193. Building Influence with Impact with Chris Wade and Matthew Cobble 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

193. Building Influence with Impact with Chris Wade and Matthew Cobble

December 18, 2025 • Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA

How do volunteer leaders move from being seen as “extra hands” to strategic drivers of mission success?

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson is joined by Chris Wade and Matthew Cobble, co-hosts of the Time for Impact Podcast in the UK, for a practical and thought-provoking conversation about building influence through impact.

Together, they explore why volunteering needs to be reframed as community participation and talent, not just unpaid labor and how leaders of volunteers can use data, stories, and strategic thinking to elevate their role inside organizations.

This episode goes beyond counting hours or outputs and dives into how volunteer engagement directly contributes to outcomes, organizational strategy, and long-term change.

Full show notes: 193. Building Influence with Impact with Chris Wade and Matthew Cobble

Building Influence - Episode Highlights

[00:31] - Introducing Special Guests: Chris Wade and Matthew Cobble
[01:12] - Building Influence with Impact
[01:57] - Meet Chris Wade: A Leader in Volunteerism
[03:58] - Meet Matthew Cobble: A Journey in Volunteer Engagement
[07:42] - The Importance of Volunteerism in Today's World
[12:42] - Volunteers as a Strategic Asset
[14:10] - Measuring Impact and Building Influence
[24:12] - Challenges and Solutions in Volunteer Leadership
[31:15] - Hypotheses and Program Design
[32:18] - Vision Week and Volunteer Planning
[33:06] - Shifting Mindsets on Volunteerism
[34:12] - Strategic Planning and Data Utilization
[36:13] - Design Thinking in Volunteer Management
[37:39] - Collaborative Data Collection
[40:32] - Practical How-Tos for Volunteer Impact
[42:46] - Measuring Volunteer Impact
[53:44] - Collecting Evidence and Surveys

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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

Host