What to do with your tax return? Invest in your career!

The arrival of the first W2 near the end of January symbolizes the start of tax season at my house. We get out a fresh file folder and begin to assemble forms, receipts, and other documentation.

I love the instant gratification of self-service tax preparation software. Within minutes we can have a sense of whether we owe taxes or if we will get a return.

Sometimes, the news is not great and we bust out our checkbook. On these years we wait until the bitter end to fork money over.

By contrast, if calculations confirm we’re getting a tax return, we happily file early and eagerly await the transfer into our bank account. The obvious next step is to start dreaming about how we’ll spend this unplanned windfall…

We could treat ourselves to items we want but really don’t need. While fun for the short term, I’m afraid this course of action doesn't do us any long term financial good.

But line 21 of my 1040 Schedule A has me thinking of another option for spending a refund: investing in work training! According to the IRS, if I itemize my deductions, training to enhance my current career may be tax deductible! I’m thinking this is a positive financial double-whammy. As my skills improve, so will my value to my employer. Then, on my 2015 taxes, I can write off fees, books, and possibly even mileage and travel expenses.

And now for a shameless plug: did you know UNLV Continuing Education offers more than 25 professional development programs to help you enhance your career skills? How about using your tax return to boost your career in one of the well-performing sectors of the Las Vegas economy, like hospitality, transportation, health, and professional and business services? If you meet all the IRS's criteria, you may even be able to deduct your professional training expenses next year!

UNLV Grant Academy Launches this Fall

UNLV Grant Academy courses will be offered at Historic Fifth Street School in Downtown Las Vegas.

Syllabi for the new Grant Academy classes are finally complete and approved, which means we can officially get excited about the program. It’s been awhile since I worked in the nonprofit and grant writing fields, but I have to say that reading the course descriptions had me wishing my grant education had been this well structured. 

For me, my first application basically plagiarized my predecessor’s work; the application was pretty much cut and pasted from a sample my boss handed me. It was not big money, maybe just $500, so he figured it was a good learning opportunity for me. Taking this type of shortcut didn’t work long, though, as I moved on to bigger grants and more sophisticated review committees.  

This is the point at which I begin to salivate at the Grant Academy curriculum and wish someone had better explained to me the value of doing all the difficult pre-work before working through a grant application. Before the Grant Academy students even begin to write proposals, they will take Building a Grant Ready Organization. In this class they will back up and look at the big picture: organizational capacity, program development, partnership building, and policy development -- all should be in place before an organization asks for funding. These behind-the-scenes tasks aren’t glamorous, but, boy, do they make a difference in giving a grant application focus and purpose. 

Most grant writing workshops I attended over the years did a solid job of taking participants through the proposal writing process. The Grant Academy will no doubt do an excellent job of this, especially since a total of eight weeks will be dedicated to discussing narratives, budgets, and RFPs. So while proposal writing is important, I would rather get you excited about the final Grant Academy course: Grants Management.

With so much focus on winning the grant, sometimes it can be alarming for an organization to realize it actually has to come through on proposed projects within the promised timeline. In the everyday business of nonprofit work, tracking expenditures and program outcomes can easily fall by the wayside. When the grant report comes due, there’s a scramble to consolidate the required information. Grants Management will give grant writers and managers tools to successfully implement projects, track outcomes, and build relationships with funding sources; these skills all improve your chances of receiving additional funding.

Registration for Grant Academy courses is now open. Course descriptions and details are posted online. You may take courses individually or save by registering for the full five-course series as a bundle. The first course for fall 2014, Identifying Funding Sources, starts Sept. 2.

Career Evolution Through Continuing Education

As a fresh college graduate I cringed at the question, “A history degree? What are you going to do with that?”

Twenty years later, I can happily answer, “Not what I thought.” Back when I was graduating, I never could have imagined the path my career would take.

I give a fair amount of credit for my ability to evolve and grow professionally to the numerous continuing education opportunities made available to me over the years. Grant writing, database management, group mediation, customer service, budget analysis, event planning, graphic design, and media relations weren’t taught as part of my history major, but I can now say I have a strong command of each thanks to conferences, seminars, classes, and other continuing education sources.

Coming out of college my first job was as a curator at a local history museum. On paper, I was going to do exactly what I had studied in school—exhibit research and artifact cataloging. In reality, though, the staff was small, money was tight, and I quickly had to learn how to write grants, plan events, lead programs, and balance a budget. Thank goodness for conferences, seminars, and mentors willing to liberally share their knowledge!

Making the leap from museum curator to city cultural program coordinator meant I was again thrown into the deep end. My history degree hadn’t taught me to plan concerts and theatre shows and Fourth of July. I had a lot to learn. I took advantage of every continuing education opportunity I was given. I took customer service classes, more grant writing courses, Microsoft Office training, and mediation training. I would have given almost anything for a class on nonprofit management and board relations like the ones offered at UNLV! I enrolled in some basic graphic arts courses so that I could start designing my own posters for concerts and community events.

My skills grew enough that when a communications position opened up within the department, I was ready. I completed a graphic design training program similar to the one offered through UNLV. I went to a “revenue school” to acquire marketing, budgeting, and other financial management tools.

Continuing education allowed me to guide my career in unexpected directions. Now that I am in a position where I help market continuing education opportunities, I love having the personal experience of seeing how training can be transformative.

My advice to those in every phase of their career would be to take advantage of training opportunities whenever you can. Conferences, classes, and cross-training all give you skills you can use as you move up or move on. Continuing education lets you steer your career in new, exciting directions. You, too, will be amazed by the unexpected path your career can take.

Post by Amy Tartaglia Johns