Imagine this scenario: your school’s online donation page is hopelessly outdated and requires upgrading, both for aesthetic and security reasons. The price for an experienced web designer in your area is more than your school expected to pay for the work. However, hope appears in the form of a PTA parent who says he'd be willing to tackle the project for free.
You’d jump for joy at the serendipitous solution to your problem, right? Not so fast. Before the project is done, you might end up paying more for your “free” work than if you’d hired a professional in the first place.
1. Your school will always come in second to other (paying) clients.
While volunteer workers might offer to do pro bono work from the goodness of their hearts and their belief in your school’s mission, they still have to feed their families and pay their bills. This means that any work that might need to be done for your school will be put after work for other clients is finished.
Not only that, but a volunteer worker will be distracted by other projects while on call for yours. This distraction could potentially prolong the duration of your school’s in-progress assignment and result in easily avoided mistakes.
Consequently, giving your freebie volunteer contractors work that’s time sensitive or requires an undistracted attention to detail might not be the best move for your office or school. Consider what other work the volunteers juggle, and how they might manage the work for your school on top of other responsibilities.
2. They might produce subpar results.
The phrase “free work” can leave prospective employers with stars in their eyes, willing to overlook a less-than-stellar portfolio or work record for the sake of saving a few dollars. Some even forget to ask why someone is offering free work. This is a dangerous and potentially expensive mistake.
By allowing someone who is inexperienced or ultimately incompetent hammer away at a school project, that “free” work might cost your school more in the long run to have corrected. If the school had budgeted and paid for a professional in the first place, the overall expense might’ve been lower than the cost of correction.
If you want to pursue someone’s offer to do skilled work for free, ask for references or a portfolio so you can judge whether he or she is the right person for the job.
3. Firing is more difficult.
When you give someone money for a service rendered, there’s a clear relationship and power structure at work. You, as the employer, have leverage and control over the progression of the project. The person working for you will receive the money once the work is done to your satisfaction.
When someone offers to work without compensation, the power shifts. Now, instead of the employer, you’re the person the volunteer is doing a favor for. Consequently, it becomes much more difficult to get rid of someone who’s harming your community or doing a bad job on the project.
All of this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t accept people’s donations of time and talent in addition to monetary gifts. When considering whether to allow people to donate their skills to a necessary school project like a website page update, decide if you would hire them in the traditional way.
If you don’t like their work enough to pay for it, you should probably turn down their generous offer. If you’d be willing to pay for their contribution—even if you don’t necessarily have the funds now—then you’ll probably be taking on someone whose work record speaks highly enough for you to accept their offer.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Division Heads Vol. 6 No. 8 Older Volunteers Doing Good Work in Schools
The Source for Development Directors Vol. 9 No. 2 The Perils of Requiring Employees to Volunteer for After Hours Events
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 35 No. 2 When Is a Volunteer Not a Volunteer?
I&P Vol. 39 No. 4 Build Your Volunteer Corps: Rights Vs. Responsibilities
I&P Vol. 36 No. 15 Campaign Gift Pyramid Demonstrates Progress and Encourages Competition
