The analysis uses data from the 2024 survey "Examining the association of volunteering with mental and physical health indicators" to examine a specific sample: It compares the differently religious groups that the 492 respondents belong to with a questionnaire survey of formal volunteering in non-profit NGOs and attempts to show the manifestations of the ethical and meaning-making role of religion in various ways of volunteering, in attitudes towards volunteering, and in the impact of volunteering on mental health. The two main questions are whether religious faith affects volunteering, i.e. whether practicing religious people volunteer, in different ways and with different attitudes than non-religious people, and whether religious faith modifes the impact of volunteering on mental health. During the course of the analysis, we have focused on the people who practice their religion, since this is a relatively well-defined group, and it makes more sense to examine the mechanisms of influence of religious faithin their case. Our results suggest that the role of volunteering in mental health is not markedly different in the practicing religious group than in the non-religious, but that at some point, the typical mechanisms, namely ethical guidance and meaning-making, are clearly present as drivers behind volunteering for the former. This suggests that there is a specific religious type of volunteering, which, even if it involves, it does not constitute volunteering for religious organisations.

Keywords: volunteering, religiosity, mental health, ecclesiastically religious volunteers, non-religious volunteers,