Not-For-Profit Freelance Rates
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- welded0
Thanks, vaxorcist. Good ideas I'll pass onto him. I'm not sure it's exactly what he's looking for, but he may not know to consider things like this.
- PersonaNonGrata0
Only help I can offer...
Services are not tax deductible as charity
- pango0
if you want to do it as a charity.
tell them to pay you at you're regular rate and you will donate that money back to them.
that way at least you get to tax it.- <dbloc
- to tax it? There are no tax benefits to paying the money back. But, if he donates it he should get some credit for his time.Josev
- time as well as some form of recognition.Josev
- I just noticed that he's in Canada. They have different tax law than we do.Josev
- i meant tax deductible.pango
- I wish we could deduct donations of time in the US.Josev
- Josev0
What kind of not-for-profit? I do a lot of work for non-profits. Many of them have more money than my for-profit clients.
- ar170na0
If the non-profit is a qualified 501(c)3 organization, your services can be tax deductible. Basically you need to do the work, submit an invoice, and then have them provide you with a letter acknowledging your services and valued cost, with a seal. But, you don't get paid.
- making presumptions about geographical location?ckentish
- welded0
Sorry, I think I mustn't have been as clear as I could have been. They're not looking to hire me or anybody else, just to plan out their expenses so when they DO they have a fair amount set aside. I'm just looking for ballpark figures from the freelancers here to pass on to my friend.
And if it matters, it's Canadian—Ontario specifically—but I don't recall the name so just think in general terms what you'd charge any given non-profit.
- zenmasterfoo0
are you and this guy asking for the same help?
- welded0
Nope.
- vaxorcist0
Long ago, I was the IT director of a nonprofit. We actually did have a fairly large budget, but it was "pre-spent" in many ways due to decisions by my predecessors... Nonprofits are sometimes willing to pay up to $200/hour for some services I discovered, but next to nothing for others....Freelancers generally didn't get much per hour, but "institutions" could get quite a big hourly rate.... your friend may want to form an organisation of some sort, then be able to relate on an "org to org" bases, have lots of powerpoint-full meetings about strategic partnerships, then charge a fortune and never finish anything...well, that's why I left.... sorry for the rant.... but beware the political randomness of nonprofits...
- ah.... re-read original post... so beware of powerpoint partnership bullshit....vaxorcist
- scarabin0
i did a logo for a nonprofit for $300 once, thinking these places were different from normal clients.
a month later they landed a grant for $17,500,000.
be honest about what your services are going for, chances are if they think it's too steep you can work something out with them...
- BattleAxe0
are you doing to do any less work or put in any less effort since they are non profit ? other wise treat them the same price wise , you will be in front of the computer just the same
and yes please do not confuse Non-profit for broke ass
- vaxorcist0
RE: Planning expenditure.... we paid hourly rates similar to "normal" businesses, but we also had to budget time for more meetings, more complicated approval processes...and fixed in stone politically determined deadlines.... so make sure some change fees and rush charges are part of the budget unless you can convince the board to stop changing stuff at the last minute...
- welded0
Again, I'm looking for ballpark dollar figures not advice for work that doesn't exist. There is no RFP, no logos to design, no sites to build. This is strictly theoretical.
My question is simply: if some arbitrary non-profit approached *you* asking for an estimate what would you say? I know that's asking for a 'well that depends' sort of answer, but that's fine. If it's a matter of not wanting to discuss your rates on a public forum, that's cool and don't sweat it.
- vaxorcist0
I've done work for 3 nonprofits, and if a new nonprofit approached me, I'd be more interested in the relationship quality than the hourly rate. Also, can't discuss hourly rate online, but counting unbillable hours is the sub-context too.... 2 of the 3 nonprofits were pretty good clients, one was INSANE....
I'd be interested in knowing:
- Are they were triple-biddiing it, (and do they know the difference between an estimate and a bid)
- if they already had somebody else in mind but were looking for "just another estimate"
-if somebody referred them to me
-how they found me... why call me?
-if I had to provide all receipts and justify each hour.
- if they were willing to have only one and only one point person and decision maker.
- have they done similar projects in the past, is this new?
- are they hiring me to fix something somebody else messed up?
- who has final approval?
- How do we define finished, how do we define success?- sorry if I sound burned out, but I think these things can save your friend's sanity & budget...vaxorcist