The benefits of doing good

We continue our celebration of National Volunteer Month (April) by looking at the impacts of doing good on our health and well being. We’ll also meet some SAMU volunteers and learn about how having ambassadors can forward an organization’s mission

Although that sounds like it could be the worst fundraising or volunteer recruitment campaign of all time, it’s actually based on findings from a recent study conducted by the University of London and Harvard University. Researchers analyzed responses from 35,000 individuals to the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), which asks a diverse array of people across the United Kingdom about their work, education, income, health, family and social life.

A small set of questions in the survey were the focal point of this first-of-its-kind study. Respondents were asked if they volunteered or donated to charity. They were also asked if their physical pain interfered with their performance at work, and then to rate their pain on a fivepoint scale. Responses of each individual were tracked across a ten year period between 2011 and 2020.

The findings, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, found that there was a correlation between volunteering and donating, and pain relief at work. In fact, the more money donated to charity, the less physical pain was experienced. Volunteering yielded even greater results, but doing both was revealed to be most beneficial.

Can doing good really be that good for us?

A massive body of research on the subject shows the answer is “yes,” and for a variety of different reasons. Let’s explore five.

Doing Good Makes Us Happier

In his 2008 study, “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and his colleagues showed that participants found more happiness in giving than receiving. Subjects in the study were given an envelope with up to $20 and randomly assigned to either spend the money on themselves or someone else, and then rate their happiness. Those in the group asked to spend the money on someone else reported feeling happier.

Dr. Arthur C. Brooks, best-selling author, Harvard University professor and the Happiness Columnist for The Atlantic, published a study in 2007 that found those who give were 42 percent more likely to report being “very happy” than non-givers. In an article by Doug Wilks published in Deseret News on March 22, 2023, Brooks describes happiness as a “core competency to worldly success.”

“Happiness is not a destination,” He said. “While we’re alive on this earth, happiness is a direction. The promise that I can give to my students is not that you’re going to find happiness like some mythical Shangri La, some city of Eldorado. However, I can promise that you can get happier if you understand what happiness is and how to pursue it. If you commit yourself to good and healthy practices that involve faith and family, love of others and service, and if you commit yourself to sharing these ideas, you will get happier.”

Doing Good Makes Us Healthier

Doing good makes us healthier, both physically and mentally. A 2020 study in the Journal Of Happiness Studies collected data from 70,000 research participants every two years for nearly two decades on their volunteering habits and mental health. Those who reported having volunteered in the last year also reported better health. The benefits increased in correlation with the frequency of volunteerism.

This mimics the findings of the 2007 study mentioned above, which also revealed that 25 percent of those who give reported being “in excellent health.” In an article published by the University of Sydney on May 3, 2017, Dr. Brooks explained why this is true.

“When we’re helping others we’re more likely to feel good about ourselves which is, not surprisingly, a positive contributor to mental health,” He said. “Mental and physical health are highly correlated so when we’re psychologically well, we’re also more likely to be physically well.”

Doing Good Helps Us Live Longer

A study by researchers at the University of Michigan published in Psychological Science in the early 2000s followed more than 423 older couples over a five-year period. They found that those who didn’t provide either emotional or physical support to others were twice as likely to die within that five year period.

Giving does not just improve longevity, but also the quality of life of older adults. In “Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-being in Older Adults: An Outcome-wide Longitudinal Approach,” a study published by the National Institutes of Health, found that just two hours of volunteering a week improved physical functioning, increased physical activity, and had positive psychosocial outcomes.

But volunteering must be done for the right reasons to be effective. Another University of Michigan study published in the journal Health Psychology in 2012 also revealed that older adults who pursued volunteering for altruistic reasons lowered their risk of dying. One of the study’s authors, Dr. Sara Konrath, a professor at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, was quoted on the subject in The Seattle Times on August 30, 2015, in an article by Terri Yablonsky Stat. “In order to gain a personal benefit from volunteering,” Konrath said, “You have to focus on how your giving helps other people. We have the ability to shift our focus, and many of us do have an other-oriented reason for giving. If we can just focus on that aspect rather than what we can get out of it, chances are it will be better for our own health, too.”

Doing Good Connects Us To Others

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” SAMU First Response is on a mission to help our volunteers discover their passion through service. Let’s spend some time learning about why they volunteer.

Amy, SAMU First Response’s Manager of Communications & Outreach

One of my favorite parts of conducting volunteer orientations is telling those attending how I got started working with SAMU. They are often surprised to learn I was a volunteer just like them.

When the buses began to arrive from Texas in April 2022, a close friend who worked for Catholic Charities told me about finding one of those first groups of migrants huddled in a park in a strange city praying together. My heart just broke. As a person of faith, my first thought was of the parable of the Good Samaritan. A stranger in a strange land, broken from an unfathomable journey, left on the side of the road. I didn’t hesitate to ask, “How can I help?”

I started by handing out food to migrants in the basement of a local coffee shop while the first teams conducted intakes around me. I stayed to support amazing people supporting those arriving in the wee hours of the morning on the floor of Union Station, watching as they checked in the last of one bus to find there was another arriving right behind it. I watched the person leading the operation that night dance when most others might have cried. Eventually, I started driving carloads of migrants to shelters, families who opened their homes, bus stations and airports. It was after I helped launch and operate the area’s first official respite center in the basement of a church in Takoma Park, Maryland, that I officially joined SAMU’s team.

During that time, I had the incredible privilege to meet some amazing people, including the first members of the SAMU First Response team. Now here we are, nearly a year later. I have never worked harder, been more exhausted, or loved what I do more. I truly believe I have found my people and my calling, and I am incredibly grateful for how this work and those we serve have changed me.

Justin, PhD student, Johns Hopkins University

While researching cancer immunotherapies at Johns Hopkins, Justin heard about migrants being transported on buses to Washington, D.C., and immediately went to Union Station with snacks and water to learn more about the migrants’ conditions and their story.

He was impressed to see that SAMU First Response had rapidly set up a station to help the majority-Venezuelan migrants and even had a volunteer who was Venezuelan himself to help. SAMU’s operations smoothly assisted the migrants as well as connecting them with volunteers from similar cultural backgrounds.

He began volunteering with SAMU, helping the team to organize baby care supplies and move kitchen items into the new respite center in Montgomery County, Maryland. Within one afternoon, we were almost done with setting up the center. He remembers vividly what he saw walking past the center’s therapeutic play room.

“I saw little kids and their parents share a laugh over donated toys. Despite their perilous journey, these children were happy again, and that moment was most gratifying to me. Sounds of laughter rang throughout the respite center, and it goes to show how restoring a person’s dignity and security can be so nourishing to the souls of the migrants and everyone at SAMU.”

Justin likes what he calls SAMU’s “Can Do” attitude. It inspired him to pitch a program that SAMU is considering that would help increase the financial security of arriving migrants. “Working to improve the lives of migrants here gives you a peephole into the life of someone from the global south,” He said. “And despite how they have world experiences different from you or me, it is amazing that they too have the same desire to live their life to the fullest.”

Catherine, International Commercial Attorney

This may be Catherine’s first time helping people on an individual level, but you’d never know it. What started as her supporting her teenage daughter to find a volunteer experience has blossomed into an opportunity for them to serve together. “We hear so much in the news about how migrants suffer in their countries and throughout their dangerous and difficult journeys to the US,” She said. “It is easier to feel distanced from their pain when you hear cold statistics and read articles. What I love about volunteering at the respite center is that I make real connections with the migrants.”

She remembers a Colombian mother of two young children who grabbed her arms and gave her a hug as she cried and repeated “thank you,” when Catherine said all she did was help the children draw and speak with her in broken sentences. Another time, Catherine had a long conversation with a father from Cameroon who had left a prestigious job in physics and chemistry to flee a dangerous political situation. In a center where most of the staff and guests speak Spanish, he was thrilled to have someone with whom he could speak French. Another time, while she was drawing flowers and butterflies with a group of little kids. One of their mothers sat down next to her and created a beautiful multicolored panel that said, “manana sera bueno.” That translates as, “Tomorrow will be good.”

“I am struck by the migrants’ courage and strength. Before I started volunteering, I had expected to find sadness, anger, perhaps despair,” Catherine shared. “These people have left their homes, their loved ones, their countries and all of their possessions. They face unknown and frightening situations without money or ability to speak the local language. And yet they manage to smile, laugh, be friendly and polite. They are hopeful that they will ultimately make better lives for their families.”

“It is very important to me to be sharing these migrant stories with my daughter, Nikita, who volunteers with me,” She said. “I am happy that we are doing something meaningful together. I want her to see how these strong and optimistic people are incredibly courageous as they forge new lives in a strange country. I want her to feel our shared humanity.