Jessica Pfeifer worked in the hospitality design industry for 20 years, starting her career as an interior designer for hotels in New York. She later transitioned from design work to overseeing projects. And while Pfeifer loved her new role, she felt like something was missing.
“I wanted to do something that mattered a bit more, something where I could make a difference,” she says.
She started to understand what that might be when she participated in a service project organized by her company. Travel had prevented her from participating before, but once she did, she realized how fulfilling and joyful volunteering was.
“[The] hospitality design industry and networking events are great, and people are spending a lot of money on them, but no part of [them] is focused on giving back and making a difference in communities,” she says. “I thought, if just a little bit of that spend was taken and put toward local communities and organizations, what could that do?”
This question inspired her to found The Gratitude Cooperative, an organization that hosts one-day, regional events designed to bring professionals together to network and volunteer in their local communities. Her mission is to honor the “value of shared experiences and help people make connections based on the shared passion of giving back,” she says.
Volunteering, rather than simply donating money to local charities, is especially important to her. Pfeifer acknowledges the value of direct financial contributions, but she also believes people gain deeper insights by rolling up their sleeves and working side by side: living an organization’s mission, understanding what staff and volunteers go through and finding out firsthand what they need.
Although The Gratitude Cooperative’s events are centered around volunteering, they also help provide support for the industry professionals who attend them. “People are themselves—their time, their energy—so I wanted to give back to them,” Pfeifer says.
Participants spend half their time on service, and the other half at a networking lunch or dinner, often with an industry speaker. “This way, people are getting more than just the value of giving back to a community,” she says. “They’re hearing a speaker who can give them something that they can take with them for their personal or professional life.”
Courtesy of Jessica Pfeifer
The Leap Into Career Reinvention
The cooperative is enjoying great success since its launch in July 2025. But for Pfeifer, getting to this point required mental fortitude and confidence in her ability to reinvent herself. She wondered whether other people would recognize the value of her idea. “It was scary at the time to leave a very good position, a well-paying job with a lot of stability to just see if this could work,” she says.
This is not the first time Pfeifer has taken a leap of faith. Twelve years ago, she moved to Maryland without knowing a soul. But launching The Gratitude Cooperative was a step further into the unknown. “My family will say they see me as a person who goes for it, but this is probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “Moving...here didn’t seem like a big deal because I had a job, a place to live. This, to me, was a bigger deal—giving up security.”
Still, Pfeifer knew what she wanted: the flexibility of being her own boss and the benefit of having more meaning in her life. “I had to find a little bit more self-confidence than maybe I’ve had before,” she says. “I had to step out and say, ‘I can do this. Yes, I have these fears and doubts, but I’m going to do it.' If I can even help a few people, the impact I would have would be worth it.”
Why Networking Through Volunteering Builds Deeper Connections
With the support of her family and other professionals, she committed herself to her plan. Over the past few months, she has found that people do understand her mission. “It was really reassuring to see how many people are like-minded and see the value in what I’m building,” she says.
Starting the cooperative has also helped her think differently about corporate networking, which has always been powerful within her small but sometimes overwhelming industry. Now, she has realized how much more meaningful connections can be when people aren’t just talking about a business or product but, rather, working alongside one another in service to the community. “Talking about helping people, what service means to you, and a deeper level of who people are at their core—and being able to say, ‘Yeah, we have the same values’—is important and creates deeper connections,” Pfeifer says.
People at her events often leave with stories they recall the next time they meet again. That shared experience can help forge stronger bonds between professional acquaintances than a quick conversation at a cocktail party can, Pfeifer says. This type of deep connection—and the knowledge of shared values—is “especially important nowadays with everything going on in the world,” she adds. “We need to bring people together.”
The Gratitude Cooperative may have helped Pfeifer reinvent her career and her approach to networking. But it’s also helping other professionals reinvent themselves. Many participants now reach out to partner with Pfeifer and get involved in ways they haven’t before. “A lot of people want to be involved and volunteer; they just don’t know how to do it. So if you give the opportunity, people are more happy to do it and excited to do it,” she says.
She adds: “Through other people bringing ideas to me, this can morph into something bigger, different, more impactful, and that’s kind of exciting.” Right now, the cooperative focuses on the hospitality design industry, but she hopes to eventually expand to other fields.
Making such a big change to better align her professional life with her personal values has shown Pfeifer that she is more resilient than she thought. Her husband is her business partner, and when she first dreamed about starting the cooperative, she had to prove to him why her idea was worth pursuing. “It was helpful because I’m so focused on my view,” she says. “He’s in a different view, so being able to take his feedback and have to explain my plan and get him behind it was super helpful.”
That experience gave her a space to express her inner doubts and lean into vulnerability, while also crystallizing her vision for the cooperative.
“I’m still learning every day,” she adds. “Every new day is a learning experience.” In other words, her reinvention continues.
Featured image courtesy of Nuclear_Lily/Shutterstock
This article was first published in the January 2026 issue of SUCCESS® digital edition. Get your free copy here.
