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Dear Nonprofit: NOPE
Before you volunteer your skills, get clear on what causes are most important to you
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been hit up for free (or deeply discounted) work.
Keep your hand up if you said yes to doing the free (or deeply discounted) work because it was “for a good cause.”
Drop that hand onto your face if you ended up hating everything about the experience of the free (or deeply discounted) work you ended up doing. That’s a facepalm, and it’s the correct response to a whole lot of the donated work designers and marketers end up doing.
I know, I know — designers are good people who really Care About Things (caps intentional). That’s why a lot of us got into this business in the first place. And this isn’t a rant about free work, or how to price, or who is worthy, because the truth is that all that stuff is up to you. What I can offer you after eight years with The Black Sheep Agency, a B corp and social justice creative agency in Houston, is advice on HOW to choose those things. Here’s what we’ve learned about choosing clients when EVERYBODY is doing good work — and everybody still needs to make money. Which, let’s be real, is mostly everybody, period.
It all comes down to one thing: A cause brief
Unlike a creative brief, this is something you write for yourself about impact that interests you: The illness that deeply affected your family, the political decision you’d be willing to hit the streets with a protest sign for, your religion, your intense and abiding love for homeless cats. Each of us has a few causes we’d move mountains for, and having a cause brief ensures you’re matching your time, talent, and passion to these things — the things that feel right and make sense.
Let’s say (hypothetically, of course) that your aunt asks you to get involved with her church’s children’s charity in Guatemala because they “need more young people,” but both Guatemala AND your aunt’s church are over a thousand miles away from you. Hypothetically. If you’ve already nailed down your personal values, you can simply tell her that, while you love children’s charities and they are at the center of the things you care about, you work with one closer to home and…
