Maximizing Pro Bono Opportunities
While discussing eight ways creative firms can do pro bono work better based on an article David wrote recently, both he and Blair discover a couple new profound insights together.
Links
“Maximizing Your Pro-Bono Contributions” by David C. Baker at Punctuation.com
Transcript
Blair Enns: All right, David, the topic today is doing pro bono right. You've written a post on this recently. I'm looking at your notes, I've read the post, but I need to begin with the confession that you just made to me off air before we started recording, and that is-- The truth is I don't even think they should be doing pro bono.
David Baker: Oh, man. Did I say it like that? I guess I did. That should be the confession at the front of this thing, it's like, "Y'all shouldn't be doing pro bono, but if you're going to, here's some good ideas." Why would I even say you shouldn't do pro bono? Just give them money. It's so expensive to give them your expertise. You're wasting so much time. It's just always cheaper to give people money. I got a lot of feedback on that article, and I'll just say all of it was not good because people were saying, "You're sort of just disrespecting the people that really know what they're doing in pro bono. You're just saying anybody can do great work," and they should consider supporting these causes without recognizing that doing work for pro bono organizations is a very specific specialization that requires understanding that world really well. You know what, I think that's a fair point. To you?
Blair: It had never occurred to me that there are individuals, let alone organizations out there whose job it is to give people advice on how to do pro bono work. Is that what you're hearing?
David: The firms that specialize in not-for-profits. They know more about how to raise money. They know about how decisions are made by committees. They know that there's a lot more time than money.
Blair: I'm sorry. How is this tied to whether or not you should donate your time and services? I'm not drawing the connection here. Maybe it's because I've only a half a cup of coffee into my first coffee of the day, but I'm not seeing it.
David: You haven't had your cold swim in the lake yet.
Blair: No, that's next.
David: If there's a firm that specialized in food and beverage work, and they decide that there's this local organization that they'd really like to help, and so they do that, it's like they don't really know what they're doing in terms of the pro bono field. The heart behind it all is fantastic, but maybe they should just give them money to hire a firm that really knows the space. I think there's a fair point here. If we really do believe that you should only be doing stuff that you're really qualified for, then don't be giving away work to organizations where you're not qualified to really understand their world. I thought, "Whoa, I didn't even think about that."
Blair: If your expertise, if your positioning is around a discipline, say like-- let's just pick a broad one, like website design, and somebody in your community, a food bank needs a new website, that's not you working outside of your domain to do a website for free for them.
David: Not the technical part for sure, but understanding how it needs to be used, and all the things that go into the strategy of a website, maybe you don't really understand that stuff, right? This is going to be a really short episode. We're basically just talking ourselves out of it.
Blair: I'm not buying that argument.
David: The guy who wrote a book about specialization is not buying that argument.
Blair: [laughs]
David: Got it. Okay. Keep going. Here's some more ropes.
Blair: I didn't write a book about specialization. I wrote a book where the first chapter was on specialization. Speaking of the good book, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, you have a bunch of points on how you're going to- Oh, you're loving this episode. It feels like a confrontation.
David: Yes, this is so good.
Blair: We haven't done this in a while. This is from the 10th proclamation of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. We will refuse to work at a loss. The section is titled Our Pro Bono Clients. We will build a lucrative expert practice, one profitable engagement at a time, and then use the strength of our firm to help those that need it most. For those carefully selected charity clients, we will work for free. The point is, it's either free or it's full price. That's your first point on the list here, right?
David: Right.
Blair: Let's not get caught in the mushy middle, the gray area of, "Oh, let's discount this one a little bit because they're somewhat needy." We're in business to have an impact and make money, so let's have an impact and make money. If we're going to do pro bono work, let's recognize that, "Okay, there's certain causes, there's a certain amount of our time or money that we're going to allocate to the neediest clients who need something for free and we're going to work for free," and that's your first point, isn't it?
David: Yes. Right. Keep going. You're doing a great job.
Blair: The second point. Let me pull out pricing creativity.
David: No, that's exactly right. I just think a lot of resentment builds when you charge half or something, "Yes, just do it." If you're going to do it for free, one thing I like about that is that you're a lot pickier about who you're going to do it for because you're giving everything away, right? That's good.
Blair: Yes, you're pickier about it. Also, by drawing this hard line about full price or free, it keeps you from lying to yourself about why you're discounting. I think it's a really valuable rule, and we could spend more time talking about that. That's the first. You have a list of eight points under doing pro bono. Second one, "You're the giver, be in charge." What do you mean by that?
David: I just think this is one of those rare opportunities where you have all the power and you resent selling situations where you feel like that power is shared and you're not sure how to exert leverage. Here, you've got all the leverage. You don't use it for evil, but you use it for good. You just have this internal discussion and say, "Okay, in the work that we've done for these organizations that we believe in, which ones have gone well, and which ones have not?" Let's just create this criteria that says, "These are the causes. There needs to be one decision maker. You need to give us the freedom to do what we want to a certain degree." I'm just making stuff up here. Whatever things are important to you, when you're giving away all of this expertise, you better enjoy it too in addition to just really believing in the because. Just be in charge. Whatever that means for you.
