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Answers to Readers' Questions about Moving Into Planned Giving, Getting Cheap Office Supplies, and More

The Chronicle's Philanthropy Careers 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 your inquiries with tips about resources and wisdom from experts in the field.

Q. I'm a recent law-school graduate who works in the trusts and estates department of a law firm. I feel unfulfilled, even though I enjoy the core of my job -- estate planning, planned giving, and so on. I would like to move into nonprofit planned-giving work, but would rather not start at the very bottom because I feel I am overqualified. Where should I be looking?

A. The answer somewhat depends on what you mean by "the very bottom," says John C. Linfield, major gifts officer at Norwich University, in Northfield, Vt. Just having a law degree and some experience with estate planning does not make you an expert planned-giving officer, he says. There are a variety of insurance products and types of giving that would be new to most lawyers who help clients plan their estates. "You won't need to start as an administrative assistant, but it doesn't sound like you are really prepared to be a senior planned-giving officer or a director of planned gifts, any more than you are prepared to argue before the Supreme Court," Mr. Linfield says.

Raising money through planned gifts depends as much on your ability to persuade and communicate with people as it does on your technical skills, he adds. Surely you've already developed some of the interpersonal skills you'll need, such as listening to your clients and reading in between the lines, he says. But a planned-giving fund raiser needs to have more of a sales personality than does a lawyer, Mr. Linfield says: "You need to be able to convince a prospective donor that they will get more satisfaction out of supporting your organization than they will out of supporting their great-grandkids."

So be sure to stress in your résumé and during interviews not only your technical expertise, but also the interpersonal skills that you've developed through interviewing clients, he says. Highlight any sales experience, he suggests, and any responsibility you've had in following up with clients after "deals" have closed. Fund raisers call this "stewardship."

As for where you should begin your search, Mr. Linfield says you really have two choices: a major organization with a large fund-raising staff or a small organization that is just hiring its first fund raisers. "The larger organization may be willing to take a chance on you to take advantage of your legal training, and they can also more readily absorb your training costs," he says. "The smaller organization just getting started may not be able to afford a fully trained fund-raising professional, and may likewise be willing to take a chance on you."

To find your dream job, try following in the footsteps of Gregory Jones, director of development of the College of Veterinary Medicine, at the University of Missouri at Columbia, who was in exactly your shoes just four years ago.

After graduating from law school, he worked for two years in a private law firm doing estate planning, but sought to use his knowledge elsewhere. His first step -- and one he suggests you follow -- was to hire a career consultant. "I really did not have a good grasp of what options were available to me in the planned-giving field," Mr. Jones says. The coach helped him revise his resumé, sharpen his interviewing skills, and assess his "market value." Subsequently, Mr. Jones focused his efforts on finding a planned-giving position in higher education.

Once you've narrowed your focus, start rubbing elbows with the people who either have those jobs themselves or can help you get access to them, says Mr. Jones. He made contacts by attending a meeting of a local chapter of the National Committee on Planned Giving and later joined the national group. He also signed up with the Association of Fundraising Professionals to receive job listings from his local chapter.

Jean M. Martinho, vice president for planned giving at the American Cancer Society's New England Division, in Framingham, Mass., advises that you also consider doing some volunteer work while you search for positions. "Many charities need estate-planning attorneys to conduct seminars or to be on their planned-giving advisory boards," she notes.

Like you, Mr. Jones says he fully expected to start at the very bottom, but actually found out rather quickly that in the organizations he was considering, the "bottom" was usually only one or two rungs from the "top." "Just remember that turnover is high and the demand for planned giving and major gifts officers exceeds supply," he says. "Don't worry about what level you start at. Just find an organization in whose mission you believe, do a great job, and advancement will quickly follow."

Q. I am involved in a brand new nonprofit group and have been put in charge of purchasing the office furniture, equipment, and décor. Any ideas on how I can get nonprofit discounts on these items?

A. Just ask. Some retailers may be willing to make you a deal if you let them know of your nonprofit status. If that doesn't work, however, try contacting your city, state, or regional umbrella group for nonprofit organizations, and see if can offer its members any discounts. For example, The Council of Community Services of New York State an association of charities, has a deal with Staples Business Advantage to offer its members 25-percent-to-85-percent discounts on office products, furniture, and supplies.

If your charity provides educational services or other types of services on behalf of government agencies, you also may be eligible to join the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance. This organization pools the purchasing power of public agencies to achieve bulk-volume discounts on office products and furniture from retailers such as Office Depot and Herman Miller.

