HOTLINE

Answering Readers' Questions about Landing a First Job, Incentive Pay, and More

The Chronicle's Career Network asked its readers to submit questions about job hunting, recruitment, and management challenges in the nonprofit world. In our monthly advice column, we respond to some of your inquiries with tips about resources and wisdom from experts in the field.

Q. I am graduating from a prestigious liberal-arts college this May with a degree in women's studies. I have some internship experience, and I am interested in entering the nonprofit field in the human-rights area. I've been searching for jobs online, but am usually only able to find jobs that require experience. How can I go about finding an entry-level position?

A. Don't sell yourself short. If you have internship experience, you might be qualified for more than an entry-level job, says Mari K. Bonthuis, political organizer and intern coordinator at Minnesota NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League), in St. Paul. She says that she got her job right after graduation, through contacts she made at the last of her three college internships. Ms. Bonthuis also suggests you check out smaller nonprofit organizations that might be willing to give you more responsibility as an entry-level person.

When you're searching through online job listings, it's a good idea to hit a couple of job-listing Web sites that allow you to filter listings by entry-level status, such as Sustainable Business.com and ACCESS Jobs, or the Philanthropy Careers job listings, which can be searched for the words "entry level." (Soon, you will be able to filter those listings for "early career" jobs requiring zero to three years' experience.) Additionally, since you have a degree in women's studies, you might want to take a peek at the classifieds in local newspapers or other publications that focus on women's issues. Ms. Bonthuis says that her organization, for example, often lists open positions in Minnesota Women's Press, a local special-interest newspaper.

But don't limit yourself to job listings -- make as many face-to-face contacts as possible, says Melanie I. Myers, director of recruiting and staffing at Save the Children U.S., in Westport, Conn. She suggests attending forums, or setting up some informational interviews, in which you meet with an employer simply to learn what it's like to work for a particular organization. And consider "auditioning" for a job through volunteer work or internships, routes many young people take into entry-level charity jobs. If you're financially able, a long-term internship or volunteer experience right after college, such as a tour with the Peace Corps, can also help make you a stronger candidate, says Ms. Myers.

For more information on finding an entry-level job, also look for Getting Your Foot in the Door When You Don't Have a Leg to Stand On, by Rob Sullivan (Contemporary Books, 2001, $12.95). And good luck!

Q. I have just received an offer for my dream job. The problem is, there is someone on my new staff who wanted that job as well, and I've heard she was very disappointed when she was passed over. She will be given a raise to help keep her, but I'd like some other tips for starting off well with her, because I will be her immediate supervisor. She is a very valuable member of the team, and I want to keep working with her.

A. That's a tough, but not uncommon, situation. Virginia H. Strull, vice president of Professionals for NonProfits, a recruiting firm in New York, says she faced the exact same circumstance twice during the course of her 25 years as a director of development in the museum field -- and many, many times with her clients.

Her advice: Immediately start to develop a positive professional relationship with your whole staff, and pay special attention to the passed-over-for-promotion employee. Make an effort to discern her strengths, and assign her work that makes the most of them. It's particularly important to acknowledge any accomplishments or successes that she experiences in the early stages of your relationship. This makes your good will clear, and it also can go a long way toward establishing loyalty. "It's very important in the context of a staff meeting, or in discussions with the executive director, to make clear what her accomplishments have been," says Ms. Strull. It's also best to avoid directly discussing the fact that this person was passed over for promotion, she says -- sparking a debate about your qualifications is not productive.

Of course, despite your best efforts, the staff member might still leave. And since this situation will definitely test your management muscles, you also may want to check out a few resources to help brush up your leadership and team-building skills: Ms. Strull recommends Price Pritchett's handbooks on building teams, such as "Team ReConstruction," a 14-point plan for rebuilding staffs hit by change, available for $6.95.

Q. I am new to the development field and would like to calculate how much of every dollar given to our charity goes toward the needs for which the donors' gifts are intended. How do I factor this value?

A. It's important information to have, and brace yourself if you hate mathematics, because what you've got, essentially, is a math problem. Here's the simplified answer: If you want to figure out how much money your charity is spending on programs generally, you need to look at how much you're spending directly on program costs -- and how much you're spending on everything else, such as salaries, fund-raising costs, and office overhead, says Sally A. Zinno, a Warwick, R.I., management consultant who specializes in nonprofit organizations. If 60 percent of your operating budget goes to program costs, you're spending 60 cents of every dollar on programs, she says.

You can go through the same exercise for individual programs within your charity, but it gets more complicated, says Christine Graham, president of CPG Enterprises, a nonprofit consulting firm in South Burlington, Vt. For example, if you have a staff member who works on multiple programs, you have to prorate that person's salary to accurately calculate the cost to the program in question. You also have to decide whether you're going to include all of your charity's revenue in the calculation, or whether you're only going to count funds raised from donors -- excluding, for example, government-grant money or fee-for-service income. In the end, the exact methodology you need depends on your charity's circumstances. The Association of Fundraising Professionals offers more information on evaluating fund-raising costs.

Consider picking up Fund Raising Cost Effectiveness: A Self-Assessment Workbook, by James M. Greenfield, which includes an IBM-compatible floppy disc with worksheets and checklists (AFP/Wiley Fund Development series, 1996, $65.95 if ordered through the Association of Fundraising Professionals Web site).

By the way, several watchdog organizations have established standards for how funds should be allocated. The Better Business Bureau, for example, says that at least 50 percent of public donations should be spent on programs and activities described in your charity's solicitation, that fund-raising costs shouldn't exceed 35 percent of related contributions, and that total fund-raising and administrative costs shouldn't exceed 50 percent of an organization's total income. You can get advice on how to meet the Better Business Bureau's standards by contacting its Wise Giving Alliance at (703) 276-0100, or 4200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800, Arlington, Va., 22203.

Q. Could you provide me with sources for researching nonprofit groups that include bonuses in their fund raisers' compensation?

A. Bonuses, or performance incentives, are controversial in fund raising, but they are becoming more and more common, since the demand for experienced fund raisers outstrips supply, says Paulette V. Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in Alexandria, Va. The association deals with bonuses in its code of ethics, declaring that any bonus based on a percentage of dollars raised is an ethical violation. However, Ms. Maehara says, the code allows for bonuses based on different criteria -- such as the number of new donors or the number of new volunteers. Ideally, she says, the bonus should be available not only to a fund raiser or a group of fund raisers in the organization, but to the entire staff. "Fund raising is not solely done by one person. It's typically done by a team, and so a bonus should be provided to those staff that are involved," she says.

There isn't a single source that lists all nonprofit groups that offer a bonus to fund raisers. You could get some more information from the Association of Fundraising Professionals' annual compensation and benefits survey ($75 for AFP members, $150 for nonmembers; order through the association's Web site by calling (800) 666-3863 or contacting the association's Resource Center, 1101 King Street, Suite 700, Alexandria, Va., 22314). The most recent version finds that, when fund raisers do receive bonuses, the money makes up only a small portion of their income. In the association's survey, 40 percent of the fewer than 300 respondents who say they received bonuses report that their bonuses ranged from 1 to 3 percent of their total income. Only 12 percent of fund raisers surveyed who received bonuses say that the money made up 16 percent or more of their total income.

For more on charities and bonuses -- and the controversial approaches some groups take -- check out this Chronicle of Philanthropy story from last fall about how some nonprofit organizations use incentive pay.

Got a question about job hunting, recruiting, or managing in the nonprofit world? Send it to us at hotline@philanthropy.com.