Making a Ruckus

For our very first interview on Making a Ruckus, I’m joined by someone who has shaped the thinking of volunteer engagement professionals around the world for more than 30 years — Rob Jackson.

In this wide-ranging and deeply energising conversation, we look back at three decades of volunteer engagement:
what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what still desperately needs a rethink.

Rob reflects on the biggest shifts he’s seen — the hopefu...

This year’s International Volunteer Day launches the 2026 UN International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development — and there has never been a more important time to rethink how we recognise and value volunteers.

In this episode, Tracey O’Neill flips the script on traditional volunteer appreciation. Instead of asking “How do we thank volunteers for what they do?”, she asks the bigger question:

“How do we honour who volunteers...

For most of my career, I thought I knew exactly what volunteering meant.  

A clear definition.

A neat set of boundaries.

A shared understanding across our sector. 

But the more I paid attention to how people actually show up for each other in community, the messier — and more interesting — the word became.

 In this episode, I explore why volunteering has never had a single agreed definition — not in research, not in practice, and cert...

What if volunteers aren’t walking away — they’re just choosing a path that feels right for them?

In Episode 3 of Making a Ruckus, Tracey O’Neill explores the metaphor of Elephant Paths — those natural shortcuts peoplecarve when the “official path” just doesn’t make sense for them. And what these paths tell us about volunteer behaviour today.

Instead of seeing low recruitment conversion or disengagement as a sign that people don’t wan...

What if people still want to volunteer — they just don’t want to do it the way our systems expect them to? In this episode of Making a Ruckus, Tracey O’Neill challenges one of the biggest myths in volunteer engagement: the “recruitment problem.”

We keep hearing it: “No one wants to volunteer anymore.”
But what if that’s not true?

Tracey explores how outdated processes, rigid roles, and under-resourced leadership have created unnec...

In this episode, Tracey O’Neill launches Making a Ruckus on International Volunteer Managers Day (5 November) — a day that honours the leaders who don’t just manage volunteers but mobilise communities, challenge systems, and create change that truly matters.

The 2025 IVM Day theme, “Be Bold. Make Change.”, isn’t just a slogan — it’s a call to action. Tracey explores what boldness really means in volunteer engagement: not being the l...

Volunteering is changing — and so are the people leading it.

Welcome to Making a Ruckus: Rethinking Volunteer Engagement, the podcast shaking up how we think about volunteering, leadership, and community.

This is your space — and ours — for the disruptors, dreamers, and doers daring to rethink what volunteering can be, challenge old systems, and create change that truly matters.

Because making a ruckus isn’t about being loud — it’s ab...