back into our lives, and becoming more resilient. [...]
056 – The Role of Voluntarism & Volunteerism in America with Elisabeth Clemens
May 4, 2023 Episode #056: The Role of Voluntarism & Volunteerism in America with Elisabeth Clemens In today's episode, Tobi interviews Dr. Elisabeth Clemens from University of Chicago who is an expert in how volunteerism sits and civic society sits in [...]
055 – How to Get Your CVA Credential with Faiza Venzant
April 27, 2023 Episode #055: How to Get Your CVA Credential with Faiza Venzant Today's episode, we are talking with Faiza Venzant on how to get your Certified in Volunteer Administration credential. Faiza Venzant, CVA is the Executive Director of the [...]
054 – National Volunteer Week 2023 – A Year to Be Grateful
April 20, 2023 Episode #054: National Volunteer Week 2023 - A Year to Be Grateful Today's episode, we're going to talk about National Volunteer Week 2023. Our theme is a year to be grateful. A year to be grateful, and Tobi [...]
053 – Promoting a Healthy Workplace Culture for Volunteers with Marianne Chance
April 16, 2023 Episode #053: Promoting a Healthy Workplace Culture for Volunteers with Marianne Chance In today's episode, we are going to be talking with Marianne Chance about promoting a healthy workplace culture for volunteers, not only for volunteers, but in [...]
052 – New Volunteer Research with Jennifer Bennett and Darcy Hughes of VolunteerMatch
April 6, 2023 Episode #052: New Volunteer Research with Jennifer Bennett and Darcy Hughes of VolunteerMatch We are pleased to discuss and bring to our audience a new research report from my friends at VolunteerMatch and how we connect hopeful and [...]
051 – 10 Reasons Why Volunteerism is Important (Way Beyond the Fluff!)
March 30, 2023 Episode #051: 10 Reasons Why Volunteerism is Important (Way Beyond the Fluff!) April, which is worldwide volunteer month, is set to start. I wanted to take some time to reflect on the significance of volunteering. And I want [...]