Pro bono work

[Phil Culhane]

Lisa,

You make an exceptionally sound point. The money does seem to 'honor' the work being
done. And for most organizations, I'd say transformation is a hazardous process if there
are absolutely no funds to draw upon. Transformation usually winds up creating something
new (although sometimes it's just a grieving process of accepting that something has to
shut down, and the 'new creation' comes under another agenda, or another budget, or
another lifetime, somewhere outside of the particular space that was opened. Even when
transformation includes something dying and something new being born, there's usually a
period of overlap - and that new entity requires resources (sometimes money) to stay
alive.

Perhaps it comes down to a case of 'fair value'. For a local church youth group, coming
up with the sandwiches and cans of coke for lunch may be fair value; for a large
multinational, you might (perhaps?) expect them to pick up a bit more of the tab.

On another completely related note - this being open space and nothing being unaskable,
has anyone ever compared facilitation rates? How much each of us requires to 'get by' is
different, some more, some less, but I'm curious - do OS facilitators ever get down to
brass tacks of "how much do you charge your clients" and "what's the best way to approach
the market"?

Thank you again for the thought, Lisa. Hope your project is enriching you.
Phil



On Aug 9 , Lisa Heft <lisaheft at openingspace.net> wrote:
> Hello, all -
>
> I have been working on a project and woefully silent on this end, though
> I've been reading all of everyones' fabulous posts, and thank you.
>
> Phil, you asked about doing pro bono (volunteer / unpaid) work.
>
> I just wanted to share that I no longer do any pro bono work at all.  I
> always tell everyone (they are all 'clients' to me) what my day rate is,
> how many days it could take and so on.  I say if they can afford the big
> bucks (American slang for 'money') then I thank them for doing so -- and
> if they cannot afford that, what is the most they can possibly afford?
> I really have to coach those folks with small budgets to stay in the
> conversation and let me know how much they can afford, because they are
> worried I won't get enough.  I remind them that if I just worked for
> those with big bucks I'd have missed out on working with some incredible
> partners.  And so on.
>
> I find that even folks with very small budgets find a way to gather some
> money together, pay for my expenses, help a lot on their end, and so on.
> I will still do the same amount of work, no matter for a large budget or
> small.  But I find that it is worth the exchange of money to honor not
> just the fact that it's my business, but it's their business, too.
>
> My two (actual) cents,
>
> Lisa
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> L i s a   H e f t
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> O p e n i n g  S p a c e
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