Advancing The Profession

Beth Steinhorn, President of VQ Volunteer Strategies, discusses funding strategies for volunteer engagement, the importance of integrating volunteer engagement in grant applications, the impact of community connections on volunteer involvement, and embracing volunteer engagement as strategic leadership. The conversation highlights the need for investment in infrastructure and systemic change in volunteer engagement.

Explore toxic volunteer cultures, founder syndrome in nonprofits, and values-based recruitment in this episode. Learn how to navigate toxic dynamics and promote climate activism in volunteer engagement roles. Join the host in a conversation with Martin J. Cowling on impactful change, leadership, and volunteering.

The podcast discusses evolving volunteer practices post-pandemic, exploring informal volunteering during the pandemic, developing a national strategy for volunteering in Ireland, enhancing diversity and inclusion in volunteer strategies across Europe, and concludes with encouraging engagement and feedback.

Vanessa Theed is currently the Volunteer and Apprenticeship Strategy Manager at the Natural History Museum and Vice-Chair for the Heritage Volunteering Group (HVG).   Having worked in Volunteer Management for the last 16 years.  Vanessa has a wide variety of experience across different sectors as well as leading on the Investing in Volunteers (IiV) accreditation for best practice for several organisations.  Vanessa hosted one of the first HVG regional network events along with one of the first HVG Volunteer Conferences.  She has developed and supported HVG Inspire events working with local regional networks and has provided Volunteer Management Masterclasses at the Museum and Heritage Show.   Vanessa has lots of energy and enthusiasm and is extremely passionate about volunteering and all that it can bring to both volunteers and volunteer managers.  She doesn’t dwell on the negatives and likes to find solutions to problems and find new ways of working, developing initiatives that can support those we engage with and building collaboration across the sector.  The Heritage Volunteering Group can be found online at http://heritagevolunteeringgroup.org.uk Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

This episode's guest, Karen Janes, has a special offer for ATP listeners. Karen is offering a free online monthly mindfulness session, on the first Friday of every month, from 12.30-1pm GMT. Sign up to learn the benefits of mindfulness and practice in a small and friendly group setting. You will come away with tools you can use straight away to help you to manage stress, build resilience and bring more calm into your day. These are secular, trauma sensitive and workplace appropriate sessions that are accessible to complete beginners as well as existing practitioners. Click the link below to register and you’ll receive a reminder every month. Just sign up here - https://thekjway.ck.page/freemonthlysessions and come along whenever you can! >>>>> Karen Janes is the owner of The KJ way, delivering workplace mindfulness solutions to help organisations and their people to flourish and thrive. Before setting up The KJ way, Karen had a 20-year career in the charity sector working in senior volunteering engagement roles. She knows well some of the challenges people face, and that busy diverse teams need quick and easy practical tools and solutions they can integrate into their working day, and into the organisational culture, to enable them to be effective and to perform at their best. Mindfulness has been transformational in Karen’s life and she’s now passionate about bringing the benefits of mindfulness into the workplace so other people can experience them too. Karen now teaches organisations powerful evidence-based mindfulness tools that help their people to reduce their stress, increase their resilience, and enhance their focus, effectiveness and personal wellbeing. Through her workshops, talks and programmes, Karen shares practices people can immediately start using, both in their professional and personal lives, to create positive and meaningful change for themselves and their teams. All the practices she offers are secular, trauma sensitive and adapted to the workplace and suitable for people with or without previous mindfulness experience. To find out more Email – karen@thekjway.co.uk Call – 07919 561446 Visit the website – www.thekjway.co.uk Join the mailing list to receive weekly tips and tools, as well as invites to free monthly mindfulness sessions – https://thekjway.ck.page/register Follow on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thekjway/ Follow on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MindfulnessTheKJway/ Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

Helen Timbrell works as a Consultant, Researcher and Coach with past clients including Guide Dogs, Royal Voluntary Service, Scouts Association and SSAFA. Helen previously held the roles of Director of People and Organisational Development at Samaritans and Versus Arthritis. Prior to this Helen was Director of Volunteering and Participation at the National Trust, where she appointed the organisation’s first Head of Diversity and Inclusion. Helen’s PhD explored geographical variations in volunteering. She has an MBA (with distinction), with dissertation research exploring whether models of employee engagement and commitment could be used to explain volunteer engagement and commitment. Helen is a chartered member of the CIPD and holds an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change, with distinction. Dissertation research for her MSc explored how UK charities manage access to coaching and the implications for equity, diversity and inclusion in their approach. In March 2020 Helen published “What the bloody hell are you doing here?” a report of research comparing the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic volunteers with white volunteers in the same organisations. This research was funded by four UK charities with results being shared across the volunteering sector in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. When Director at the National Trust Helen previously commissioned research exploring the similarities and differences in managing staff and volunteers. This research, completed by De Montfort University, identified the importance of emotional labour in volunteer management. Results have been shared across the UK and led to the creation of a toolkit for volunteer managers and leaders of people. As a volunteer Helen has been a parkrun Event Director, a member of the HR Advisory Committee for Amnesty International UK, a Trustee for Girlguiding UK and a Director of the Association of Volunteer Managers. Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

Karl Wilding is a lecturer and consultant with wide-ranging experience of charities and the voluntary sector. A former CEO and director of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), he now lectures at the University of Kent’s Centre for Philanthropy. As a consultant, he supports organisations on public policy, governance and strategy. His research interests focus on voluntary sector resources, including volunteering and participation, together with a longstanding interest in futures work. Recent projects include using data to benchmark organisational finances, work on strengthening charity sector data, and analysis of the charity federation model. He is a director at MyCake, a trustee of Communities 1st and a board member at Creating the Future. Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

Sue Carter Kahl has spent her professional life working and volunteering in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Her work as President of Sue Carter Kahl Consulting is infused with lessons learned as a nonprofit executive, board member, fundraiser, volunteer, and researcher. Her current projects include consulting and training on the value that volunteers bring to organizations, translating research on volunteer impact into practitioner-friendly resources, and blogging at Volunteer Commons. Sue has a PhD in Leadership Studies and a Master’s in Social Work Administration. She serves as a pro bono executive coach through the Fieldstone Leadership Network in San Diego and on projects that help advance volunteerism. She is committed to bridging practice and academia in the volunteer field. You can find Sue on Twitter and LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/SueCarterKahl https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-carter-kahl/ Sue's website is https://suecarterkahlconsulting.com/ Sue's blog is https://www.volunteercommons.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=stats Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

Corina Sadler, CVA is Volunteer Resources Supervisor at the City of Plano, Texas and a National Service Commissioner for the OneStar Foundation in Austin, Texas. She is a Hispanic Volunteer Engagement Professional specializing in local government programs over her 17 year career. She enjoys providing volunteer management guidance to nonprofits and municipalities to unite communities through volunteerism along with volunteering for several national and global professional associations. Corina has trained volunteer managers from across the USA in-person and virtually. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in applied gerontology and nonprofit management from the University of North Texas. Corina has been a Certified Volunteer Administrator (CVA) since 2012. Engage — https://engagejournal.org Corina's LinkledIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinasadler/ Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com

In this last episode of season one, Rob chats with Faiza Venzant about equality, diversity and inclusion in advanced level volunteer engagement. Faiza Venzant CVA is the Executive Director of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration and General Manager, Volunteer Development at the YMCA of Greater Toronto. With 20 years of leadership experience in volunteer engagement, she continues this work with a goal of centering community amongst the profession, improving equity and access to volunteerism and increasing diversity amongst professional leaders of volunteers. In 2018, Faiza published her first children’s book entitled, My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up! Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay