Kat Shepherdson, Deputy CEO at Hunts Forum, has worked in Hertfordshire instigating and developing their county-wide volunteer service. She speaks with Rob Jackson, co-author of The Complete Volunteer Management Handbook and From The Top Down, about the future of volunteer management during and after COVID-19, and what this means for voluntary organisations.

Rob Jackson has worked in the volunteering movement for more than 25 years, during which time he has led and managed volunteers and volunteering in education, advice, fundraising and children’s services settings at local, regional and national levels. Rob worked for Volunteering England for six years, most of which he spent as Director of Development and Innovation. Rob generated over £3 million of income, led a merger with Student Volunteering England and oversaw the delivery of a number of strategic development projects in the volunteering field. Rob also provided the secretariat to the groundbreaking Volunteer Rights Inquiry.

As well as his expertise in volunteering, Rob has strong links with the fundraising world. He spent six years as a member of the Institute of Fundraising’s Standards Committee and chaired the Institute’s working party which developed the UK’s first code of good practice on volunteer fundraising. In 2011 Rob established Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd and now provides consultancy, public speaking and training services on a range of topics, with strategic volunteer engagement remaining at the core of his work. Rob works with clients large and small in the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Rob continues to write extensively for the field. He co-authored the 2012 and 2019 editions of The Complete Volunteer Management Handbook, has his own blog and is Editor-In-Chief of e-Volunteerism.com.

In 2015 Rob co-authored “From The Top Down – UK edition” with respected American author and consultant, Susan J Ellis. The book is the only one of its kind aimed at senior managers in volunteer-involving organisations to help them understand their key strategic roles in effective volunteer engagement. Rob is an active volunteer, having previously served as chair of governors at a large Lincolnshire primary school and is the founder and moderator of UKVPMs, an email networking resource for UK based volunteer programme managers set up in 1997.

Format of the event

This event is a closed mic and video online webinar, which means no one will be able to see or hear you but you will be able to see and hear the speakers. We hope to include a question and answer section, if time allows. We ask that only organisations operating in Cambridgeshire or Peterborough register.

As numbers are limited , we ask no more than two delegates from each organisation attend this event.

Connecting Communities : A Conversation with Rob Jackson