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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 advice column, we respond to some of those inquiries with tips about resources and suggestions from experts.

Previous editions of Hotline are also available on the Philanthropy Careers site. Send your questions about job hunting, recruiting, or managing in the nonprofit world to hotline@philanthropy.com.

Q. There was a time I loved what I did; a career in philanthropy was a calling. But now I have a health condition that makes it difficult to handle the stress and long hours expected from development directors. Any advice on a new direction I can take and still stay in the nonprofit field?

A. The first step to recovering your enthusiasm for your work is to identify exactly what's bothering you, says Beverly Potter, a psychologist and the author of Overcoming Job Burnout: How to Renew Enthusiasm for Work.

Beyond the stress and long hours about which you complain, one possible source of your burnout is the pressure of serving as your organization's chief fund raiser.

Such responsibility can seem like a weighty burden at times, says Blase Bova, director of development for the Society of St. Vincent DePaul-Phoenix, a social-services group.

"What might tend to burn people out is knowing that the organization needs funding — and it all kind of falls on you," he says.

If the problem is the nature of the position, you may want to find a new one — perhaps more directly connected to the mission and programs of your organization, Mr. Bova says.

Or simply try to remind yourself why you started working there in the first place.

"My biggest strategy for avoiding burnout is the mission of the organization," he says.

One way to reignite your passion for your organization's mission, he says, is to talk to volunteers, staff members, and clients about your charity's good works and the need for its services. These stories also can help you make your case to prospective donors, he says.

If you want to stick with fund raising, but desire more flexibility, fewer hours, and less stress, consider a job conducting donor research or writing grant proposals, says Randi Yoder, senior vice president for donor relations at Greater Twin Cities United Way, in Minneapolis.

You could still devise strategies and interact with donors, but you could work from home, if your health condition makes telecommuting desirable, and you wouldn't have to ask for donations, she says.

You might also consider a job raising big gifts for a larger institution, suggests Anne McCaw, author of the Vault Career Guide to Fundraising and Philanthropy. That way, you would have a similar level of responsibility, but possibly better benefits and more support from a larger, more sophisticated fund-raising department.

If your organization is simply expecting too much of you and your department, and you have more than five years' experience as a successful fund raiser, you may find yourself in a good position to negotiate for better hours and more flexibility — either as development director, or in another, more specialized role — at another charity, Ms. McCaw says.

"When you interview for a development job, look to see if the staffing seems to meet the expectations around fund raising," she says.

For instance, Ms. McCaw says, if you're looking at a job in foundation and corporate relations, are there enough staff members in place to raise the grant funding the organization expects each year, "or is it just one person who's holding their head above water?"

Ms. McCaw also advises you to look for the following: a strong strategic plan, a board that actively raises money, an executive director who knows how to set priorities, a collaborative approach to fund raising, and a support system — including competitive salaries and benefits, a well-managed fund-raising database, and a budget for training staff members — that allows fund raisers to do their jobs well.

You may also want to get support from outside the office, says Will Wiebe, a life and career coach in Portland, Ore.

Seek out other fund raisers and form networks by joining professional associations, such as the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Your peers, he says, are the best source of information about how to handle the demands of your job.

Q. We are thinking of creating a "job share" position with a grants manager and grant-proposal writer. Any thoughts about the pros and cons of this possibility?

A. Your question raised some concern for Fernan Cepero, vice president of human resources at the YMCA of Greater Rochester, in New York. By attempting to hire a grants manager and a grant-proposal writer to share a position, he says, it seems that you are not hiring two people to perform the same job, which is typical in a job-sharing arrangement.

"You have to have an apples-to-apples comparison between the two," Mr. Cepero says. That means paying the two employees at the same rate, giving them the same title, and classifying them the same way, as either hourly or salaried employees.

If you were to hire a grants manager and a grant-proposal writer and one of them was salaried while the other worked for hourly wages, he says, you would be mixing two different job categories. In that case, he says, the U.S. Department of Labor could force you to reclassify the job as an hourly position.

It may be that what you really want to do is hire two part-time employees, he says.

However, if you do want to create a job-sharing arrangement, then you should treat it like any other open position, says Shari Rosen Ascher, co-author of Share the Goals: How to Successfully Job Share.

"Hiring a job share is no different than hiring a regular employee," she says. "It's just that you're getting two people instead of one."

People who share jobs tend to be very productive, Ms. Rosen Ascher says, because of the flexibility the arrangement provides.

And though people often ask her, "What happens if the team breaks up?" she says that's rarely a problem.

"Job shares tend to stay at their job longer because they have a loyalty to the company that would allow them to do this," she says.

But because you're hiring two people, she notes, "everyone has to know where they stand from the get-go."

Treat job sharing as you would part-time employment, telecommuting, or freelancing, she says, and create policies that govern how job-sharing employees will accrue benefits like vacation, health care, and retirement, and how they will be evaluated and compensated.

"It's the responsibility of the employer to classify job sharing as a work option, rather than an employee accommodation," she says.

Mr. Cepero also suggests that you create a contingency plan for the unlikely event that both people who share the job are absent from the workplace at the same time.

"I've found that because there are two people, there's the assumption that, 'OK, we're safe,' never thinking both may at some time be out for whatever reason," he says.

For more information about job sharing and other flexible work options, you might want to contact the Society for Human Resource Management, in Alexandria, Va., at (800) 283-7476.

Q. We are a very small charity in Pennsylvania and need to raise money to buy a van to pick up donated goods. We want to reward those volunteers who raise funds for us by awarding points for each dollar they raise, and in turn let them redeem the points they earn for small gifts — and allow those who raise the most to join us on a cruise. Is this OK?

A. The experts we consulted say that what you are proposing — using incentives to encourage volunteers to raise more money — is legal. Even so, they advise you to tread carefully.

Tracy McCurdy, director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations, in Harrisburg, and Paulette Maehara, chief executive of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in Arlington, Va., told us that the gifts, including the cruise, could probably be considered compensation rather than simply tokens of thanks.

In other words, your volunteers might be required to report the value of the gifts as income on their state or federal tax returns, and your organization might have to report the payments to the Internal Revenue Service or your state department of revenue. Ms. McCurdy recommends that you contact the two agencies to learn what their requirements are.

In addition, Ms. McCurdy says that while, as a small Pennsylvania charity, you might not usually have to register with her bureau (if you raise less than $25,000 in gross contributions each year), the decision to compensate individuals for raising money would require you to register.

Ms. Maehara also wonders whether it is prudent for a charity to offer something as costly as a cruise as a fund-raising incentive. Is the cruise donated? If so, she says, you must be very clear about that so donors don't get the wrong impression about how you are using their gifts.

"People feel it would be a better use of their money to put it to the mission of the organization," she says, "not to buy a cruise."