• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. volunteerism>

4 ways that volunteering can be good for you

Jennifer A. Jones
July 29, 2021
4 ways that volunteering can be good for you

A volunteer distributes food at the Deliverance Baptist Church in Cambria Heights, N.Y.

Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
Jones is an assistant professor of nonprofit management and leadership at the University of Florida.

More than 77 million Americans volunteer a total of 6.9 billion hours a year doing everything from fighting fires to raising funds for cancer research. These efforts help others and support communities. But volunteering also tends to benefit the volunteers themselves in at least four different ways.

1. Boosting your health, especially if you assist others

Volunteering has long been associated with good mental and physical health, particularly for older people. In a long-term study, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that volunteering was linked to psychological well-being, and the volunteers themselves said it was good for their own health.

While anyone can benefit from volunteering, people who are the least connected to others tend to benefit the most. In fact, the benefits are so strong that researchers have suggested public health officials educate the public to consider volunteering as part of a healthy lifestyle.

One study in particular looked into which kind of volunteering may be best for your health. When a team of social scientists combed through data collected in Texas, they found that people who volunteered in ways that benefited others tended to get a bigger physical health boost than volunteers who were pitching in for their own sake. They also benefited in terms of their mental health, such as by experiencing fewer symptoms of depression and becoming more satisfied with their lives.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

2. Making more connections

Volunteering, especially when it's done on a regular basis, can help you make new acquaintances. Whether you volunteer for an organization on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, over time you are bound to develop strong relationships, typically with other volunteers and staff members.

Regular volunteers may get these benefits to a greater degree than people who volunteer sporadically, known as episodic volunteers. Consider this: Handing out water at a fundraising run in April and then helping bag groceries to give away in November is surely easier to squeeze into a busy schedule than volunteering regularly in an office. But those more convenient activities aren't as likely to help you build relationships over time. In other words, consistency matters.

There are benefits and drawbacks to every type of volunteering. For example, volunteering once in a while is often easy to schedule and is something families or friends can do together. However, volunteers who pitch in occasionally may not feel very connected to the mission of the nonprofits they support or get to know many other volunteers.

Regularly volunteering, on the other hand, makes it more likely that you will develop a deep relationship to the cause and to other staff and volunteers. However, this kind of volunteering requires a longer-term and bigger time commitment. It can also become frustrating if the volunteer's duties aren't a good fit for them.

Still, if people are willing to work toward finding the right fit and making time in their schedules, volunteering on a regular basis can help them get more out of their efforts, including new friends and acquaintances.

3. Preparing for career moves

When volunteers gain and strengthen skills and meet more people, it can help them find new paid work by honing their social and job skills and expanding their professional contacts.

Especially if you're unemployed or eager to get a new job, you may want to volunteer in ways that are more likely to fill gaps in your resume or help you network with people who can help advance your career. For example, you can learn leadership and governance skills by volunteering on a board of directors at your local food pantry and, at the same time, network with other board members.

Alternatively, you can volunteer for an organization in your field, whether it's health care, child care or accounting, as a way of staying current and active while looking for work.

Including volunteer work on your resume can also signal to a prospective employer that you're community-minded, self-motivated and willing to go above and beyond. As I often see with my students who volunteer, close relationships with nonprofit staff can lead to job referrals and glowing letters of recommendation.

4. Reducing some risks associated with aging

Older people who engage in mentally stimulating leisure activities on a regular basis may have better memory and executive function than those who don't, according to an analysis of related studies.

And because volunteers may need to tackle new problems, interact with clients and staff or drive to a new location, volunteering can be a highly stimulating leisure activity.

Volunteering can also help older people feel valued. For example, nonprofits can encourage older volunteers to become mentors – giving them a chance to impart what they've learned from their life and career experiences.

Visit Volunteer.gov and VolunteerMatch.com or connect with a community foundation, nonprofit resource center and a regional United Way to find volunteer opportunities.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Click here to read the original article.

The Conversation

From Your Site Articles
  • Political activism is good for your health - The Fulcrum ›
  • States ask teens to staff polling places on Election Day - The Fulcrum ›
  • The "business case" for civic education - The Fulcrum ›
  • You can reduce polarization by organizing in your community - The Fulcrum ›
  • How building bonds with neighbors can help sustain democracy - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • How Do You Get More People to Volunteer for Good Causes? ›
  • 3 Reasons Why Volunteering in University is Good for Your Mental ... ›
  • Volunteering as a Family Has Many Rewards - Minds in Bloom ›
  • 20 Skills You Learn Volunteering to Help You Get a Job - Youth ... ›
volunteerism

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Political brain fog

Lawrence Goldstone
5h

Sounding the alarm over TDS

Lynn Schmidt
5h

Podcast: Redefining conservatism for millennials

Our Staff
5h

Taking flight into difficult but meaningful conversations

Debilyn Molineaux
22 March

The power of libraries to connect communities

Annie Caplan
Cristy Moran
22 March

Podcast: Break out of your bubble: Talk to a stranger

Our Staff
22 March
Videos

Video: The hidden stories in the U.S. Census

Our Staff

Video: We asked conservatives at CPAC what woke means

Our Staff

Video: DeSantis, 18 states to push back against Biden ESG agenda

Our Staff

Video: A conversation with Tiahna Pantovich

Our Staff

Video: What would happen if Trump was a third-party candidate in 2024?

Our Staff

Video: How the Federal Reserve is the shadow branch of the government

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Redefining conservatism for millennials

Our Staff
5h

Podcast: Break out of your bubble: Talk to a stranger

Our Staff
22 March

Podcast: Inequitable ability: Electoral and civic challenges faced by those with disabilities

Our Staff
21 March

Podcast: A tricky dance

Our Staff
14 March
Recommended
Political brain fog

Political brain fog

Big Picture
Sounding the alarm over TDS

Sounding the alarm over TDS

Threats to democracy
Podcast: Redefining conservatism for millennials

Podcast: Redefining conservatism for millennials

Podcasts
Taking flight into difficult but meaningful conversations

Taking flight into difficult but meaningful conversations

Big Picture
The power of libraries to connect communities

The power of libraries to connect communities

Big Picture
Podcast: Break out of your bubble: Talk to a stranger

Podcast: Break out of your bubble: Talk to a stranger

Podcasts