By Adam Crymble
Not all volunteers sell chocolates or play checkers at the old folks home. Writing can be an important form of volunteering as well, and it’s a form you’re good at.
If your local church is having a bake-sale, instead of whipping up some brownies, write a promo flier that might attract a few extra people.
Grew up in a small town that’s having a fall fair? Offer to edit their brochure.
Passionate about helping third-world children? Keep your pennies and offer your expertise instead. Many small charity organizations that operate in non-English speaking countries cannot appeal to English-speakers because their language skills are poor.
These organizations struggle to survive because most perfection-driven Westerners don’t take them seriously when they find spelling or grammar mistakes on the website. But poor grammar doesn’t mean what they do isn’t worthwhile.
You can give these organizations a leg-up by offering to turn sentences like:
We believe very much children education are the good future
into:
We must educate our children for the good of our future.
This can also be a great foot in the door for you. I got my first writing gig working as a copy editor and promotional writer for an Indian children’s organization. It didn’t pay a dime, but it provided me with some work to show off to future employers, and it landed me an invite to India to witness first hand what the organization was doing.
Finding organizations like this is easy.
Here is a sample Google Search that explains how:
1) Go to Google
2) Click Advanced Search
3) Type children charity volunteer in the all these words field
4) Type .in in the Search within a site or domain field (This will give us websites hosted in India only).
5) Click Advanced Search.
This will lead you to a slew of people in India with big hearts and poor grammar. You can mix up the search terms in steps 3 and 4 to find something that’s closer to your interests. If you’d rather work for someone in Namibia, search for “.na”. Cambodia? “.kh”. The list of these country domains is easy to search for.
When you find someone you’d like to help, be polite and direct.
Remember, they probably have as much pride in what they do as do people where we live. If you’re too blunt, you might embarrass them. Too verbose, and they won’t understand you. Tell them you’d like to help. Tell them what you are willing to do, and what you are not. Treat them like your equal. Just because they live in a third-world country, or their mother tongue isn’t English, doesn’t mean they’re stupid or should be treated like a charity case.
If you play your cards right, you might even make some good friends on the other side of the world.
And, before I get berated for suggesting that writers work for free: if you’re going to volunteer, look for projects that won’t take a paying job away from someone. Look for organizations that have lousy websites because they’re poor, not because they’re cheap.
Disclaimer: I suggest you do a little bit of digging before you begin to make sure you’re not writing to improve a scam. Ask the organization if they’re registered with the government of their country, and double check. It doesn’t hurt to ask for references either.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
http://www.idealist.org is also a great place to look for volunteer writing jobs and organizations that could use your skills.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Adam - I’m a big proponent of writing for free for charity and community organizations. My first press releases were written for our local junior woman’s club and my first newspaper article covered my town’s 4th of July parade for our community newspaper that nobody gets paid to put together.
I had instant, professional clips and some good organizations got helped. It’s a whole different thing than writing content for free for someone’s website that they will make a profit from.
I still do the press releases for the junior woman’s club for free, but now I also write for some businesses in town and they pay me well.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Yes my first press release and business proposal were written for non-profit organizations as well …
May 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
What a great and inspiring article. Thanks for sharing.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Very nice article. I always like to give back but don’t always have cash. We like to try and help by updating out of date websites and giving them a little SEO treatment so that real non-profits can show up above for-profit companies that raise money for non-profits but take like 75% or more.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Hey, I agree! My first jobs were for free, but they provided me with valuable samples that were used to grab the paying clients. It’s one of the best methods I can think of for getting your writing career started. Thanks for the great read!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
My Mom always used to tell me “God helps those who help others.” Never were those words more true than when I volunteered to write grant proposals to help my nephew’s Catholic school raise money to build a science lab. As a result of all my efforts, I built up a portfolio of successful grants I had won for the school, and it was that portfolio that got me a job as a grant writer at a time when I was really down on my luck.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Being a volunteer writer can be very rewarding — just as any volunteer position can. The only suggestion I would offer would be to have clarity as to how many hours you are volunteering or exactly what you are doing. Some organizations may be more than happy to give you more and more work — which is hard to say no to once you are there. You also don’t want to let someone down — if they need a volunteer who can commit more time than you can, it is better to understand that ahead of time than to take the assignment and to have some type of confusion.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I also volunteer to write Press Releases for the American Sand Association. The first one was to correct an article that the LA Times published that lied about what the off road community wanted at the borders.
I can honestly say that, as a journalist, I hate journalists. Present company excluded.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Hi Adam, thank you for this post. It is true, that we certainly can help out a charity by donating our words. Often we think of volunteering as actually physically participating in a set fund raiser etc., but we certainly can volunteer our writing skills.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Adam, I really loved the message and spirit of your post. It’s a great example of the difference freelancers can make to organizations and people worldwide. Powerful stuff. You also make a great point that the samples generated only strengthen one’s portfolio. It’s really a win-win.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I still devote a small amount of time to my first writing gig which was a small up and coming UK magazine. I feel a slight element of loyalty to them as they got me on the writing ladder so to speak, and even though I am beginning to earn good money with regular clients and solid writing gigs, I do still give my article to the magazine for free.
I guess I’d feel a little guilty if I had to ask for money at this stage and as they are a small concern I don’t mind enhancing their publication with my articles now and again.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Adam, thanks for your ideas about finding charities to support with in-kind services.
Just one suggestion in addition — if you can afford it, continue to give your pennies. For a lot of these charities, small donations go a long way.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:35 am
@ Fiona: thanks for the link to the idealist website. I wasn’t aware of them.
@ Hazel: I definitely do still give away my pennies. Darn things weigh me down!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hi,
Stumbling on this site and knowing there are still people that do volunteer for small organizations as ours that do not have the skills is amazing. My organization that is duly registered as a charitable non profit in accordance with company code 1963 in Ghana, has and still is stumbling on that very stone of bad writing skills, and worst of all non availability of funds to pay for skilled writers to help us draft documents for Eg, approaching larger organizations for partnerships or sponsorship for our programs, even preparing partnership or honorary invitations for to credible citizens to up grade our credibility is virtually strangling us. If there could be any assistance from your group it would be most wonderful we just need the skills and the willingness to help. we are also intending to become a for profit organization that will give all profits to the underprivileged we serve since it is harder finding donor funding. Any help would be greatly appreciated.