Our Events

Leading & Inspiring Volunteers: Turning Commitment into Impact

Training Session

27/05/2027

Register here

Leading & Inspiring Volunteers: Turning Commitment into Impact

Volunteers bring valuable time, skills and commitment to organisations, but effective volunteer involvement requires thoughtful leadership. For CEOs and senior leaders, creating the right environment can help volunteers feel valued, supported and able to make a meaningful contribution.

Led by Volunteer Management Specialist Denise Hayward, this practical session will explore how to strengthen your approach to engaging, supporting and retaining volunteers. The focus is on helping leaders turn volunteer commitment into sustained involvement and greater organisational impact.

This session is part of the Empowering Leaders Programme. If you’re already registered for the full programme, you do not need to book this session separately — your place is already included. Want to find out more about the Empowering Leaders Programme? click here

Who is it for?

CEO, Senior Leaders, Trustees, Interim Executive

Date: 27/05/2027

Time: 12.00 - 2:30PM

Venue: CO3 Office, Belfast

Member Price: 129

Non-member Price: 179

Register here

Why Effective Volunteer Leadership Matters

Volunteers can make an important contribution to an organisation’s reach, capacity and impact. But attracting volunteers is only part of the challenge. Organisations also need to create an environment where people feel supported, valued and motivated to remain involved.

This session will help you consider how your leadership approach can strengthen volunteer engagement and support a positive experience for the people giving their time and skills to your organisation.

Register here
By the end of the session, you will:
  • Have a clearer understanding of effective volunteer leadership
  • Be better equipped to engage and support volunteers
  • Understand the importance of creating a positive volunteer experience
  • Have greater awareness of factors that can support volunteer retention
  • Be better equipped to turn volunteer commitment into meaningful organisational impact
Who will benefit most?

This session will benefit CEOs and senior leaders in organisations where volunteers play an important role. It is particularly relevant for leaders who want to strengthen how volunteers are engaged, supported and retained while creating an environment in which their contribution is recognised and valued.

Register here
This session is great for you if...
  • Your organisation depends on volunteers to support its work
  • You want to improve volunteer engagement and retention
  • You are looking for ways to better support and value your volunteers
  • You want to strengthen the relationship between volunteers and your organisation
  • You want to make the most of the skills and commitment volunteers bring
  • You have responsibility for developing a positive culture for volunteers

This session will be facilitated by…

Denise Hayward

Volunteer Now

Denise has been Chief Executive with Volunteer Now since August 2017 and prior to that Director of Engagement since 2010. She has extensive experience in public and organisational volunteering policy development, supporting volunteer involvement, volunteering research and supporting good practice in volunteering. She has knowledge of, and expertise in, third sector governance issues gained over many years working in the voluntary and community sector. Denise is an active volunteer for Tearfund.

What Members Say About CO3

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that CO3 brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

CO3 offer a wide range of courses for middle, middle managers, senior managers and chief executives within the third sector. Some of the programmes include the Leading Edge programme, there’s other leadership programmes available and then they also offer some micro learning sessions around how to present things like finances to your board of directors, reviewing your governance structure within the organisation and they would bring in some expert facilitators to deliver those sessions as well.

Martin Flynn
CEO, OCN NI

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that Co Three brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

“CO3 is always a great network for support, for encouragement, for advice, answers to tricky questions when you're really, really stuck. Overall, it's been a fantastic network of colleagues who are always there for guidance and encouragement whenever things are really tough.”

Karen Collins
Chief Executive, Aware NI

“It is so valuable having other people who are in a similar position that you can network with, you can share problems with, you can ask advice. And so my whole career, CO3 has been really, really important to me in providing those things.”

Roger Courtney
Founder & Director, Roger Courtney Consulting

“I think for me the CO3 is a safe space just to have a chat, to make connections and also to learn from other people who are in a similar position in their career as you are.”

Lisa Keys
Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Boys’ Brigade

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