Advancing The Profession

Sarah has expertise in volunteer involvement and not-for-profit strategy and governance. Sarah is the National Strategy Advisor at Volunteering Australia and recently led the development of Australia’s first National Strategy for Volunteering in a decade.

This year, Sarah is commencing her Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Australia, researching the relationship between volunteering and ‘mattering’. She holds degrees in Arts, Psychology, and Law.

Sarah is also a passionate volunteer in animal welfare and mental health.

You can find out more about the Australian National Volunteering Strategy at https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/get-involved/national-strategy-for-volunteering/

Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay

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

Gethyn has spent over 20 years working in the voluntary and community sector across England and Wales in fields as diverse as sport, youth, environment and disability.

Specialising in volunteering initiatives for the past decade he’s worked on strategy for the London 2012 legacy, within central government at the height of the Covid pandemic and run national programmes at Volunteering Matters.

A freelancer since 2020, Gethyn now focuses on helping non-profits to develop their business, capture their impact and enhance their volunteer programmes. In recent times he has supported the roll out of a range of national, high-profile volunteering initiatives, including the Vision for Volunteering and The Big Help Out.

The diversity of these approaches to volunteering provides the thread that now runs through his work - a belief that volunteering is largely still misunderstood or under-valued, but that by engaging in all of its forms we can help raise it to a level of appreciation and awareness that its social value clearly justifies.

https://www.gethynwilliams.net

Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay

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

As President of VQ Volunteer Strategies, Beth Steinhorn partners with organizations and their leadership to increase impact through strategic and innovative engagement.

The author of multiple books and articles – including serving as co-editor of the recently published book "Transforming Disruption to Impact: Rethinking Volunteer Engagement for a Rapidly Changing World" – she is part of the national conversation about strategic

engagement, frequently provides training on the topic, and consults with organizations throughout the US and Canada.

Transforming Disruption To Impact — https://disruptiontoimpact.com

Leighty Foundation materials on investing in volunteer engagement — http://www.leightyfoundation.org/volunteer-engagement/invest-volunteer-engagement/

Initiative For Strategic Volunteer Engagement — https://strategicvolunteerengagement.org

Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay

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

Martin J Cowling is passionate about effective change, leadership and impact.

He has been a volunteer, hands-on manager, leader, researcher, and consultant working with very small grassroots organisations through to large social purpose organisations, corporates and governments.

He works with clients in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, UK and the USA.

He led the Office of the Not-for-Profit Sector for the Australian government and helped establish the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission (ACNC) in 2013.

Martin is a skilled presenter, ranked as one of the top 100 speakers on philanthropy by Philanthropy 101. He believes that people are the key to an organisation's success and is passionate about ensuring

that staff (paid and unpaid) have mutually beneficial relationships and contribute to making lasting positive change.

Martin is a trusted partner for organisations, offering a comprehensive range of services to empower leaders, strengthen teams, and drive impactful change. Through personalised coaching, training, resource mobilisation support, and strategic guidance, he equips organisations with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to achieve lasting impact, organisational excellence, and social change.

Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay

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

Stuart is the Learning and Capacity Building Manager with Volunteer Ireland. Previously he was Volunteer Manager with a leading homeless charity and the manager of a Volunteer Centre for several years. Stuart has worked in a range of roles in the third sector since and has a background in youth work.

He has extensive direct Volunteer management experience with managing volunteer teams of over 1,430 volunteers. He is committed to volunteerism, and to fostering a vibrant and active community, where everyone can volunteer without restrictions, regardless of background or capacity, and achieve full participation by their voluntary activity.

Connect with Stuart

Email: [email protected]

X / Twitter: @StuartGarland | @VoluntIreland

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/StuartGarland

Web: www.volunteer.ie/training

Music by Zen_Man from Pixabay

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

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 – [email protected]

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