Freelance Writing for Nonprofits

Long time, no post. C’est la vie. Been really busy with NonprofitMarketingGuide.com.

But here is an article that got me to log back in here: Why Work-Life Balance Is a Bad Idea by Michael Gilbert. His point is that work and life shouldn’t be in conflict; they should be integrated.

As a self-employed professional, I have always felt that way. I struggle with balance in other ways — time on client work that pays now versus blogging or research that may or may not pay later, working in the evening when my kids are preoccupied with TV or video games versus forcing all of us away from the screens to do something together, face to face. But I do not see these as work-life conflicts, but rather time management struggles on my part. It’s all important, and it’s all part of me.

This debate reminded me of another one I’ve been having with myself lately: To what extent should I try to wall off my personal life when I’m using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter? If I am just “professional” on these sites, then I lose out on connecting online with “personal” friends. But I don’t have time, nor do I think it is really possible, to maintain two different profiles on various sites. And I have lots of people in my life who are both important professional contacts AND good friends. I care about what they are doing in all aspects of their lives, and they probably feel the same way about me. And does revealing personal information in a professional setting really have the potential to seriously hurt me anyway?

I’ve decided that the answer to that last one is either “no” or “I don’t care.” I think there is value in letting potential clients see the “personal” side of who I am along with the “professional.” I’m a package, a complete human being. While I’m not going to force any of my professional contacts to wade through personal information on what kind of music I like or who I’m voting for on my main sites like NonprofitMarketingGuide.com, I’m not going to hide that information from that percentage of people who are interested in connecting with me through social networking sites.

And honestly, there are lots of nonprofits that I would NEVER consider taking on as clients because I strongly disagree with their mission statements. So why shouldn’t clients have access to information that tells them more about my personal missions in life if that information is truly important to them? In many cases, it’s all going to be irrelevant to the discussion about working on a project together. But when it is relevant, why hide it, especially when so many benefits come from social networking otherwise?

What’s your take on these questions?

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I attended the Land Trust Alliance’s national conference last week in Denver. My husband was speaking and I didn’t want to pass up Rocky Mountain hiking, so I decided to tag along and reserved a table-top display in the exhibit area.

This was the first time I had ever marketed my services at a trade show. It’s too early to tell if it was a success or not, but here are a few things I learned.

People like useful freebies. I gave away pens with my website on them. Of all of the information that I had on the table, people picked up more pens than anything else.

Appeal to the broadest audience possible. I created a free tip sheet about easy ways to market land trusts online. About half the people who took a pen took the tip sheet. My guess is that it was too specific. Something more general like how to create a quick and dirty marketing plan probably would have been more widely appealing than specifically focusing on online marketing.

Location, location, location. I decided to attend this event rather late in the game, and so my tabletop was not in the main flow of traffic. Decide early enough in advance that you will attend, so that you can reserve the best locations on the trade show floor.

Make display items visible from several feet away. Lots of people want to see what you have without having to talk to you. Make sure everything is either hanging on the display or is otherwise standing up. Information flat on the table can’t be seen by attendees unless they are standing right next to it.

Be there in the middle of the conference program. People straggled in the first day. Everyone was there the second day. People straggled out the last day. I’d say 90% of my contact with people came on that middle day.

Put on your outgoing, friendly face. Lots of people cruising the hall won’t initiate a conversation with you, but they will stop and chat if you are really friendly and ask them questions about themselves.

I offered a drawing of free e-courses, e-books, and wine to get business cards and will also add those people to my email newsletter list. I also offered free consulting sessions on-site to get a better sense for what people need. Both produced lots of contacts that I can use to prospect new clients this fall (if I have time).

Have you used trade show marketing for your freelance business? How did it go?

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I recently hired a freelance graphic designer for a small job, in hopes that he would really impress me and I could give him lots of assignments. It didn’t happen. Granted, this person is working full-time and freelancing on the side and appears to be a newbie.

But I’m always looking for good, fresh talent to help with client projects, so I’m willing to give the freshmen a try. Sometimes they work out; sometimes they don’t. My latest experience definitely fell in the Don’t category and I’m turning it into a lesson in customer service for creative professionals new to freelancing.

1) If you don’t know a client’s gender, don’t guess. After emailing a few times, Designer Guy called me, and asked for Mr. Miller. This was a call to my business line, so while I am married to a Mr. Miller, I said “There is no Mr. Miller here.” To which Designer Guy replied, “Oh! OK. I thought you were a man.”

Yes, I have an odd name. But why not just ask for Kivi and go from there? I was annoyed with the sexist assumption and should have ended it there, but I decided to give him a second chance.

2) When a client gives you specific instructions, follow them. I gave Designer Guy two specific instructions: no bleeds and make it go with the design of a new website I’m putting up. I gave him two photos to use. I also asked for two different mockups from which to pick.

