"Nostalgia Is Not a Strategy": Modernizing Volunteer Engagement Can't Wait

Photo from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-speech-davos-rules-based-order-9.7053350 by Markus Schreiber from The Associated Press. Mark Carney speaks at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Is Canada having a moment? And I'm not just talking about Heated Rivalry fandom.

Yesterday (January 20, 2026), my Prime Minister Mark Carney made a speech in Davos that is being called "a landmark" and "unmissable". Like many other over-educated Canadian millennials, I first heard snippets of it on CBC's Your World Tonight.

When I heard "Nostalgia is not a strategy", I stopped in my tracks and put writing this blog post in my calendar.

I'm not as versed in politics as I'd like to be, and I don't even agree with everything Carney says in this speech. The middle part is an ad for his government's work since he was elected, and an ad for how Canada is strong, reliable, and here to do the right thing. I'm proud to be Canadian, but we definitely don't do the right thing often enough.

Did you know that Canada is one of Palantir's biggest funders?

Did you know that one of Canada's fastest-growing provinces passed legislation that actively harms Trans people in December 2025?

Did you know that Canada committed to 94 Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action in 2015, but 44% of those are not started or stalled?

Tangent aside, I'm here to talk about volunteer engagement and to share something I've said in several workshops over the past two years: "traditional" volunteer engagement models and expectations don't work anymore.

How most nonprofits work with volunteers was developed in the 1950s. Life back then meant:

• Middle-class families had one parent (let's be honest- usually the woman) stay at home. Once her children were in school for 6 hours a day, she had the time and capacity to volunteer.

• Students in high school and post-secondary had "free time" to share, and would volunteer to learn new things and build their networks.

• Retirees would stay in the same community for many years- usually until they died. They would volunteer regularly and were reliable in giving their time.

What does life look like in 2026? You know it...

• Both parents in most two-parent families are working. Those combined incomes still may not be enough to keep up with the rising cost of living.

• Students are prioritizing paid work to pay the bills. If they have "free time" they are too burned out to give a care, or take on gig work to try to get ahead.

• Older adults are staying the workforce for longer: some because they want to, but many because they can't afford to retire.

• Many seniors are caregiving for their grandchildren (because even for families who can afford daycare, it isn't always available).

• And, as people are living longer, younger seniors in their 60s and 70s, are caregiving for parents in their 90s or 100s.

I see it every day, nonprofits that are ignoring the need to modernize. Their leaders are so stressed trying to bring in money to pay the bills, trying to prevent an upset community member from going to the media, trying to keep staff from leaving all the time... that the same relationships they're working so hard to maintain erode- seemingly without reason.

They're the same folks who say:

• "Volunteers will manage themselves, they always have"

• "So-and-so volunteered, let's give them a six-month contract to organize volunteer stuff"

• "Oh shoot, it's time to report on volunteer hours again"

• "Let's pay people to do this thing that volunteers used to do because no one wants to volunteer anymore"

• "You're getting paid less because you don't bring in revenue as a leader of volunteers"

As a sector, we need to shift our approach. We need to stop asking, "How does the team needing volunteer help get as many volunteers as they can and keep them for as long as possible?"

And start asking, "How can we, as a collaborative organization, motivate volunteers to continue engaging with the mission and community in a way that works for them?"

Shortly before I heard that episode of Your World Tonight, I was on a call with Perry Radford, chatting about holistic fundraising and how having shared goals across teams, rather than worshipping specific revenue generators, has proven effective in her fundraising practice.

Perry, and others I've met in the sector like her, are the folks "taking the sign out of the window". Like the greengrocer from Václav Havel's essay, referenced in Carney's speech, nonprofit professionals can no longer comply with a world order and participate in rituals that harm the communities we claim to serve.

Also, for a sector that throws around the word "innovation" like me throwing baking soda in my cat's litter box, doing the 1950s thing is downright sad.

Nonprofit friends and colleagues, please consider this: Volunteer engagement isn’t an afterthought. It’s a strategy. Every day you neglect it, you’re choosing to damage the trust you work so hard to build.  

Another take you should read is Tasha Van Vlack's. She posted on LinkedIn this morning about Carney's words from her perspective as a community-builder and also urges you to say no to the status quo.