Pivoting in the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic proved a watershed moment for Volunteer Engagement the world over. For many, it marked the end of a time where volunteers were plentiful, funding readily available and program stability an almost certainty. COVID meant that many organisations had to furlough their volunteer teams and many volunteer leadership positions were lost. For many volunteer involving agencies, the road to recovery has been a long one and has evolved into a landscape looking vastly different to that which existed previously.

While the above scenarios were true for so many of us, we have heard a lot less about those programs and leaders who, through necessity, found ways to pivot, re-invent themselves and even flourish in the face of the COVID-19 adversity.

In this Engage feature article, three Leaders of Volunteer Engagement – Marie Howell, Rut Kessel and Milad Ahmed – discuss with Andy Fryar how they managed to pivot and succeed during COVID while many of their contemporaries experienced feelings of loss and even failure. What were the secrets to their success? What lessons still stand out? And what can we all learn from their experiences? In this article, we find out.