Advancing The Profession

Catherine Johnstone is CEO of Royal Voluntary Service. In this episode, Catherine talks about the genesis and launch of the GoVo volunteering platform, what's happened since it was launched in October 2025, and where things might be going next.

Breauna Dorelus is the Founder and Cause Consultant at Connecting the Cause, a consultancy dedicated to dismantling harmful volunteer practices implemented by organizations and volunteers specifically towards Black and brown communities. She started her career as an AmeriCorps member and spent 10+ years in various volunteer management roles in humanitarian aid efforts, refugee resettlement and ministry. Breauna believes in community inclusion in all aspects of the volunteer process, and has dedicated her work to ensuring that service is centered around co-dreaming and not harmful charity. For the past 8+ years as a consultant, she's served as a keynote, speaker, session and webinar host, trainer, facilitator, and builder. Breauna has worked on multiple projects helping co-create ethos, philosophy, and practices for those who wish to walk alongside others. Her heart work is connected to seeing others have moments of reckoning and reimagination as they move from charity to Co-Dreaming. In her spare time, she loves playing with dinosaurs with her 4 and 3 year old, thrifting, and having a hot matcha latte.

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Lindsay Baker is a CVA-certified volunteer engagement expert with 25 years of experience leading volunteers in a variety of settings including universities, museums, special events, volunteer centres, and tourist attractions. Currently, Lindsay is the Senior Director, Volunteer Resources for the BC Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA), where she supports 3,300 volunteers at 35 locations across the province.

Lindsay is a lifelong learner who enjoys exchanging knowledge, insights, and experience with other volunteer management professionals. As a past president of the Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada (VMPC), Lindsay is well-versed in volunteer management standards and industry best practices. In her role as an Instructor for Conestoga College’s virtual Volunteer Management Certificate Program, she equips non-profit leaders with the tools and training they need to successfully engage volunteers.

When she is not volunteering herself, you are likely to find Lindsay listening to a book while walking her rescue dog, Phil.

Reach out to Lindsay Baker, CVA, on LinkedIn - she is always up for a coffee chat with colleagues across the globe.

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Mark Freeman is the Chief Executive of Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service (CCVS). He joined CCVS in October 2011 after working at Skills Third Sector, a national organisation promoting the importance of learning and development to charities and voluntary organisations.

He has extensive experience working in the sector at local, regional, and national levels. He has also been a trustee for a number of organisations both in Cambridge and nationally.

Mark has a Masters in Business Administration from the Open University and Post Grad Diplomas in Development Management and in Housing Management.

In his spare time, Mark is a father to two girls (which takes up most of his time) as well as a trustee at Camtrust, he is also involved with a number of groups in the village he lives in.

Most Sunday mornings you can find him volunteering at the Cambridge Junior Parkrun at Milton Country Park.

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Gabriella Civico is from the UK, but lived in Spain and Portugal for many years

before moving to Belgium and becoming a Belgian citizen. She has a degree in

Social Policy and Education from the University of Surrey (UK), and a Masters in

Education in E-learning from the University of Hull (UK). She worked with CEV

in her role as Project Manager for the EYV2011 Alliance from July 2010 until the

project’s completion in March 2012, when she became CEV Director. There, she

takes a leading role in advocating for better volunteering policies, contributing

her expertise at the European level in various European Union expert & advisory

groups, such as EQF, Europass, Mobility of Young Volunteers, as well as in the

European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre Advisory Group. She also represents

CEV in the EESC Liaison Group for European Civil Society Networks and has been

further involved in establishing Civil Society Europe in 2014 where she is

currently the President.

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From the initial spark of an idea in 2008 to a platform now empowering over 600,000 volunteers, Chris Martin is CEO and founder of TeamKinetic.

After studying a Masters in Sports Science at Leeds Metropolitan University and realising that he was ill-equipped for a ‘real job’, he set about building a company that did some good in the world and was a fun place to work.

Most recently, Chris has embarked on a new passion project alongside his TeamKinetic work, setting up a not-for-profit and a Community of Practice to advance the volunteer management profession's understanding and adoption of digital.

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Sarah has been a volunteer in a range of roles since she was a teenager and has worked in the volunteering sector for over 15 years. She supported volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations at Fife Voluntary Action for five years before acting as the national volunteering lead for two Scottish charities – Children First and Shelter Scotland. During this time, Sarah was an active member, and latterly the chair, of the Scottish Volunteering Forum.

Sarah became the Senior Policy Officer at Volunteer Scotland – Scotland’s national centre for volunteering - in 2022, advocating for the strategic contribution and interests of volunteers with Scottish decision-makers. Sarah recently moved to Voluntary Health Scotland as their Policy and Public Affairs Lead.

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Denise has been Chief Executive with Volunteer Now since August 2017 and prior to that Director of Engagement since 2010. She has extensive experience in supporting volunteer involvement. She has wide ranging expertise in public and organisational volunteering policy development, volunteering research and supporting good practice in volunteering. She is experienced in third sector governance issues through many years working at a senior level in the voluntary and community sector. Denise is an active volunteer for Portadown YMCA, Armagh Rural Transport and Belfast Central Mission.

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Tony is the founder and CEO of Better Impact, the creators of Volunteer Impact software. In the late nineties.

Tony founded a residential hospice in his hometown and, when looking for volunteer management software for the hospice, he discovered that none was web-based. He offered to build and donate something bespoke for the hospice and that began the journey that has led to organizations in multiple countries and in four languages using Better Impact software.

As the need for increasing the security and privacy of volunteer data has grown, Tony has kept up to date with current and emerging practices in the area and is happy to share them with Leaders of

Volunteers whenever he can.

https://www.betterimpact.com

https://welcome.betterimpact.com/ditch_the_spreadsheet

https://www.betterimpact.com/BSPC

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From a young age, Faiza Venzant's parents instilled a strong sense of volunteerism in herself and her two older brothers. They, as immigrants to Canada from Uganda in the early 70s made a successful transition into Canadian life with the help of many generous volunteers. A volunteer herself from a very young age, she has been an advocate for volunteer engagement and excellence in volunteer management for over 20 years. As a facilitator for the Community Action Poverty Simulation, Faiza is passionate about equity and access amongst volunteers and leaders of volunteers.

Faiza immigrated to the United States in 2021 and now serves as the Executive Director with the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration and an active member and volunteer with Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (AL!VE.) She has been a CVA (Certified in Volunteer Administration) since 2016.

In 2018, Faiza published her first children’s book entitled, "My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up!". As a mother of two young boys, she has not actually eaten any of her children.

Learn more about the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration at

www.cvacert.org

Read more about the ADEVI research at https://cvacert.org/adevi/

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Thanks to Awesome Panda for their work editing this episode. Find out more at https://www.awesomepandauk.com