Jodi McConkey

Auction & Merchandise Coordinator

For Jodi McConkey, supporting Carolina Waterfowl Rescue means turning community enthusiasm into something tangible for the animals.

Jodi joined CWR on May 8, 2025, but her involvement with the rescue began as a transport volunteer. In that role, she helped with animal well checks, picked up donated produce, and even assisted with re-nesting baby birds. She was also a member of CWR's online auction community, bidding on items and contributing donations of her own.

When the opportunity arose to become CWR's Auction Coordinator, Jodi jumped at the chance to become even more involved with an organization whose work she already admired.

Today, as CWR's Auction & Merchandise Coordinator, Jodi manages several interconnected fundraising and retail programs that help generate financial support for the rescue.

One of her largest responsibilities is CWR's monthly Facebook auction. Jodi coordinates donated items, prepares and posts auction listings, monitors bidding, processes payments, organizes winning bids, and ships items to supporters. She also conducts online live sales at least once a month.

Since taking over the auction, Jodi has worked to expand the number of items offered each month, helping increase the amount of money the auction generates for CWR. She is especially proud of the community that has developed around it. Supporters don't simply bid against one another—they rally around the shared knowledge that their participation ultimately helps provide care for animals.

Watching that community respond as fundraising totals grow has become one of Jodi's favorite parts of her work.

Her responsibilities extend beyond the auction. Jodi manages CWR's Shopify store, maintains merchandise inventory, updates the online storefront, fulfills orders, and brings CWR merchandise directly into the community at events. She has also assisted with fundraisers, website photography, Amazon returns, and the assortment of unexpected tasks that inevitably come with working for a busy nonprofit animal rescue.

Jodi has particularly enjoyed opportunities to collaborate with CWR's Education Department, allowing the fundraising and public-facing side of her position to intersect with another important part of the organization's mission.

Before joining CWR, Jodi spent 17 years working in early childhood and elementary education.

She earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Berklee College of Music in Boston and previously held teaching licenses in both North Carolina and Massachusetts. She has also been involved with Delta Kappa Gamma International Society for Key Women Educators.

Jodi believes her years as an educator taught her lessons that extend well beyond the classroom. Working with young children strengthened her understanding of patience, empathy, communication, and how to treat people with compassion—skills she now brings to her interactions with CWR supporters, donors, customers, volunteers, coworkers, and the animals themselves.

Before becoming a teacher, Jodi also worked in retail and as a legal assistant for a law firm specializing in environmental issues. Together, those experiences gave her a varied professional background that translates surprisingly well to a position requiring customer service, organization, communication, creativity, attention to detail, and the ability to manage many moving pieces at once.

CWR was Jodi's first formal experience volunteering with an animal rescue organization, but animals have always been important to her.

Mallard ducks, in particular, carry a special meaning.

When Jodi was young, her father frequently took her and her sister to a local lake, where they would feed cracked corn to the Mallards. Those outings became some of her favorite childhood experiences, and Mallards still immediately bring back memories of time spent with her dad.

Today, Jodi's animal family is considerably more diverse. She shares her home with Bean the cat; ball pythons Pascal and Basilisk; Duck the hognose snake; Nancy the crested gecko; and Marty the bearded dragon.

Her interests outside of CWR are equally varied. Jodi enjoys reading, watching movies, crocheting, gardening, and collecting rocks and minerals.

And, unsurprisingly for someone with a degree from Berklee, music remains a significant part of her life.

In fact, Jodi experiences everyday sounds a little differently than many people. She often hears musical notes in the sounds around her. To her, what someone else might dismiss as ordinary noise can have pitch and musical character.

What initially brought Jodi to CWR was simple: she wanted to contribute to something positive and meaningful.

After becoming a volunteer, she saw more closely what happens behind the scenes of wildlife rescue. Today, one of the things that continues to inspire her most is watching CWR's rehabilitation team work with critically ill and injured animals.

She sees animals arrive in devastating condition and then watches as skilled care transforms them. In what can sometimes feel like an astonishingly short period of time, an animal that arrived barely recognizable can become healthy, active, and ready for the next stage of its journey.

Jodi is particularly moved by the relationships that sometimes develop between recovering wild animals and the people caring for them. Seeing an animal learn to trust the humans helping it is something she considers beautiful to witness.

Although Jodi's primary role takes place on the business and fundraising side of CWR, the connection between her work and the animals is never far away.

Every auction item posted, package shipped, merchandise order filled, live sale hosted, and community event attended has the potential to generate resources that can be put back into animal care.

And the auction community she has helped grow demonstrates something Jodi sees repeatedly at CWR: individual people can accomplish much more when they rally around a shared purpose.

For Jodi, that purpose is simple—doing something positive and meaningful for animals who need help.