Volunteering is something I’ve often recommended, as I’m a firm believer in the widely-held view that doing good for other people means also doing good for yourself. But in the week after International Volunteer Day, let’s look at why that is the case and what evidence there is to support it.
A 2017 Volunteer Ireland report used an online survey of almost 1800 volunteers and three focus groups made up of volunteers to examine the health benefits the volunteers believed they experienced. The report noted: “The analysis of the online national survey and the three focus groups show that volunteering can have a significant positive impact on a person's health and well-being. This is further supported by research in a number of countries linking volunteering with positive health and well-being.”
There are a number of other sources of evidence around the benefits of volunteering, most of which based on studies done in the US.
Volunteering could help job-seekers find work
A 2013 US government study run by the Corporation for National and Community Service found a link between volunteering and finding employment. The study examined the answers of 70,535 people to the Current Population Survey between 2002 and 2012, monitoring their results to questions about employment status and whether or not they volunteered. While they did not establish a causal link, they found that volunteering is associated with a 27% higher chance of employment. Another 2013 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, also based in the US, examined those looking for work in the country between 2008 and 2011. It found that unemployed people who volunteered for between 20 and 49 hours a year were 57.3% more likely than non-volunteers to be in work the following year.
Volunteering makes you feel like you have more time
Research shows that people who volunteer feel like they have more time to spare. Cassie Mogilner, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennysilvania, who led the research, wrote in the Harvard Business Review: “The results show that giving your time to others can make you feel more “time affluent” and less time-constrained than wasting your time, spending it on yourself, or even getting a windfall of free time.”
In a series of studies, Mogilner divided subjects into groups, instructing one group to help another person, by writing to a sick child, or editing a disadvantaged student’s essay, and the other group to do something else. In one study the second group wasted time counting the number of ‘e’s in a piece of text, in another they did something for themselves, and in a third they simply left the research lab early. Mogilner found that in each experiment the people who had helped others felt they had more time than the other group.
Results showed an interesting explanation for this: people who gave time helping others felt more capable, confident and useful. They felt like they had accomplished something, and this made them feel like they could accomplish more things in future.
Volunteering is good for your health
A study from Carnegie Mellon University found that adults over 50 who volunteered for more than 200 hours in the past year were less likely to develop high blood pressure than those of the same age who did not. Lead author Rodlescia Sneed suggested that the link could be due to increased activity while volunteering, or a reduction in stress. She said: “Many people find volunteer work to be helpful with respect to stress reduction, and we know that stress is very strongly linked to health outcomes.”
A report for the Corporation for National & Community Service said: “Over the past two decades we have seen a growing body of research that indicates volunteering provides individual health benefits in addition to social benefits. This research has established a strong relationship between volunteering and health: those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer.”
Volunteering makes you happier
A 2008 study our estimates suggest that people who volunteer report better health and greater happiness than people who do not, a relationship that is not driven by socio-economic differences between volunteers and non-volunteers.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start volunteering. Ask around in your local community or search the Volunteer Ireland website for ideas here.