Volunteering is changing — and bold leaders are rising to shift the system. Hosted by Tracey O’Neill — visionary consultant, mentor, trainer, and unapologetic disruptor — Making a Ruckus shakes up how we understand volunteering, leadership, and community. More than a podcast, it’s a movement to challenge old systems, measure what matters, and lead with courage, care, and connection.
Volunteering Is Not an Add-On: Inside the New US National Volunteer Strategy
I read a lot of volunteering strategy documents. Most of them don't make me stop.
The new Points of Light US National Volunteer Strategy did.
One line on page 13, Principle 2: make volunteering a core strategic function, not an add-on.
People in volunteer engagement have been making this argument for decades. But I have never seen it named as a principle in a national strategy, with the why and the how laid out alongside it.
In this episode, I unpack why this framing matters. Why the standard advice in most national strategies and frameworks — invest in infrastructure — only takes organisations so far. What the gap between investment and change actually looks like in practice. And the question every organisation should be asking about volunteer engagement, starting Monday morning.
Want to hear more?
Sign up for my newsletter (https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1893899/189751439380186980/share)for more rethinking on volunteer engagement, impact, and making a ruckus.
Be Bold. Stay Curious. Keep making a Ruckus.
Links:
Read the Points of Light National Volunteer Strategy: a roadmap for engaging more Americans in purposeful volunteering by 2035 (https://www.pointsoflight.org/national-volunteer-strategy/).
Read Volunteering Australia's National Strategy for Volunteering 2023-2033 (https://volunteeringstrategy.org.au/).
Connect:
Learn more: www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au (https://www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au/)
Join the conversation on LinkedIn: @traceyoneillcva (https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyoneillcva/)
Follow on Instagram: @tracey.volunteerengagement (https://www.instagram.com/tracey.volunteerengagement/)
Follow on Facebook: Tracey O’Neill Consulting (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578939917786)
3 Jul 2026
The Hidden Impact of Volunteering
What if some of the most important work in volunteer engagement happens long before anyone ever signs up to volunteer?
In this episode of Making a Ruckus, I explore the idea of hidden impact – the conversations, connections and moments of belonging that rarely appear in our reports, but shape communities in profound ways.
Drawing on a story from last week's conversation with Tom Gill and introducing the thinking behind my emerging Campfire Model, I challenge the assumption that community connection only matters if it leads to recruitment.
Instead, I ask a different question: what if connection is an outcome in its own right?
If you've ever felt that your impact reports capture what volunteers do but miss what volunteer engagement creates, this episode will encourage you to look beyond hours, headcounts and applications, and reconsider what counts as meaningful work.
Because perhaps our role isn't just to process people once they arrive.
Perhaps it's to make the distance between community and volunteering shorter in the first place.
Want to hear more?
Sign up for my newsletter (https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1893899/189751439380186980/share)for more rethinking on volunteer engagement, impact, and making a ruckus.
Be Bold. Stay Curious. Keep making a Ruckus.
Links:
Listen to episode 17 with Tom Gill, "People don't want to volunteer. They want to belong" (https://pod.link/1849526451/episode/OGQ0ODQ4ZWEtMWZlYS00NTU1LTk4NWItYThlZTg3NWI1Nzhh?view=apps&sort=popularity) where we explore community, belonging and the barriers that stop people from volunteering.
Connect:
Learn more: www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au (https://www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au/)
Join the conversation on LinkedIn: @traceyoneillcva (https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyoneillcva/)
Follow on Instagram: @tracey.volunteerengagement (https://www.instagram.com/tracey.volunteerengagement/)
Follow on Facebook: Tracey O’Neill Consulting (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578939917786)
23 Jun 2026
People Don't Want to Volunteer. They Want to Belong: a conversation with Tom Gill
Tom Gill doesn't work in the volunteering sector. He's a cultural placemaking consultant and writer for The Guardian, who spends his career studying how cities and communities create connection.
So, when he wanted to find community for himself, he didn't start with the research. He went looking for it in person, in his own neighbourhood.
In this episode, Tom and I talk about what he found: what happened when he tried to volunteer, why the invitation to get involved can feel more like a job application than an invitation at all, and what gets lost when connection moves online.
This one's for anyone who shapes how people first encounter your organisation, and for anyone who's wondered what volunteering might look like if we designed it around people and place rather than process.
Want to hear more? Sign up for my newsletter at www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au (https://www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au/) for fortnightly thinking on volunteer engagement, impact, and making a ruckus.
Be Bold. Stay Curious. Keep making a Ruckus.
Mentioned:
Tom's website and Substack: www.Tom-gill.com (http://www.Tom-gill.com)
Follow Tom on Instagram: @tomgill (https://www.instagram.com/tomgill/)
Tom's article How to find community in 2025: ‘The most important thing I’ve learned is I’m not alone’ (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/26/how-to-find-community-in-2025-the-most-important-thing-ive-learned-is-im-not-alone)
Tom's article Write a card, read a poem, take fewer photos: how to feel more human in 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jan/20/digital-detox-how-to-feel-more-human-in-2026)
Tom Gill's profile on The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tom-gill)
Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/)
Hugh Mackay's books (https://sites.google.com/view/hughmackay/books)
Organisations mentioned
Red Frogs, Australia (https://redfrogs.com.au/)
Riding for the Disabled, UK (https://rda.org.uk/)
Volunteering Australia (https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/)
Connecting the Cause (https://www.connectingthecause.com/)
City of Melbourne, Visitor Services (https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/visitor-services-volunteers)
Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres (https://www.anhca.org/)
Connect:
Learn more: traceyoneillconsulting.com.au (https://www.traceyoneillconsulting.com.au/)
Join the conversation on LinkedIn: @traceyoneillcva (https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyoneillcva/)
Follow on Instagram: @tracey.volunteerengagement (https://www.instagram.com/tracey.volunteerengagement/)
Follow on Facebook: Tracey O’Neill Consulting (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578939917786)
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
6 ratings
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