How a Volunteer Opportunity Inspired This Idealist to Join the Nonprofit Sector

Rose Tatum, CVA was working at a local regional bank in her hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina when she realized she wanted to change her career. She was no stranger to volunteering, often participating in community service on her own and hosting employee engagement initiatives at work. These projects helped Rose realize that she wanted to find a role with meaning, one that brought her as much joy as volunteering.

Soon, Rose’s passion for service expanded beyond her local community. “I was doing a lot of volunteer work locally, but I really wanted to do some international travel through volunteer opportunities. I decided to take my two weeks’ vacation and started researching how to volunteer abroad, and I came across Idealist.” 

On Idealist, Rose found an organization based in Peru that relied on volunteers to assist local community projects across the country. After spending two weeks volunteering, she knew she wanted to make volunteerism a bigger part of her life and career.

“I had an amazing experience. I immediately came back to my job at the bank and gave them four-months notice. I told them, ‘I have to do something different with my life. I want to go to school and I want to work in the nonprofit sector, and I really want to pursue some sort of career in leading volunteer programs.’”

Rose followed through on her dream. Over the next few years, she earned her undergraduate degree in International Studies at Appalachian State University while pursuing a variety of volunteer opportunities. After graduating, she dove headfirst into a nonprofit career. 

“I found a nonprofit job on Idealist with ENGin, which connects people in Ukraine with volunteers for online English-language conversation. I helped scale the volunteer program to over 20,000 volunteers and brought a lot of structure and growth to the program. It was a really amazing experience.”

Today, Rose is channeling everything she’s learned into launching her own initiative, The Volunteer Leadership Lab. Her goal is to improve the connection between nonprofits, businesses, governments, and their communities to encourage local volunteerism.

Throughout her nonprofit journey, Rose has relied on Idealist to find organizations and opportunities to advance her career.

“There’s just no other platform out there that compares to Idealist when you’re wanting to find work in the nonprofit sector. For volunteerism, Idealist is great for finding local volunteer opportunities when you’re wanting to serve your specific community—but there’s also that global experience, similar to what I found in Peru, too.”

She added: “The experiences I’ve found on Idealist have further grounded me in what I think my life’s mission is. I am very excited, motivated, and inspired to keep moving forward.”