Hotline

Advice on moving up to midlevel management and beyond

Where to find the latest IRS rules governing car donations

Locating lists of big donors and charities that seek support

The Chronicle's Philanthropy Careers section asks its readers to submit questions about job hunting, recruiting, and management challenges in the nonprofit world. In our monthly advice column, we respond to some of those inquiries with tips about resources and wisdom from experts in the field. Previous editions of Hotline are available at http://philanthropycareers.com.

Q. I am in my 20s and currently work for a nonprofit organization. I want to climb into midlevel management in the next three to five years, and eventually into senior management at a charity. I have a master's in education, but little work experience. What should I be doing now to ensure that I reach my goals?

A. Your first step: Schedule some time with your supervisor, suggests Suzanne E. Simons, executive director of the National Headache Foundation, in Chicago. "Ask what is required to get to where you want to be," she suggests. "Together, you can map a career course with a timeline." She also suggests that you document your accomplishments -- keep them in a file for yourself, and regularly update your supervisor via e-mail about all you're getting done.

Next, even if you're not in development now, you should definitely learn how to be an effective fund raiser, advises Celia Bernstein, West Coast director of the Shefa Fund, a grant maker with headquarters in Philadelphia that focuses on applying Jewish values to issues of justice and building community. "The staffer in a nonprofit that knows how to fund raise quickly moves to the top," she says. Ms. Bernstein suggests that you hone your skills by taking a fund-raising course, or by chatting with development directors of organizations similar to yours, to learn how they got their current positions.

Think about how your résumé will eventually look to a board of directors, says David Davenport, executive director of the End Hunger Network, in Houston. "Keep in mind that the higher the position you are seeking in a nonprofit organization, the more likely it is that you will interact with board members during the interview and selection process," he says. "The challenge is to build a résumé that ultimately meets their concerns. In general, board members are looking for honesty, stability, and commitment to mission as well as a proven ability to lead."

This is why you should also seek out opportunities to manage others -- early and often, says David B. Waters, executive director of Community Servings, a charity in Roxbury, Mass, that delivers free meals to people homebound with HIV/AIDS or other serious illnesses. "If you aren't in a position to manage other staff now, you might try to take a leadership role on a specific project team to prove your abilities as an effective leader," he says.

To increase your chances of eventually getting a plum assignment, Ms. Simons suggests that you take a counterintuitive route. "Volunteer for assignments that no one else wants to take," she says. "That demonstrates that you are willing to take on a challenge and you're a team player." If you still feel like you're not getting the experience you need, "you'll need and want to make occasional job moves -- although not too many -- to gain that experience," advises Fred Bronstein, president of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In his opinion, he says, "too many" moves would be more than one new job every three years.

You may also want to consider continuing your formal education in the field. For example, consider getting a certified fund-raising-executive credential, suggests Kay Harvey, executive director of the Bethesda Hospital Foundation, in Maryland. The credential, she says, "can help you stand out and give you nonprofit management basics." However, you'll need at least five years of job experience as a fund raiser to sit for the exam. To learn more, go to the CFRE Web site, or check out a previous Philanthropy Careers story about the credential.

Many books can help you along in your career. Mr. Davenport has found the classic business book, The One Minute Manager, by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (Morrow, 1981, $19.95), to be very helpful in his own career. Ms. Harvey says she has often turned to Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989, $15). Ms. Shefa is a big fan of books written by the fund-raising consultant Kim Klein, editor of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. You might want to start with The Accidental Fundraiser: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Money for Your Cause, by Ms. Klein, Stephanie Roth and Mimi Ho (Jossey-Bass, 2005, $19.95).

Finally, Mr. Davenport also suggests that you look for someone who can serve as a champion or a mentor -- a senior executive in the nonprofit world who is willing to offer guidance. (The board of your charity might be a good place to start looking, he says.) "Few things can replace an outsider's view of your career, growth, and development, or a caring mentor's advice," he says. For more about making the most of the mentoring relationship, see this previous Philanthropy Careers article.

Q. How can I find the charity world's top 25 donors?

A. Check out the Chronicle's annual survey of the 60 people who gave the most to charity in 2004 here Results from the 2005 survey were released in March. Be sure to use the database, which allows you to search the donors by their source of wealth, type of recipient, and state. You can see each year's results back to the year 2000.

Q. A donor wants to donate a car to our foundation, and then have us conduct a raffle to give it away. Where can I find information about car donations, including the do's and don't about this type of gift?

A. Car donations became more complicated this year, when changes to the federal tax law governing such gifts went into effect on January 1, says Nancy J. Kellison, director of the Western service center of Cars for a Cure, in Long Beach, Calif. (Cars for a Cure is the vehicle donation program of the American Cancer Society.)

"In the past when a donor gifted a vehicle, that donor determined the fair market value for their donation utilizing such sources as the Kelley Blue Book," she says. Today, the new guidelines say that a donor may only deduct the actual sales price of the vehicle when it is resold by the charity.

Learn more about the new do's and don'ts of car donations on this Internal Revenue Service Web page.

In June, the IRS released additional guidance; see here. You can find a lot more information about car donation, and the story behind the change in the regulations, on Independent Sector's Web site.

It's not just the federal government that you'll need to worry about, though. To provide the donor with ownership-transfer documentation, you will need to notify your state department of motor vehicles, says Ms. Kellison. You will also need to check in with your state regarding the raffle, she says, as raffles are typically regulated by state law. Good places to start to learn about raffle regulations include your state's attorney general's office, and your state or regional nonprofit umbrella organization.

But try to avoid the raffle if possible, suggests Harvard E. Palmer Jr., cofounder of the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, in Monrovia, Calif. Mr. Palmer's company handles more than 1,000 vehicle donations a week for 300 charities, and he says that your donor's request is very unusual. If it's a run-of-the-mill car, he says, a raffle is probably going to cost you more than you'll gain from the donation.

"Vehicle donations are all about quantity -- there's darn little quality. Our gross average sales price for the vehicles we handled last year was $438. The big trick is get the vehicles in and get them sold in a hurry. The best and safest way is to do that by auction," he says. "For a donor to specify the manner of liquidation doesn't really make sense, unless the donor is putting on their own charity ball with their own rich friends, and they're raffling a 1961 Austin-Healey."

Q. Are there any other comprehensive lists of charities that donors might want to support, other than Guidestar and Give.org? How can I find them?

A. Several other organizations maintain lists of charities for potential donors' information and convenience. The American Institute of Philanthropy rates more than 500 charities in its "Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report." You must donate $35 or more to receive the guide, which gives detailed information about each group. The organization's Web site also features a comprehensive listing of charities, including groups that have received a top rating in the guide. Charity Navigator rates more than 4,000 groups, and you can find information about it online If you're interested in Christian ministries, check out MinistryWatch, which details 400 of the largest churches and ministries in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service maintains a database of charitable organizations that have tax-exempt status, and you can find the search engine here. Don't expect anything more than the charity's name and address -- the IRS doesn't pass judgment on the organizations that it lists.

For more information on watchdogs that monitor charities, see a previous Chronicle article. --  Alison Stein Wellner

Send your questions about job hunting, recruiting, or managing in the nonprofit world to hotline@philanthropy.com.