Volunteering in 2026 and Beyond - Speakers

Sally Munday is the Head of Volunteering at the MS Society, where she leads the organisation’s vision for inclusive, empowering, and high impact volunteering experiences. She is passionate about ensuring volunteer leaders have the resources, tools, and knowledge they need to confidently support volunteers and deliver brilliant outcomes for the communities they serve.

Sally has worked in volunteering and community development throughout her entire career, spanning the heritage sector, public sector and now the charity sector. Before joining the MS Society she worked as Head of Volunteering at Home-Start UK, where she championed high quality volunteer practice and strengthened support for families across the UK.

With extensive experience shaping volunteer strategy, infrastructure and culture, Sally is dedicated to creating environments where volunteers feel valued, equipped, and inspired to make a difference.

Debbie joined The Felix Project in 2024 as Head of Volunteering. Following the recent merger with FareShare UK she is now the new national Head of Volunteering for the UK wide merged organisation.

Previously Debbie held a number of senior leadership roles at Marie Curie including Head of Volunteering and Chief of Staff. Here, she implemented a new HCM system (Oracle) and a new Target Operating Model across staff and volunteers before building a new People strategy. Before this she was Head of Volunteering at The Children's Society.

Having volunteered since she was 14 Debbie holds a strong respect for all volunteers but also the huge power of deploying a strong volunteering strategy. She is especially passionate about the impact a volunteer element can have on workforce planning.
Debbie graduated (a long time ago!) from The University of Exeter who have since named a volunteering award in recognition of her contribution to the sector.

Debbie has two children (Lottie aged 4 and Theo aged 2) and is a strong champion for supporting parents returning from parental leave and trying to make workplaces easier environments for new parents. Not to mention the ongoing balance of being a working parent!

Rachel King (she/her) is the National Volunteering Manager at RDA UK. She has worked in volunteering and community development across the public, private and third sectors over the last decade, including youth work and education, criminal justice, sport and physical activity, and more recently wildlife and conservation. Rachel brings lived experience of Bipolar Disorder and neurodivergence to her work in volunteer leadership and cares deeply about creating environments where people can thrive and grow in ways that are meaningful for them, whilst contributing to causes they care about. Rachel first experienced volunteering as a young person and has continued volunteering throughout her adult life. She recognises that this has only been possible due to a level of privilege, which continues to shape how she approaches volunteer leadership and her commitment to making volunteering more inclusive and accessible.

I have worked in volunteering teams at English Heritage since 2019. No two days are the same at English Heritage; I have developed new volunteering programmes to monitor the condition of historic sites & undertake maintenance, empowered fellow volunteer manages to grow their own programmes & helped to deliver a digital volunteer management system. The best part of my role, however, is getting to work alongside our own team of home-based volunteers who make the magic happen behind the scenes! Prior to English Heritage, I worked on a range of funded projects in the heritage sector, with a focus on volunteering & community engagement.

Chris Wade has dedicated over 25 years to charity leadership. His extensive career includes CEO, director, and trustee positions at national, federated, and local charities, giving him broad experience in maximising impact through people.

A respected voice in the sector, Chris has served for over a decade on the boards of Volunteering England and NCVO and chaired the National Network of Volunteer Involving Agencies, where he supported strategic volunteering development across the UK. His company, Time for Impact was founded on a simple belief: the gift of time has the power to create profound change. Their mission is to help organisations revolutionise their volunteering strategy by challenging traditional assumptions and unlocking the latent goodwill in their communities. They provide innovative and strategic thinking to help leaders widen participation and powerfully demonstrate their impact.

Chris is host of the Time for Impact Podcast, where they celebrate and share volunteerism learnings from across the globe.