What did he deliver? One version with a full bleed of one of the photos with my text thrown on top of it. It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the URL I asked him to match. Strike two.

3) Don’t take jobs if you can’t meet the deadlines. When I asked Designer Guy where the second comp was, he said he didn’t have time to do it. I admit this was a rush job (he had four days in between getting my copy and photos and producing a draft for me), but I was perfectly clear about the schedule when I described the job.

If you don’t have time, don’t take the assignment. If you run out of time, be upfront with the client – don’t hope they won’t notice. Strike two and a half.

4) Don’t change your terms at the last minute. When I told Designer Guy that the draft didn’t work, because it didn’t meet my two main criteria (no bleed and matching the URL), he demanded full payment before he would deliver the final product. Mind you, I hadn’t even seen a product that met my needs yet, nor had he previously requested any payment upfront, even though we did discuss his total estimate for the project.

Because my deadline was nearly upon me, the only way I could have paid him anything was if he took credit cards or PayPal. But he wouldn’t take either, insisting on cash or a check. I had no way to get him payment and get the final product within the time I had left (less than 24 hours), even if I were willing to do so. If he had taken credit cards or PayPal, I probably would have given him 50% and hoped that his second draft worked. But the idea that I would pay in full when the only thing delivered completely failed to meet my needs was laughable. Strike three. He’s out.

I stayed up late and did it myself.

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One of the pleasures of working for nonprofit clients is knowing that your services are really making a difference for the client and that you are contributing to the greater good on issues that matter to you. But that often means working with small, community-based organizations, and that’s where the pain comes in. How can you as a freelance writer serve small nonprofits, but also serve your family dinner each night? I’ve used several approaches over the years.

1) Use a sliding scale for your rates. If you can make big bucks from a few big clients, nonprofit or otherwise, you can afford to charge the little groups less. I personally group clients into three categories based on the size of their annual budget: under $1 million, $1-5 million, and over $5 million. The organizations with budgets over $5 million get charged as much as I’d charge a corporate client. The others pay less.

2) Limit the number of hours you donate at drastically reduced rates or at no charge. Decide ahead of time, for example at the start of the year, how much of your professional time you can reasonably donate and limit work for those small non-paying or barely paying clients to that amount.

3) Accept comps as payment. If the organization has a membership fee, ask them to make you a lifetime member, or to give you a set number of free memberships that you can then give away to friends, family, or clients as gifts. Same goes for tickets to their events.

4) Get creative with bartering. Create deals with other supporters of the organization who have something you want. For example, maybe a member of the nonprofit’s board owns a construction company. In exchange for you volunteering your communications services, the board member’s company would repair your deck. The bookkeeping can get a little complicated with this kind of bartering, but it can be done. (The board member’s company is basically paying you to perform a service for the nonprofit via barter, so the board member is the donor to the nonprofit, not you, in this case).

5) Trade your time for a testimonial or case study. In exchange for a reduced rate or pro bono project, ask the client to agree to provide a detailed testimonial that you can use in your marketing. It can even take the form of a longer case study that shows how you work with clients over time to improve their print or online publications.

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I had a nice chat yesterday with a woman from Ohio named Pamela who has been working for many years as a nonprofit fundraiser and is thinking about starting a freelance writing business to serve nonprofits. She called to ask my advice and here are a few of the tips I shared.

–Nonprofits usually don’t know what to do with “writers.” They do know what to do with “newsletter writers” and “website content writers.” Be specific about what you can write and you’ll connect much more quickly with the potential client. Think in terms of the product you will deliver as much as the service you will provide.

–Consider offering more than writing. Most nonprofits who need a writer will also need to fill gaps in other communications and marketing skills. I started out offering only writing and editing, but now offer print and online graphic design, publications management (e.g. editorial calendars, working with printers), communications strategy development, coaching/training, and more. I subcontract with a variety of other professionals to get all the work done well. But to the client, I’m a one-stop shop.

–Networking is essential to business development. I tried straight advertising in magazines read by nonprofit managers when I first started out and it was a complete flop. Nearly all of my clients have come from word-of-mouth referrals, networking at nonprofit events, and online networking via my nonprofit communications blog.

–Be flexible in how you structure fees. I offer clients the ability to pay by the project, by the hour, or by the word, depending on the task and how they want to pay. Sometimes clients are limited in how they can pay for your services, either by their own accounting rules or by the way they received the funding that they are using to pay you.

–A website and/or blog is critical. I have landed several new clients simply because of my online presence. I supply samples and client testimonials on my website and those have been enough to please several clients who emailed or called and offered me a contract with no additional marketing required on my part.

What tips do you have for freelance writers who are thinking about entering the nonprofit marketplace?

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