Pro-bono or below cost works

[Crocus]

We are a start up so this may be a very naive post!
As a micro SME design practice we do pro bono or "minimal fee" works for community groups when we can afford it BUT...

What is the etiquette when:

1. You are sub contracted by a developer to a project where the ultimate client is a charity and your fee is knocked back as "the budget is tight", which is understandable.
2. So you accept a 50% reduction as it's a good cause and start work. As the first stage is completed you are told that actually the total budget for the services you provide is only 10% of your initial fee.
3. While the size of the project was something you could never consider doing pro-bono, since you're in it and you believe in the charity's work, and accept your client (the developer) is a devious *cough*, you continue to work asking that you get media coverage "expertise donated by..." , get your board up on site etc
4. After a quiet word it turns out that you and the other consultants all are working for below cost but the developer explains that "no-one's making any money on it" so you all gift expertise and time enabling the project to be delivered to the charity's deadlines and budget.
5. Project gets lots of fanfare and no mention is made by the developer of anyone else working on the project let alone that 5 local construction businesses donated their time to actually get the project through planning, regulation compliant and to site.

This project will impact on a great many disadvantaged lives and so proud to have been involved, so I was thinking I would tweet Congrats to all the companies that gifted time to make it happen but then a member of the charity exec says to me in passing at an event that while he has "great respect for [the developer] of course a profit had to be made".

What is the etiquette for promoting one's and others' pro-bono efforts when the end client has no idea it was delivered in the main by donated services?

 

[Billmccallum]

I have set up and worked for a number of charities (both local and national) and NEVER would we pay someone and expect others to donate their time for a project, it would be a case of all contractors getting paid or all donating. and NEVER would it be done by someone else, e.g. a contractor asking others to donate, we would always discuss all issues with the whole development team.

And at the end, if it was a donated project, ALL of the contributors would be thanked personally and publicly.

If you have done some work pro bono, speak to a manager/director at the charity.

 

[Crocus]

The interesting point too is that I am a trustee of a charity myself (tiny one) and I would be mortified to not be aware of people's contribution.

Thanks Bill I will think about doing that, but sense it will need careful language so that I don't get perceived as stirring?

 

[Ashley_Price]

You are sub contracted by a developer to a project where the ultimate client is a charity and your fee is knocked back as "the budget is tight", which is understandable.

Well, let's stop right there. I would never accept a job by a third party who are asking me to work at below cost, pro-bono, etc., for one of THEIR clients. This is too risky, and you cannot be sure how much they are actually charging the client.

We once had a secretarial service contact us about supplying call answering services to their client for free, but we would get "shares" in their client's business, and they had "multi-million pound contracts on the table" waiting to be signed, so in theory our shares would be worth more than our normal charges.

Of course, they weren't interesting paying our normal charges for our service, and we weren't to have any direct access to the client. . So many alarm bells went off while they were talking to me on the phone that I turned it down flat.

Strangely enough that secretarial service disappeared a few months later.

In fact, I wouldn't now do pro bono or below cost work for anyone - charity or otherwise. The job might start of simple enough, but as soon as it starts encroaching on time you'd should be working for "full price" clients, then it's a problem.