Remco Homberg & Erny Boots
Design lead & Managing Director at Ronald McDonald Kinderfonds
Talk - Dutch
When volunteers are your workforce
What happens when you apply design principles to a group that often remains under the radar: the volunteer? In this session, design lead Remco Homberg and Erny Boots, Managing Director of Ronald McDonald House Nijmegen, share their experiences from a project they carried out at this NGO, where volunteers are essentially the “employees” of the organisation. While this case may take place outside a traditional enterprise setting, the parallels with employee experience are unmistakable. Volunteers—perhaps even more than employees—need structure, clarity, appreciation, and the right tools.
The presentation shows how the House is proactively preparing for a changing volunteer landscape: from the traditional volunteer who remains loyal for many years, to the future volunteer with a more flexible, individual lifestyle. Remco takes the audience through the creative approach: a design discovery process in co‑creation with volunteers from all levels of the organisation, resulting in a widely supported set of concrete needs that can be acted upon immediately. Erny shares the impact on the organisation and the business value of these insights. Together, they illustrate how uncertainty gave way to enthusiasm, how volunteers felt heard and motivated, and how this led to a business case that convinced management to invest. This is not a presentation about expert‑user interface designs, but a story about real impact for a meaningful cause: enabling seriously ill children to stay close to their parents or caregivers during hospital treatment. It’s an inspiring example of how design—even within non‑profits with limited resources—can improve processes, build buy‑in, and guide people through change.
About
Erny Boots is the Managing Director of the Ronald McDonald House in Nijmegen and has been closely connected to the organization for over twenty years. What began as a personal mission after the loss of her son Jacob evolved into a meaningful career in the non-profit sector. With a background in film studies and a passion for storytelling, Erny has a unique ability to move and connect people through sincere communication.
She leads a team of 130 volunteers and is responsible for the day-to-day operations, fundraising, and the warm, welcoming atmosphere of the House. Through creative campaigns, such as ‘A Kiss for a Sick Child’, she engages the public and businesses in a heartfelt and effective way. Her belief: real stories, told with care and empathy, are the foundation for lasting impact.
Remco Homberg
Remco Homberg is a designer through and through. He studied at the art academy in Rotterdam and Berlin before starting his career as an illustrator. For over twenty years, he has worked at the intersection of design and strategy; at digital agencies, large organisations and as an independent professional. He prefers to join projects when everything is still wide open: when the problem is still unclear, the path uncertain and the ambition sky-high. He tackles that journey best in co-creation with others: users, colleagues, clients. Because together is always better than alone.
Outside of his work as a design lead, Remco is married, a father of two daughters, a hobby drummer and a decidedly average table tennis player. He approaches life with a healthy dose of pragmatism and humour and that mindset shines through in his work: he looks for simplicity in the complex, and meaning in the data. Not to change the world, but simply to make things a little bit better.