211. Best Practices & Community Spirit with Volunteering New Zealand Artwork

Volunteer Nation

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!

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Volunteer Nation

211. Best Practices & Community Spirit with Volunteering New Zealand

April 23, 2026 • Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA • Episode 211

0:00 | 1:00:53

Volunteer engagement doesn't exist in a vacuum—it's deeply shaped by community values, national infrastructure, and a spirit of collective care. In New Zealand, where over 115,000 not-for-profits operate and most are volunteer-led, best practices for volunteer management must reflect local culture and real-world challenges like low tech adoption and the need for more informal opportunities.

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, host Tobi Johnson welcomes Marg McLachlan and Heidi Quinn from Tūao Aotearoa Volunteering New Zealand. They share how their organization developed best practice guidelines through a genuine co-design process, centering volunteer voices and using plain language to make principles accessible. The conversation also covers Volunteering New Zealand’s role in advocacy, research, and training, and how community cohesion is vital to a country with a small population.

If you're looking to move beyond generic volunteer management and learn how community-driven, co-designed guidelines can strengthen your program, this episode offers practical insights and a inspiring look at how one country is putting community spirit at the heart of volunteer engagement.

[00:00] - Introduction to Community-Centered Volunteer Best Practices
[12:15] - Structure and Size of New Zealand’s Volunteer Sector
[22:30] - Challenges in Volunteer Management
[49:23] - Tips for Developing Standards and Getting Buy-In
[54:26] - Challenges Around Volunteer Exit and Succession Planning
[60:07] - Values, Language, and Grounding Standards in Purpose
[64:32] - How to Learn More and Connect with Volunteering New Zealand

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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.

Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA

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