Freelancing and Volunteering: A Good Combination
This time of year, there are a lot of opportunities to volunteer. Lots of non-profits are looking for help to do holiday donation drives and many have special projects to help people out around the holidays. Just about every non-profit could use a spare pair of hands — and many of them need specialized help, like design or copy writing.
I have an easy time of justifying not helping to myself: I’m short on time, my income isn’t as steady as someone with a day job or I’ve got my own obligations to focus on. But these are just excuses. I’m reminded every year around this time, that volunteering is important and that I can help out in ways that many others can’t, just because I’m a freelancer. The number of organizations that rely on volunteers is huge and many of them are working on issues that we feel very strongly about.
Flexibility
Freelancers can actually volunteer at the same time we’re working. Sometimes an organization needs something as simple as someone to answer phones during hours when other volunteers aren’t available. If you’re able to work from anywhere with an internet connection, you may be able to fill in as necessary while still getting work done. It’s just a question of thinking about how you can be a good fit with a particular non-profit.
I’ve been known to drag a laptop along to events where a group I was passionate about needed someone to man a table. There were a few stops and starts on my work as people came up to the table, but I got to both help out and cover my own obligations. No other volunteer would have been able to do something similar for this organization, because everyone else had a full-time job they had to be at during the day.
Specialized Skills
Small non-profits usually wind up parceling out tasks to volunteers more on the basis of who is available than who has the right skill set. This approach can lead to brochures written entirely in Comic Sans or website copy with more than a few grammatical errors. By volunteering to handle specific types of projects, you can support a cause with the skills you’ve built up over the years. You may even be able to make it easier for other volunteers to get involved or for supporters to make donations.
While money is hopefully not the most important consideration when a freelancer helps a non-profit organization, there are some ways to earn tax deductions for volunteering: any supplies you have to purchase specifically to complete the project, for instance, are typically tax deductible. You can’t deduct the actual time you spent directly, unfortunately, but you may have some options for other tax deductions if you talk to your tax preparer about your specific situation.
Volunteering, Not Working
It’s worth noting that I’m talking about volunteering — not working for free. There are plenty of people that are happy to ask a freelancer to ‘volunteer’ on a project just because they don’t want to pay. These projects aren’t usually for non-profits or organizations that focus on helping others.
Volunteering is time you’re willing to devote to an organization that is working on a problem you feel strongly about. Skip those projects that are just cases of someone trying to get work done for free and focus on folks you actually want to help.
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I am a freelancer and a volunteer. I do web development for money and I do door-to-door work, accounting and some admin for a local charity. It’s an interesting mix.
I get a lot of joy out of my volunteering… perhaps more so than the paid work. Unfortunately we all need money.
Interesting. It would be great for some freelancers to choose a business from kiva.org or a similar organization and provide some pro bono work for them — great sentiment, and great publicity!
Nice article…and really fits with what I do. I have been doing volunteering for non-profit organizations and they have really helped me in establishing myself as a web designer.
I love volunteering for many reasons. I think it’s a great way for us freelancers to get out of the house, or out from behind the computer and into the real world. It takes the focus off whatever issues or problems you may be dealing with and helps put things in perspective. Not only that, but it can be very refreshing to use a different skill set once in a while, and be involved with a totally different industry. I think as freelancers, it’s easy to live in our little bubbles – doing things like volunteering helps break out of that and offers a chance for personal growth as well. I would also add – don’t wait till the holidays to volunteer – there are many opportunities and non-profits in need year-round!
Nice recommendations.
One of the greatest benefits of volunteer efforts is the people met and contacts made while donating time, energy and talent. Many incredibly valuable business relationships have been made with nonprofit board of directors members, and other volunteers, in my 30+ years of volunteering.
For any independent creative who opts to do pro bono work for a nonprofit, I highly recommend that the effort be treated as any other project. Use your contract or project agreement to define a project details. Present “project value’ documentation so the nonprofit will understand the true value of your efforts.
