The Personal Benefits Of Volunteering & Why They Matter

Here, at Mama Dani Organization, we truly believe in the transformative power and benefits of volunteering. Much of the success of our projects can be attributed to the time, energy and money contributed by our international volunteers. They help support the impacts we are making across Africa in wildlife conservation, healthcare, and education. Thanks to our volunteers, the communities in our project locations have benefitted from increased access to basic healthcare and education. This is our primary goal as a voluntary organisation: to make a positive long-term impact and benefit the communities we work with.

The feedback we get from our volunteers is that they too directly benefit from their experience and leave our projects transformed, with a different perspective on the world and their place in it. They learn about cultures that differ from their own, create lasting friendships and leave feeling empowered to continue applying their skills to causes they care about.

‘Engaging in volunteering can and does have an incredible, transformative power. At its best, volunteering can provide those who take part with the skills and experience to thrive. It can help people into jobs, act as a pathway into new careers and it can help people to get better jobs. It can boost social mobility.’ – Royal Voluntary Service.

The Royal Voluntary Service noted that an overwhelming majority of volunteers who undertook training as part of their role felt that this had improved their employability, including 100% of volunteers 16-19 years old and 97% of those 20-29 years old. This is unsurprising, as employers often demand a specific number of years’ experience when recruiting: a common grievance amongst new university graduates who struggle to gain experience without first securing employment. For many, volunteering offers a more accessible solution to attaining that experience and bridging the gap between education and work.

Often , the skills and experience gained from volunteering are happenstance: unintentional benefits of altruism. After all, volunteers often step into job roles which people are usually paid for, in areas and/or for causes which lack funding and resources. The skills and experience to be gained from volunteering can range from customer service to administration to content writing to teaching to leadership. The possible benefits are endless and aren’t always obvious.

“I genuinely feel like I’m leaving this place a different woman than when I arrived. I grew in self-confidence, my mental health improved, and I felt I grew in independence.” – Mama Dani Organization Volunteer

As mentioned, the Royal Voluntary Service observed a significant increase in self-reported confidence in the volunteers they surveyed. Similarly, in 2014, an evaluation of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (UK)’s Volunteering for Stronger Communities program reported ‘notable improvements’ in volunteers’ confidence and self-esteem following their engagement. Participants also reported that these positive changes in their well-being were sustained for at least a year after volunteering.

The challenge of volunteering and the stepping out of our comfort zones that inspires such a boost in confidence? That would make sense, as the NHS reports that having low self-esteem and confidence often presents itself in behaviours such as avoiding social situations, challenges, and new experiences. In other words – staying in our comfort zones. This can then become a self-fulfilling cycle. Volunteering can offer us the opportunity to break this cycle,

‘The community we created as a team was phenomenal’ – Mama Dani Organization Volunteer

In a 2011 study and report, The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) found that ‘a desire to make and/or embed social connections, meet new people, and combat isolation or loneliness led many people to get involved in a collective activity’. They also said that their research vividly highlighted ‘the human desire to be with others in a joint endeavour’ and the strength and quality of the relationships that grew between participants belonging to a group.

This is unsurprising to us, as one of the most common things our volunteers feed back to us is how much they value the connections they make whilst volunteering – with their fellow volunteers, the Mama Dani Organization team, and the people from the communities we work in. It’s always wonderful to hear of friendships that have lasted long after volunteers have returned home. We hardly need to do further research to recognise social connection as a personal benefit of volunteering – it’s one we’ve all experienced!