Looking to give your karma a boost in 2012? Why not consider working for free? Let me clarify: not working for free everyday, but donating your time and experience to help others and to learn from others as well.

Designer Roy Barber has embarked on a project whereby he spends every Friday freelancing for free at a different agency, which, he says, gives him the chance to work with some of the smartest people in the industry. In return, the agency gets an extra pair of hands for the day and he writes up the experience and his learnings on his blog. —Net Magazine

I really loved this idea—it’s sort of like freelance interning. Remember how psyched you were to land an internship in college? You get to be around all sorts of really smart people doing exactly what you wanted to do when you “grew up.”

Roy Barber came up with the idea after hiring his own intern. He got to teach this student things about freelancing that he would not have learned working as an intern at a larger company. Barber figured there were things he could still learn from larger agencies that he wouldn’t experience working for himself as a freelancer.

Some of the agencies he has been working for for free have even offered Barber jobs. He’s increased his clientele and is booked up through the new year. All for volunteering his time.

Not all businesses will be open to this idea—but you’ll never know if you don’t ask. There are other ways to offer your services and learn from others, too, that don’t include giving up each of your Fridays.

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You’ve been working like crazy all summer long, but you don’t have the time or the means to take the kind of vacation where you get to sit on a beach while someone regularly brings you ice cubes swimming in tequila.

Thursday has written how you can create an excellent experience by volunteering your skills for a local non-profit or charity.

Sure, you could put your mad coding skills to good use for the local homeless shelter, or write some fantastic press release for whatever cause you align with – but sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and you might want to break out of your normal daily routine. Continue Reading

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.

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