Also check out Gifts in Kind International. This charity receives product donations from a wide array of retailers across the country, such as IBM and Bed Bath & Beyond, and distributes these products to charities that register with their service. Registered charities can order items online through the "Global Resource Directory" or through a quarterly product catalog. (However, charity leaders say that quality of the goods can vary a great deal. You may want to ask other nonprofit groups in your area about their experiences with Gifts in Kind first.) The organization also runs a Retail Donation Partner Program, which will match your charity with a local store where you can go to pick up donated supplies throughout the year. To register with Gifts in Kind, first see if there is a local program in your area. If there is no program near you, you can register through the organization's Web site. Registration fees vary from $100 to $250, depending on the size of a charity.

To find technology-oriented products, Frank Libbe, systems administrator at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, recommends looking at the extensive online directory of free software and online services at TuDogs and TechSoup. Charities that register through TechSoup's "Stock" section can browse through listings and purchase a variety of donated and discounted brand-name products from Cisco, Microsoft, Intuit, and other companies. It works much like Gifts in Kind's program, except no registration fee is required -- though you will need to pay an administrative fee for each item ordered, to cover shipping and customer-support costs.

If you still can't find the free or discounted goods you need, consider negotiating with a local office-supply company, advises Maura Schreier-Fleming, president of Best@Selling, a sales consulting firm in Dallas. "Nonprofits have much more to offer than money," she says.

For instance, if your charity has a newsletter that goes out to people whom the company might be interested in luring as customers, you might offer a free advertisement in the newsletter in exchange for a discount on office supplies, she says. Or you might give the company exposure at a fund-raising event in exchange for a discount. A couple of years ago, Ms. Schreier-Fleming saw this bartering tactic work while helping the Dallas YWCA to set up a fund-raising luncheon. The charity asked the hotel venue to provide a discount on the food worth about $3,000; in exchange, the YWCA gave the hotel top billing in the event program as a "platinum sponsor."

"It worked out well for both of us," notes Ms. Schreier-Fleming. "They got exposure to 400 influential women, and we got a discount." This same tactic would easily work with an office-supply company, she insists: "Nonprofits often have many untapped assets that they forget to leverage."

Q. I have nine years of executive experience in nonprofit arts programs, and six years of faculty experience at liberal-arts colleges. I've been looking for a nonprofit job for nine months, and have had no luck. I am 54 years old, and beginning to suspect that age discrimination is a real factor. What can I do about this?

A. If you really believe that you are not getting hired because of your age, you may want to keep track of who ended up getting hired for the positions that you were seeking, advises Michael Karpeles, a lawyer in Chicago who specializes in labor and employment law. If the people who were hired for those positions were substantially younger -- as in, 10 or more years -- and their qualifications are inferior to yours, you may in fact have a valid age-discrimination claim, he says.

Usually, however, it is hard to find out this information, so Mr. Karpeles says that you should also keep track of any age-related comments made to you during the interview or inquiries asked of you on the job application. If you have some such evidence beyond a mere hunch, you could file a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or your state human-rights commission , either of which can help you file and process a claim for discrimination.

Be advised, though, that age discrimination is very hard to prove. Factors unrelated to age -- such as over- or under-qualification, higher compensation expectations because of experience, and general personality traits -- are all lawful reasons for an employer to not hire an applicant, says Mr. Karpeles.

"The fact that several employers have not hired you cuts against the idea that age discrimination is at work, since it is hard to believe that all of these employers are engaging in the same form of discrimination," he says. "My practical advice is to ask each employer, in a respectful way, why you didn't get the job. You may learn something valuable about your skills or interviewing techniques that could be improved."

Leslie Bonagura, managing consultant at the Stamford, Conn., offices of the human-resources consulting group DBM, which has its headquarters in New York, concurs that the chance that blatant age discrimination is at play here seems unlikely. A more plausible answer, she says, is that an outdated résumé or poor interview skills are the culprits. Ms. Bonagura suggests that you review your resumé and make certain it clearly demonstrates the link between your skills and those needed for the positions you are pursuing. List only relatively current job experience.

"In today's marketplace, you should really only show detailed information for positions you have held within the last 10 to 15 years," says Ms. Bonagura. "Then, follow those items with a statement of 'Prior experience includes[...]' or 'Other relevant experience includes[...]' and list any other positions you have held in the past, without dates."

If you find that you are getting interviews but just aren't converting them into offers, you may also need some interview coaching. Work through some mock interviews with friends or family for practice and to get feedback, suggests Ms. Bonagura. It is also a good idea to videotape a couple of your mock interviews so that you can watch yourself and analyze the appropriateness of your responses, your body language and you mannerisms, she says.

For more pointers, check out AARP's Careers page, which offers all kinds of advice for mature job seekers, from updating your resumé to shifting into a new career field.

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

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