Blair: You think of your worst client engagements, it was like, "Oh, God." Scope creep. Somebody is treating you or your team members poorly. What leverage does your client have over you to be able to do those things to you, your poor clients? The answer is money.
In a pro bono relationship, your point is, "Well, they don't have that leverage." Why are you putting up with bad behavior? Why are you working with bad clients? Why are you letting them get away with scope creep? Why are you letting them treat you poorly or whatever the other form of bad behavior is? They don't have any leverage. You have all the leverage. Your leverage, as you have pointed out before, David, is to withhold your work, to not do the work. You have all the leverage, they have none. If you find yourself trapped in a pro bono relationship where you're being treated poorly, man, look in the mirror.
David: One of the things that people want is they want to get quite a bit of publicity for it, or maybe they would like to use a mix of junior and senior staff and recognizing the downside that might come with that. It's like, "Well, listen, this is part of our process. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, we get it." That's the second thing. Be in charge.
Blair: Be in charge. Ad agencies used to take pro bono clients so they could run one ad. They would say, "Okay, we'll do the work for you, but you have to let us do the ad we want." The agencies would pay for it to run once so that it could be entered into an awards show.
David: Oh, really?
Blair: There's a Canadian agency called Zulu Alpha Kilo that does spoof videos about how agencies behave. They have a video called Left-Handed Mango Chutney. We'll post it in the show notes. You have to watch this video. It's hilarious.
David: Marcus, our producer, is listening to this and thinking, "Oh, God, another link I've got to look up and give to everybody."
Blair: It's funny. I always think that, too, when I mention. We will find a link and post it in the show notes. Marcus rolls his eyes. I'll send you the link, Marcus.
David: The third one was just sort of establish a decision-making board because you could potentially get some flack if you turn down a request, because there's always connections. "I'm sitting on a board. I know this lady that runs this agency. Let me talk to her." It might be awkward to turn some of that stuff down. Just create a board. Maybe there's a partner on it. Maybe there's a younger staff member that's really into this stuff. Maybe there's a community member that is influential to some degree. Just let them make that decision. This goes with the fourth point, too, and that's just to have a process. Let whoever's wanting to work from you, let them jump through hoops. We do this once a year.
Blair: Here's the application on the website, right?
David: This is the board that decides it.
Blair: It's reviewed by the decision-making board.
David: Just make it really professional and not sloppy. That's the one thing that strikes me as odd is we believe so much in these organizations that we're supporting, but the process is sloppier than normal, and it shouldn't be. If we really want to have the most impact, we got to be really careful about the projects that we accept. We got to have like, "Okay, we're going to do one a year or two a year or whatever it is." Just treat it seriously. Yes.
Blair: I used to work for a guy way back in the day and I was approached by the local symphony or opera or something to do some pro bono work. I took it to him and I said, "If the board members are connected, this might be good for us," and he said, "No, bring me racism. Bring me something meaningful." I really, really respected him for that. We could use pro bono work as a means of building a relationship with these board members on these prestigious organizations, but every other firm in town would have taken that work. He was a visible minority. He said, "No, I want to deal with serious societal issues. We'll do some pro bono work, but bring me single moms in poverty. Bring me something like that."
David: I like the fact that he tied what was important to that particular agency to the cause itself. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Blair: Yes, me too. I was really proud of him for that. The third point is establish a decision board, and with that is your fourth point of use an established process. Then the fifth point seems pretty logical too. Set a time budget. I can see how these pro bono clients would bleed you dry, especially if your people get really excited about the work.
David: Yes, especially since there's probably fewer guardrails around the creativity. They especially get into it because they don't have the normal client approval sort of, "Hey, here's a question for you, instead of a time budget, which sounds suspiciously like timekeeping, how do we apply a value pricing model to this?"
Blair: A value pricing model to no price.
David: To no money, yes. I want you to solve that for me, and I'm going to interview you.
Blair: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
David: The idea is like, "Oh, don't get beaten up here with time. There's total number of hours," and be really transparent with the client about that too, helping them understand that, "Okay, we can change that, but we're going to eat more hours, and we can increase the budget here." Just be reasonable, treat it like a real project. Project management, account management. Just do it exactly like you would a client or don't do it at all.
Blair: If you don't track time, you would do what you're doing in your other projects, which you would say, "This milestone by this date. Once we go past that date, we're done." Next on your list is, "Help should be dependent on a few things." These things include what?
David: I think if you're not charging anything, and I think that's the best idea, then they need to understand that if you're not charging them, you're going to need a few concessions. For instance, if we get buried with work from paying clients, we're going to have to set this aside. Are you okay with that? We tell you that before we start. No surprises. Is this so important that this has to be out before your annual meeting, and there's three and a half months to build it, then this is probably not a good fit for us because if something happens, we're going to have to slow this down.