Love this observation and couldn’t agree with you more. Especially the “Volunteering, Not Working” section. I’ve been traveling the country doing volunteer work and with my background in web/graphic design, there are plenty of people looking for a free site. I usually instruct them on what a “free” site would look like and that usually steers them clear of asking for one…with all that said, if you are passionate enough about a cause, then by all means, do everything in your power to help them out.
Thanks again for the great article!
Great post. Doing volunteer writing helps both the volunteer and the group. Your point about Specialized Skills is a great one. It’s also a way for beginning writers to gain experience writing, and perhaps, hone new skills or cover different topics than usual.
That was really a nice article specially about mentioning the difference between volunteering and working for free.
I have not been involved in volunteering for a while but it’s time get back on track
I am a self-employed designer and i do volunteer work for animal charities (via in-person nondesign-related work and via design work) because i am passionate about that cause. i keep track of all my time in a project database as if it were a paying client. BTW, if anyone else is interested in doing volunteer design-related work for animal-related organizations, http://www.creativepaw.com posts a list of design-related needs of organizations looking for help.
oops! should have said http://www.creativepaw.org
Volunteering your services is a great way for freelancers to keep active in their area of specialty and make new connections. I’m currently volunteering for a colleague who is working with a non-profit, to help improve their fundraising materials, so your blog post really hit home with me! I remember when I was first starting out as a freelancer, one of the first things I did was try to put together a volunteer project with a fellow colleague, a marketer friend of mine, who later went to work for a prominent non-profit … which is now one of my clients. Call it good karma!
Get started:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
This is a great thing to publicise – often volunteer work gets ‘forgotten’ in hard times yet the benefits to your well-being are excellent.
I used to volunteer as a mentor for high school students and now help with a WordPress website for a local handicapped child. In the grand scheme of things if you can give a couple of hours a week of your time and not feel too over-worked then you should.
I just recently became a volunteer at the Taproot Foundation (www.taprootfoundation.org/ ). It’s a non-profit that matches up professionals with a set list of service grants they give to other non-profits. I haven’t started my first project yet, but I’m really impressed with the way they have it organized. They really have everything set up to avoid the pitfills that happen when you work for “free” and really ask a lot from their grant recipients as well as their volunteers.
It’s a great way to use your professional skills for something good.
In their case, at least, it seem like hard times had benefited them. At least 3/4 of the people at the orientation I went to were there because they were laid off, so they had extra time!
A few months ago, I was down at the community radio station, answering phones during the pledge drive. Well, I was having such a good time that one of the staff took notice and had me fill out a volunteer interest form.
I dutifully noted what I do for a living, graphic designer and photographer, but what really caught her eye was the fact that I used to work in a fundraising office. After all, the station runs on money, not music.
And that’s how I ended up on the station’s development committee. We’re responsible for raising money in the form of major gifts. That’s gifts of $1,000 and up.
This is actually a great idea. And the link to the volunteer website was good. Also, CharityNavigator is a good place to find charities that might be a good fit.
I am a volunteer before in a provincial school.There I fix pc,create network,create programs
needed by teachers and student only me and my instructor are good in Programming.I have learned a lot of programming not with the teachers, and instructors
I learned it all through my experiences that I encounter In our school like fixing a server,learn a new technology and enhanced my programming skill and share it to my fellow students.
And after that my teachers and friends and classmates recommended me to their friends also And I became known to every college and municipality in our place I met
priest from other islands, politicians,deans and they give me money for what I done.
Thank you for posting this link!!! ….. http://www.creativepaw.org
I am passionate about animal welfare and do a bit of pet sitting on the side for friends who have adopted shelter animals. The thought of these pets having to go to a kennel while friends travel just breaks my heart so I am all to happy to help out and get some “puppy-love”. Gets me off the computer too! Been looking for an organization like this to see if I can donate a bit of time so again thank you!!