what to charge a non profit for design help?

[BKLounger]

Ok I just want to get a consensus. I have done design for some people and businesses in the past and I always have a general idea of what to charge, but recently a non-profit has contacted me through some references and they need a newsletter designed and also a website designed. I have never had a non profit come to me before should i charge them a flat fee, a decreased hourly rate or just normal rates? Any ballpark of what to charge a non-profit in this case. I seek the input of the design pro's on AT. Thanks.

 

[CPA]

If they didn't ask for a reduced rate, I would charge them normally. A non-profit in a financial sense only means that all income is spent over the course of the year.

 

[ThunderLew]

How much work is required? Is this job critical to your bottom line or is it possible to not charge them and write it off as a charitable donation since the organization has a non-profit status?

 

[Hersh]

It's a personal choice, there isn't any law out there that prevents you from charging normally nor charging less. An NPO, as stated, does have finances from donations and fundraising and even a budget. Heck, there are businesses out there that SPECIFICALLY targets NPOs for their products.

First thing, make sure they are a non-profit organization which means that they are exempt from taxes by the IRS).

http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78
http://www.guidestar.org

Then ask yourself if you believe in what this NPO does and make a decision for yourself whether or not you want to provide a discount for your service.

 

[Axoliien]

I have given my time to design for non-profits, and set the price for the final product as the cost it would have taken me to make it and then written it off. I found it better to make a single charge for the total amount rather than writing off the time charge, because labor is not always tax deductable (it can be called volunteer time and your time is then not deductable) but the final product will be.

If you don't care either way, charge full price, just because they are non-profit doesn't mean they don't have money, they just can't make a profit

 

[BKLounger]

I'm averaging the newsletter will probably take about 6-8 hours of real work from start to final product and i haven't got full details on the website yet so not fully sure. I only do design on the side to help pay off the credit card bills i racked up in college. So I would prefer to charge them but would it be fiscally intelligent to do it as a charitable donation and take it off on the taxes. Which would yield a better return in the short term?

 

[EagleKeeper]

You can NOT donate your time and then take it off against the taxes.

In the past, I have always charged the full rate; however, I usually put in 2-3 times the hours that I billed. They knew it. Also, much volunteer work was also done for the organization over and beyond my software work.

When I actually added up the time vs billing; I was at about 1/3 the rate; excluding the volunteer work.