Just be really upfront about all of that stuff at the beginning. You might even be more restrictive on some things like, "We really need the executive director to be in every meeting." That part you would say out loud. This next part, you wouldn't, but the reason I include that is because I don't want this to be more important to us than it is to you. If you're not willing to be in every meeting, then we can't take this more seriously than you are. That'll just impact the project. That's not stuff I would say to them, but that's just-- I'm trying to explain why I would have those sort of specifications in who I'm going to work with.
Blair: As you're talking about these things and referencing the point we talked about earlier is you've got all the leverage, they have no leverage. It just strikes me for the first time, really, that these pro bono clients are the place where you road test what your relationships with all of your clients should look and feel like, because you get to set the rules.
You're in a position where, "Hey, we're giving here, we're not taking anything, therefore-- and we're willing to do this, but it's got to go be under certain conditions, and we need to be talking out loud. We need to have open communication about what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable, including who's going to be in the meetings, and this can't be more important to us than it is to you." All of these principles apply to your paying client relationships.
David: That is brilliant.
Blair: Yes, it really is. Based on what you're saying.
David: I hadn't thought of that either.
Blair: I'm going to write a post on that and tell people that I came up with it.
David: I will expect a little bit of credit for this idea. This is the time you test what it feels like to be in charge.
Blair: Now, do you think pro bono clients are good?
David: Yes.
Blair: Do you think people should do pro bono?
David: As long as you're not throwing your weight around and abusing everybody on the end.
Blair: You might want to rewrite this post. I'm just kidding, I'm not going to write that post, but you might want to rewrite this post. That's a profound reason to do some amount of pro bono work. Let's go back to the less profound things on your list here.
David: Do you think anybody's still listening at this point?
Blair: [laughs]
David: This sounds very much like a pro bono episode, doesn't it?
Blair: Yes, it does. It sounds like one guy's in a hurry to go meet his swim team for his morning swim, and he needs to get out of here, and he's plowing through this.
David: That would be you.
Blair: What? I don't know what you're talking about. Let me recap the points so far. We're talking about doing pro bono right, and you have eight things to consider to make your version of pro bono the right way. I won't reference the fact. I guess I am referencing the fact that you said, "I don't think these people should be doing pro bono at all," but I think you might take that back at the end. I'll ask you. Here are the points we've covered so far. It's full price or it's free. There's no mushy middle. You're the giver, be in charge. You get to set the terms of this relationship. Establish a decision making board so that you formalize the role of making the decision.
Then number four is, use a decision making process. Codify what the process is. Number five is, set a time budget, say, we're not going to go over this amount of time or this length of time. Number six is, your help should be dependent on a few things. This is where we're talking about the idea of whatever the conditions of the relationship are for you, whatever you need from the client in this relationship, put them on the table for discussion and get the client to agree like the senior people are going to attend the meetings, et cetera. Then we've got two more points, and we're on number seven here, and that's make it an annual thing. Pro bono once a year, is that what you're saying?
David: You just have some sort of a cadence to it. The process would obviously set this up, but do something once a year. Maybe you do it at a time when you're typically slower or maybe when you onboard people and you need something for them to work on or whatever it is, but make it an annual thing.
Then the last point is just band together maybe. Let's say you're a dev shop, and you're doing a website for one of these pro bono clients, maybe it would be enhanced with a lot of video. Maybe you work with an agency that also wants to contribute and you do this together. I don't know that that's always a great idea, but I think it's an interesting way to build collaboration with somebody else, learn about the culture, expose your team to how the way their team does it. It's just really useful to have those sorts of relationships anyway. This is a perfect opportunity to test it when you're both sort of in charge. You can set the rules. It's fun too. It's fun to do it together.
Blair: That's actually another point that strikes me as quite profound, this idea of using pro bono as testing grounds, testing for the relationships, but also let's say you want to branch out into another vertical, an adjacent vertical, and you don't have the experience there, maybe you go find somebody in that vertical. Maybe there are some adjacent skill sets. A partner that you're thinking of doing some paying work with, another agency. Maybe you approach that agency and say, "Hey, why don't we try something together? Let's do this piece of pro bono work together.
The more we talk about it, the more I think that this is a really profound point, this idea of your pro bono work can, in some ways, become your lab where you test all kinds of different things. New service offerings.
David: This is the first time we've done an episode where we both realized something completely different from what we came into it with. We're going to do something with this idea. I don't know what.
Blair: Now, let's go back to the confession at the beginning. Do you think our listeners should be doing pro bono work?
David: Not usually, no. It's not compelling enough.
Blair: This could have been a whole lot shorter.
David: If you're going to do it, do it right. That's the message. I prefer that you just run a really solid firm, give people money. They know what to do with it. If you're going to do pro bono, do it right.
Blair: Great summary. I'll just echo what you said a minute or so earlier. This is real time learning. You can smell wood burning. You can hear the penny dropping. I love these episodes where I go into it and think, "Okay, I know this topic," and I come out of it, and I think, "All right, now I know something entirely different from this topic. Thanks for this, David.
David: Thanks, Blair.