Advantages of Volunteering Differ by Type of Activity
By Richard Shank
A lot of lip service is given to the health and social benefits of volunteering by older adults. Expectations that volunteering is a panacea for old age, however, should be tempered by recent research suggesting that the benefits of volunteering actually vary dramatically.
Researchers at Washington University analyzed 13 different volunteer programs and found that while older volunteers reported a wide variety of benefits to the people they served, themselves, and their families, the aspects of the volunteer program had a drastic impact on who reported these benefits.
The results of this study indicate that volunteer program managers need to consider a variety of details when soliciting the help of older volunteers. The researchers report that volunteers who were able to give more time, who feel better trained, provided more support, given a stipend, and performed tasks related to public benefit all were more likely to report benefits of volunteering.
Based on this research, it appears that successful volunteer programs are able to match volunteers to challenging activities that they believe are publically beneficial. Furthermore, these programs will provide training and rewards in order for the volunteers to meet the challenges. Too often volunteers are given menial tasks with little psychological or physical benefits. Providing volunteers with challenging opportunities to contribute to a meaningful mission will go a long way in a program’s ability to live up to its promise to provide benefits to volunteer.
Source: Morrow-Howell, N., Hong, S., Tang, F. 2009. Who benefits from volunteering? Variations in perceived benefits. The Gerontologist 49(1): 91-102.
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