"The Taproot Foundation and pro bono work saved my life," says Donna Campbell. "I was in a well-paid, prestigious job with a great international company -- but I had lost my creativity and curiosity."

Donna Campbell seemed to have it all - a high-profile career in the telecommunications industry and a beautiful family. But after fifteen years in the corporate trenches, Donna was burned out and traveling so much for work that she felt she was "outsourcing parenting."

For most people, the solution to this problem would not be to take on yet another responsibility. "I was avoiding a midlife crisis by getting too busy," Donna confesses when describing her decision to volunteer for Taproot. It proved to be a life-changing move.

"Doing pro bono work with Taproot revitalized me!" she says. The experience also prompted Donna to reflect on her career choices and think about what she really wanted to do with her life.

"I eventually left my great corporate job to spend more time with my children and Taproot," she says. Donna's long-term strategy is to take a job in the nonprofit sector once her daughters are in school full-time. "My pro bono experience with Taproot will definitely help me find the role that I want."

In 2004, Donna was pregnant with her third child and spending most of her time on airplanes, traveling for a job that no longer felt meaningful.

She knew something had to change. Early in her career, Donna worked in the nonprofit sector and started to think about going back. "If I was going to spend so much time away from my family, I wanted the work to make a difference," she says.

Then, in the midst of planning her career change, Donna's job suddenly got interesting again. She knew she wasn't ready to leave just yet, but she also wasn't ready to let go of her nonprofit career dreams. She decided to sign on with the Taproot Foundation to get some nonprofit experience without quitting her day job.

She gained valuable nonprofit experience and much more through her four projects (and counting) with Taproot. "What I didn't expect was that working with Taproot would make me happier and more successful in my current job," Donna says. "It improved my client relations skills dramatically and taught me to look at problems at work from different perspectives. And it certainly made me appreciate the good that I could do as a mentor and colleague -- even in a corporate job."

Donna's work for education-related organizations also helped her to see that she wanted to spend more time with her own children. In 2008, Donna left her corporate job to focus on parenting and preparing for the next phase of her career in the nonprofit sector.

"Taproot made me more creative and more resourceful," Donna says. "You can't just tell people what to do on a Taproot project. I became a much better manager because I had to quickly learn how to motivate and persuade people that I barely knew and get them to work together"

Through Taproot, Donna also met and learned from interesting people from outside her industry and social circles. "Diversity is essential for problem solving and Taproot teams are diverse in so many ways. I worked with people from different industries, different cultural backgrounds, and different age groups from Gen Y to Baby Boomer."

Thanks to Taproot, Donna feels she is now prepared to launch her career in the nonprofit sector once her children are in school. "I couldn't do it without Taproot," she says. "My last paid job experience in the nonprofit sector was 20 years ago and the sector has changed dramatically since then."

Donna believes that her pro bono experience has "refreshed" her resume dramatically. "My Taproot work has really helped me to bring my nonprofit and for profit experience together. I now feel comfortable talking to recruiters for nonprofit organizations and confident that I am prepared for the job of my dreams."

Written pro bono by Pamela Skillings - a pro bono consultant with Taproot Foundation, career coach, and author of Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams.