You’ve volunteered at food banks and pantries, worked a crisis hotline, or tutored and mentored in an after-school program. While your work makes a real difference, there’s only so much time to devote to helping others during non-work hours. 

If you have the desire to incorporate your passion for helping others into a viable, meaningful career but need help narrowing your interests, we’ve compiled a list of 8 jobs where you can make an impact.

1. Lawyer

A career in law may be for you. 

You can specialize in the type of law you want to practice and create an umbrella for who you want to serve. Becoming a defense attorney, education lawyer, employment lawyer, or human rights lawyer are just a few specializations that allow you to do the greater good.

If you’re unsure if you want to go to law school, becoming a paralegal is a great way to gain experience at a law office. It will also allow you to refine your writing and other hard skills while understanding the intricacies of your state’s laws. While working as a legal professional can be immensely rewarding, expect to work long hours starting out with a comfortable salary.

Median Pay: $127,990

Job Growth: 9%

Education Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree & Juris Doctor Degree

2. Social Work

Social Workers empower individuals and families to overcome significant hardships. They can work in schools, healthcare, community development organizations, prisons, child welfare, and other similar settings. 

While there isn’t an average day-to-day, in this role you can expect to provide crisis intervention, work with children in foster care or at-risk family situations, or work with victims of crime, just to name a few.

You would be in direct contact with your community's most vulnerable and help them get employment, housing, and other help that they may need.  

Are you unsure if you want to pursue a career in social work? Interning or volunteering your time at schools, prisons, and shelters for unhoused people is a great way to interact with your community and meet professional social workers.

Median Pay: $50,390

Job Growth: 12%

Education Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree // Most programs require a Master’s Degree

3. Teacher

Becoming a teacher gives you an exclusive opportunity to educate young minds, engrain yourself in the community, and grow in your leadership. 

As a teacher you will play an active role in your students' learning and development, positively affect students and families for years to come, have access to professional development and educational resources, and build relationships with fellow teachers, educational partners, and supporters.

Working as a teacher is a great way to serve your community and understand how education is the foundation to a better future for us all. Consider exploring a career path into education through Teach For America.

Median Pay: $61,350

Job Growth: 8%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree with additional certification based on the state you teach

4. Community Health Workers

Having a career in public health means that you would promote healthy lifestyles in your municipality, gather and analyze health data to promote better health outcomes, and refer individuals to health, housing, and mental health services to lessen the barriers to quality healthcare.

You can typically find a community health worker in a public health department, nonprofit, or healthcare facility. 

Median Pay: $48,860

Job Growth: 17%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree // Some programs require a Master's or Doctoral Degree

5. Community Development Specialist

What would your day as a community development specialist look like? Well, you would be involved in urban planning, assessing low-cost housing needs, and playing a role in your municipality's revitalization efforts.

Taking part in a revitalization project might include adding parks and green space in a community, expanding public transit, or creating community-focused facilities like libraries. You would work closely with city planners, social workers, construction agencies, and urban planning departments (water, sewage, waste management) to accomplish these goals.

If you want to improve your area's quality of life and economic growth, a community development career can help make tangible changes.

Median Pay: $74,000

Job Growth: 15%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree

6. Social Policy Analyst

In short, social policy analysts study current laws' impact and propose policy changes to better serve people at the local, state, or national levels. 

You would compile new and existing data to map out macro trends of a law's effect, analyze said data to identify potential solutions, and propose changes that would promote quality education, employment opportunities, and healthcare while working to reduce adverse policies and promote social health.

While holding this position you may not interact with community members as frequently as a social worker or a teacher. Still, you get to work with government, academic, and nonprofit entities to develop these laws that can bring about better social health.

Median Pay: $122,510

Job Growth: 9%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree & Master's Degree

7. Fundraiser

As a fundraiser for a nonprofit, consulting firm, or other organization, you would be writing the proposal that ultimately gets your team's initiatives funded. You would also identify potential donors, create and organize fundraising events, and maintain a transparent relationship with donors and recipients.

While you may not have the resources of a larger institution, you may have more opportunities to facilitate a smaller but more tailored approach to the mission that you are serving. You will also directly interview community members to gather information to understand how best to collect and allocate your nonprofit's resources.

Median Pay: $60,660

Job Growth: 16%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree

8. Medical Interpreter

While applications like Google Translate may make it seem like professional translators are becoming obsolete, that could be further from the truth. Millions of American households speak a non-English language at home and that number is expected to grow during this decade.

Like most fields in healthcare, being a medical translator requires you to possess both technical knowledge and emotional intelligence. Communicating a medical prognosis in two languages is imperative to ensure that patients get effective, prompt healthcare and that doctors and patients are on the same page.

Median Pay: $49,110

Job Growth: 24%

Education Requirements: Bachelor's Degree