Skip to main content

What are you looking for?

Enter keywords to search across resources, guides, training, tools, and more.

Create an account for suggestions personalised to you and your organisation

Research and Reports
1 minute read

The Impacts of Volunteering on the Subjective Wellbeing of Volunteers: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Meeting National Standards and Strategy What's this?

Introduction

This document sheds light on how volunteering boosts people's happiness and overall mental health. It reveals that volunteering not only helps those in need but also significantly enhances the volunteers' sense of purpose, belonging, and self-worth. Particularly, older adults and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds experience stronger benefits.

Insights for Volunteer Organisations

For organisations that manage volunteers, this document is invaluable. It highlights the importance of good volunteer management and the need to address inequalities in volunteering opportunities. By focusing on creating a quality, inclusive, and enjoyable volunteering experience, organisations can maximise the wellbeing benefits for their volunteers.

Future Directions

The document calls for more research to fully understand volunteering's impact on different groups and suggests that volunteer organisations play a crucial role in enhancing volunteers' wellbeing. It's a call to action for policy makers and funders to prioritise wellbeing in volunteer projects, ensuring a positive impact on both the community and the volunteers themselves.

Stuart, J., Kamerāde, D., Connolly, S., Ellis Paine, A., Nichols, G. and Grotz, J. (2020) The Impacts of Volunteering on the Subjective Wellbeing of Volunteers: A Rapid Evidence Assessment, What Works Centre for Wellbeing and Spirit of 2012


Downloads and sources

More about the authors







Contribute to the Gateway


More like this

Research and Reports

Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub

The Knowledge Hub is a national, open-source platform that supports and informs policy, planning, decision making and contemporary good practice in disaster resilience.
1 minute read
The Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience
Emergency Volunteering
Articles & Reports

Developing Volunteer Roles

This article and guides help organisations develop effective volunteer roles
1 minute read
The Knowledge Base, Volunteering ACT, The Centre for Volunteering, Volunteering Queensland, Volunteering SA&NT, Volunteering Tasmania, Volunteering Victoria, Volunteering WA
General
Research and Reports

Volunteer Involving Organisations Online Accessibility Survey

This report and executive summary references a survey on Online Accessibility for Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs)
1 minute read
The Knowledge Base, Volunteering ACT, The Centre for Volunteering, Volunteering Queensland, Volunteering SA&NT, Volunteering Tasmania, Volunteering Victoria, Volunteering WA
General
VIKTOR Lite
Tech

VIKTOR Lite

VIKTOR Lite enables volunteer involving organisations to recruit volunteers via a range of websites run by local governments, state peaks, local volunteer resource centres, Volunteering Australia and SEEK Volunteer.
Volunteer database Recruitment Onboarding / training Reporting
MyPass
Tech

MyPass

MyPass is volunteer onboarding and compliance management software centred around a digital Skills Passport, designed to help volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) reduce their risk and cost of operations.
Volunteer database Recruitment Rostering / scheduling Onboarding / training Communication / engagement Compliance Reporting Resource management Event management
Rosterfy
Tech

Rosterfy

Rosterfy is an end-to-end volunteer management software solution, that helps organisations streamline their volunteer management and engagement. Rosterfy offers automated solutions to manage volunteers efficiently.
Volunteer database Recruitment Rostering / scheduling Onboarding / training Volunteer performance/recognition Communication / engagement Task management Compliance Reporting Resource management Social media Event management
scheduled

Rethinking Volunteer Roles

Take a second look at volunteer roles with the Sector Development Coordinator, Tony Ward
The Centre for Volunteering
Free
scheduled

National Standards Deep Dive: Standard 3

Take a deep dive into Standard 3 of the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement
The Centre for Volunteering
Free
scheduled

Plain and Easy English Language - Part 2 (31 July 2025)

People with intellectual and cognitive disability are often overlooked in the pursuit of website accessibility. This 2 part workshop, facilitated by The Centre for Accessibility Australia, will provide tools in optimising online content for readability to significantly improve access to information.
Volunteering Victoria
Free