Charity Work

Hey Guys,

To all business gurus:

I'm really interested in doing a bit of charity work over the summer, to kill some time, flesh out my portfolio, and to do something constructive for a good cause. However I'm wondering if there are any points to look out for when working for non-profit organisations, i.e. do they have an identification number which can be checked to prove that they are really a non-profit organisation, or a registered charity?

Also I was thinking of sending letters and cold-emails to them, offering my services for free of charge as well as hosting for the website. Would this be the best method of contact to 'touch-base' with them?

Thanks in advance

http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/as...ssignments.php

According to my understanding of non-profit organizations--for one to be registered charity and become an actual non-profit organization, they must file with the state they reside in. Which means they would of received some type of document or license stating what they are and what they do.

If they don't have some type of proof, you can always check with your local BBB or your state registry on registered non-profit organization.

As well as a tip if you are doing this locally. Make sure when dealing with local charities to take care of them entirely. Charities have an outstanding voice in communities--which can hurt or benefit you in the long run.

Thanks for all of the information josephine and Bennett, it's really helped

if u r interested in doing pro bono work then contact me at creationzunlimited@gmail.com

lol pro bono sounds funny. All jokes aside, thats pretty admirable if u meant charity in terms of a organization or just building some ranodm dudes site?

Organisations.

I won't be building 'random dudes sites'. My services will be going to the people that need them and deserve them

Win/Win situation.

This is just a suggestion, but from my personal experiences.. If you offer your work to charities that are involved with such things as cancer, you recieve a fair ammount of 'word of mouth'--as well as the ability to freely advertise through most of them. Not to mention such places are usually linked to hundreds of other charities throughout the world.

i was going to reply ealier, since in ym first semester we tackled this very subject as an assignment.

the context was someone @ the school was looking for media developers to subimt their srvices to NPO's, so we as developers/students had to pick an NPO, research them and write up a proposal to this school director stating what we woudl do and why, in the hopes of getting a $1000 grant to get things started as it was passed onto to the NPO.

i was gonna get the file out, but it turns out, my machine never got it's package of office registered and i don't have the product key, so now i have to dig out my old office cd package.

none the less, my file pretty much went like this:

• cover letter to recipient - in my case it was a program director looking for submissions. in yours, write it to the CEO/marketing director stating that you want to help the organization in $yourfieldofwork and why you want to help them (just don't say i want free publicity) try to follow something like this:
  • what you're writing to them about - if they've placed an ad saying "we need $this" say it's regarding the ad. if not, just say you're writing because you'd like to pitch an idea to them
  • why you're doing it - a breif explination why you're writing to them and not someone else - what made you choose them EX: i'm an experienced website designer... your website
  • brief synopsis of your idea - new website
  • list of following items IE resume, project proposal etc + name/thankyous
• resume - for work experience, don't just list 'realjobs' that you've had. if you ran a counterstrike commnity, use it as an example of your knowledge/experience of being a webmaster - imply you know what the process is like and thus you can make it as easy as possible as opposed to soemone who jus chews out 1 page designs
• proposal - now go into detail. this is where you make your pitch. $this is what you want to do, $this is why you want to do it/for them, $this is how they'll benefit over not taking your services etc.
• if you've got the time, single line mockups. by mockup i don't mean atal design, but just make some square outlines and write like "banner + login" in a rectangle @ the top of an image, or "news feed" in a square down the side.
  
  basically, if it's a simple enough project throw some cheap "blueprints" or storyboards, together so they can have more of a visual idea of where you're going. words can mean different things to different people, so it's always nice.

Bennet - Thanks for the advice, I appreciate that I actually didn't bare it in mind.

Derek - Amazing amount of help buddy, I've taken the notes into word and saved it.

I appreciate this so far guys, if anybody has any more helpful information I'd be very happy to listen

Thanks!