‘Good Deeds Day’ and individual well-being: an exploratory study of Israeli Jews and Arabs

The effect of episodic volunteering on well-being is understudied, and more so the experience of episodic volunteering for members of different ethnic groups. The Good Deeds Day (GDD) is an international, one-day annual volunteering event. Drawing on the case of Israel, we examine the relationship between participating in GDD, and the differential well-being of Jews and Arabs. We conducted a pre and post survey of 162 participants and interviewed 18 individuals (six Arabs) after volunteering in the event. We found statistically significant increases in well-being following volunteering, which were not different for Jews and Arabs. These results were supported by the themes emerging from the interviews with volunteers. The Jewish group discussed place attachment with respect to the national scale, while among Arabs the change was predominantly related to the local scale. The results of this study can inform researchers, policy makers and charity organisations in taking contextual factors into account when designing or studying episodic volunteering events.