Projects that you complete with pro bono consultants are different from initiatives you bring in paid contractors or staff for. Over Taproot’s years of facilitating partnerships between skilled volunteers and nonprofits, we’ve established key principles that should be used to ensure success on all pro bono projects. No matter how big or small your pro bono project is, following these basic principles will help you guarantee an impactful experience for your volunteer or nonprofit partner!
1. Act like a paying client.
Let’s dig into Taproot’s “Golden Rule of Pro Bono.” If you want your pro bono provider to treat you like a paying client, treat them as if you were a paying client!
Approach pro bono projects like you would a paid partnership with a vendor or contractor. Most importantly, this Golden Rule means that both parties commit to deadlines, to giving direct and honest feedback, and to holding each other accountable for project goals. That means you, as the project leader, need to hold your internal team accountable for setting your volunteer up for success. Take the prep work seriously; invest time internally before the project to gather necessary feedback, materials, and buy-in.
Enacting this principle also means that you should vet prospective pro bono consultants like you would anyone coming to work at your organization. Ask for a resume/CV, references, and examples of prior work (if applicable). Have the volunteer sign an MOU or volunteer agreement. Some projects might require the provider to sign an NDA or confidentiality agreement. Sometimes nonprofits get skittish about this because they believe that if someone is donating service, then they should just accept whatever their pro bono provider gives them. However, we’ve found that if you push for high-quality pro bono work, the volunteer rises to the occasion! The project will affect your nonprofit’s ‘bottom line’ (i.e., your mission) whether it is paid for or donated. Similarly, this project will be part of the pro bono consultant’s work history and resume. Your volunteer partner wants to make sure that they are providing you with the best service possible and will appreciate real and actionable feedback to improve the final product. At the end of the day, everyone wants to feel as if they did great work. Holding yourself, your team, and your pro bono partner accountable for achieving a high-quality deliverable helps everyone feel motivated throughout the project and proud of the outcome.
2. Know and define your needs.
This sounds pretty simple but can actually be more difficult than you think. Don’t rush. Take some time to assess your challenges with your team. Try to look for root causes rather than just symptoms. Define the problem and then develop a proposed solution. Make sure you can map these solutions back to your organization’s priorities. This will set you up to make a compelling and substantive pitch to a volunteer applicant. This is the cornerstone of your project—make sure that your premise is strong!
3. Get to the right resource for the right job.
Remember, pro bono is not a giveaway; it’s a partnership. Skilled volunteers are interested in helping your organization achieve its mission and are donating their skill sets for free. Simply put, these are not traditional employees, temps, or interns to assign rolling duties and responsibilities. You’re managing your project alongside them and drawing on their subject-matter expertise to help finalize the scope of the project and your game plan for how it will be executed.
When you’re searching for the right pro bono consultants, make sure they not only have the requisite skill set that you are looking for but that they are a good culture fit for your organization. Do they understand your organization’s mission, vision, and programs? Are they open to co-managing this project with you? Are they open to giving and receiving direct and honest feedback? Will they be able to contribute successfully in a virtual environment?
4. Be realistic about deadlines.
Be thoughtful about which projects you choose – even small tasks can take longer than expected when working with an external party. Keep in mind that pro bono is rarely a good solution for urgent needs. Pro bono resources are great because they are free, but one of the trade-offs is that these partnerships usually have longer timelines. Volunteers often have their own 9-5 jobs and do pro bono work after hours or on the weekends. This can necessarily lengthen rounds of review, feedback, and communication.
If you have a critical need that has a hard deadline that is coming up fast or is ‘make-or-break’ for your organization, consider cultivating other avenues of support outside of skilled volunteers.
5. Learning goes both ways.
Your volunteer partner will need lots of information about your organization and the field you work in to make the project a success. Be prepared to get them up to speed! Background knowledge or issue area education that you take for granted might be new information for them. You should go into pro bono partnerships, ready to learn. You and your volunteer partner are experts in your own fields—embrace that! You may find that after input from a volunteer (a subject matter expert), the final product of your project might change from what you originally envisioned. Try not to be overly prescriptive when pitching your organization’s need to a prospective provider. Leave room for their perspective to inform the final project scope, as there could be important details you might not know about or overlook. Both the nonprofit beneficiary and pro bono provider should aim to be students and teachers!