Volunteer Nation

Originally used by businesses to improve customer service, journey mapping can also be applied to improving the volunteer experience of onboarding, training, and serving within your organization.    Journey mapping is a way of becoming a more purposeful architect of the volunteer experience. The process starts by identifying the key steps in your process and when you are most likely to lose volunteers.  In this week’s podcast, Tobi breaks down the steps to create the ideal journey map for your volunteers, and explains how this map can improve the overall volunteer experience for your team.  Full show notes: 019-Improve the Volunteer Experience with a Journey MapThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

As effective as email is for communication, it lacks the immediacy and relational feel that instant messaging can give. Email inboxes have a way of accumulating inbound messages, and important information can sometimes get lost in the digital clutter. In this week’s episode, Tobi shares how her team at VolunteerPro has been implementing tools like Slack for a couple of years, why they are an improvement over email or text messages in some situations, and how to effectively use them to help remote volunteer teams stay in touch. Full show notes: 018-How to Use Slack to Strengthen Volunteer TeamsThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

After 30+ years working with nonprofit organizations and more than a decade of nonprofit consulting, Tobi Johnson knows a thing or two about the sector.   It hasn’t always been an easy road, and in this week’s podcast, Tobi shares her wisdom and some hard-won lessons from along the way with these top 12 nonprofit leadership tips.    Full show notes: 017-My Top 12 Nonprofit Leadership Tips Learned the Hard WayThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

In this week’s podcast, Tobi chats with Joan Garry, founder of the Nonprofit Leadership Lab, on the topic of nonprofit boards.  This unique subset of service-minded leaders is often overlooked when discussing volunteers. Tobi and Joan take a closer look at the specific needs of this group and share some action steps to diversify and strategically fill your own nonprofit board with the right people for the job.     Full show notes: 016-Nonprofit Boards with Joan GarryThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

Take a moment to think about your current online volunteer postings. Do those postings share the inspiring mission of your organization? Do they include photos of happy volunteers in action, and share why the posted opportunity is needed and important?  Or do your posts simply list the shift, the day, and the duties, hoping that somebody out there just really wants to come work for free?When you take the time to consider how you are messaging your volunteer opportunities, you can better see ways to more effectively recruit volunteers online by building a sense of vision and value.   In this week’s podcast, Tobi welcomes guest Jennifer Bennett from VolunteerMatch to discuss effective strategies for recruiting volunteers online, and what to do if your current online recruiting efforts are being met with the sound of chirping crickets. Full show notes:  015-Recruiting Volunteers Online with Jennifer BennettThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

We are definitely at a crossroads in the volunteer management sector. The last two years have taught us that some of our established ways of thinking, recruiting, and serving as volunteers are no longer sustainable for the future growth and health of volunteerism.Faced with this realization, and recognizing the opportunity such a transitional moment presented to change course, five organizations in the UK recently combined their efforts and knowledge to spearhead the creation of the Vision for Volunteering.This report is an aspirational manifesto on what volunteering could be, and it shares a bold volunteer vision for the future if we all made the commitment to embrace change and take intentional action in the areas of awareness, appreciation, equity, power, inclusion, collaboration, and experimentation.This week, Tobi welcomes guest Rob Jackson to discuss the Vision for Volunteering report and the long-term sustainability of volunteer programs.Full show notes: 014 - New Volunteer Vision with Rob JacksonThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

The pros of volunteer word-of-mouth are pretty obvious. It’s free, and your volunteers are doing the work of spreading the word and recruiting their friends to your cause.  But…have you considered how it might affect the diversity of your team?   People tend to spend time with others of similar interests and at the same stage in life. So volunteers naturally recruit more volunteers that are like themselves. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it can result in a lack of diversity or worse, the idea that only a certain kind of person can volunteer at your nonprofit.  In this week’s podcast, Tobi takes a look at volunteer word-of-mouth recruiting, and how this powerful tool is working all the time on behalf of your organization (for good or not-so-good). Full show notes: 013 - Is Volunteer Word of Mouth All It's Cracked Up to Be Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

This week Tobi is getting real with some stories from her early days of volunteer training and some of the things she wishes she’d known back then. From the days of forgetting an extra lightbulb for the overhead projector to now, Tobi’s sharing her nine biggest early mistakes so you don’t have to make them, too.   From forgetting to focus volunteer training on...you know, the volunteers, to automatically assuming "training" is the solution to every problem, Tobi relates her Hall of Shame moments (with a cringe and some laughter) to help others along the way. Full show notes: 012 - Training Volunteers What I Wish I'd KnownThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

While diversity, equity, and inclusion are familiar terms in weekly meetings and corporate goal setting, the reality is much more complex. It takes intention and effort to do them well, and it is incredibly easy to get them wrong.  Well-meaning initiatives for inclusive volunteering can backfire when organizations are not truly prepared to welcome differences, receive contributions from new voices, and allow input from diverse perspectives. This week’s podcast is Tobi’s manifesto on the idea of inclusive volunteering, and she is taking an unflinching look at what “inclusion” can really look like in the workplace.    Full show notes: 011 - Is Your Org Ready for More Inclusive Volunteering? Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.

Service learning can be one of those hard-to-define concepts in volunteer management, and it definitely has its own set of challenges and benefits. In this episode, Tobi welcomes guest Brian Halderman for a deep dive into what service learning is and how it can benefit your organization. Tobi and Brian discuss the history of service learning along with the changing face (and names) of this field of work. Some might call it community-engaged learning, while others call it critical service learning, student service, or something else entirely. Whatever label you use, Brian gives you some common identifying features to help define the purpose of service learning and better understand the kind of value this type of service can provide to your organization. Brian also examines the differences between successful and unsuccessful service-learning partnerships with specific research, tips, and examples from his own experience, and shares some effective ways to approach educational institutions to explore potential partnerships.  Full show notes: 010 - Service Learning with Brian HaldermanThanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach more people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at TobiJohnson.com. For any comments or questions, email us at WeCare@VolPro.net.