I’ve had an influx in pitches for guest posts lately. You know, the usual ‘I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for months’ and then they send a list of guest post ideas with nothing to do with my blog.
I seem to be getting more and more from charities asking me to accept a guest post or raise awareness for free.
While I have nothing against helping out charities with causes that are dear to me, I’m not sure how I feel about the use of ‘we’re a charity’ to get people to work for free.
Charities have budgets. They have money to spend on things such as raising awareness to help get more donations. I am sure their website wasn’t built for free, the leafless through your door aren’t printed for free, those TV adverts aimed at making you feel terrible and give you all the feels haven’t been created and placed on TV for free. There is a budget.
I think the nail in the coffin for this is seeing some charities post job opportunities that are unpaid. Then it got me thinking about all the times I’ve been approached by charities, then asked the budget and been told ‘we don’t have a budget as we are a charity’. Then I am made to feel like a dick.
It’s uncomfortable. Should I feel like a dick?
I think the sticking point to this is that it should be made clear in the original email that the work is unpaid. ‘We are looking for bloggers to volunteer their services’ type wording. You see, when companies sponsor charities, it usually comes with a big juicy logo somewhere on the website, print media or merchandise.
It’s usually done because a business wants to be seen as using their scale for good and not being all about the profit margin. It’s how things work.
I do things for charity in private. I have worked with charities on this blog, some free, some paid, some in exchange for gifts.
Do you think ‘we are a charity’ is a good enough excuse to expect free work?
we’re a charity line definitely shouldn’t be used as an excuse and it sometimes is.