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AMY BICK CHENEY

Vice President for Advancement The Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Age: 33

Amy Bick Cheney took a career detour early on. After spending three years at Price Waterhouse in Cleveland, the CPA decided that corporate accounting wasn't for her.

"I went back to school." she said. "I liked working with the nonprofit clients I had at Price Waterhouse and an internship at the Columbus Foundation was a great experience."

Armed with an MBA from Ohio State University, Cheney took a job at the Greater Cincinnati Founation as a communications/advancement associate in 1993. A year later, she was promoted to advancement director and in January 1999, she became vice president for advancement. The job entails strategic planning, asset development and donor cultivation, as well as managing the advancement and communications staff, and promoting awareness of the foundation's activities.

Cheney noted that her past experience as an auditor and tax consultant have helped her in the nonprofit world where benefactors, big and small, need advice on how to handle their donations.

"I like that it combines my tax experience," she said, "and I'm exposed to lots of different kinds of people. There's a lot of diversity."

In her years at the foundation, Cheney has helped implement an advancement plan that attracted 514 new charitable funds and brought in $182 million in contributions. She meets with potential donors and serves as the in-house expert on charitable giving strategies and tools.

On the volunteer side, Cheney is a trustee of the Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council, a collaborative that educates the community about supporting charitable organizations through bequests, and has served on a national "Leave a Legacy" subcommittee. She also has held several officer's positions at Friendship Lutheran Church and plays the flute in the church's monthly ensemble.

A native of Loudonville, Ohio, Cheney earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Akron in 1988. She lives in Anderson Township with her husband, Michael, chief financial officer for the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. The couple is expecting their first child in April.