Doing Pro Bono Graphic Website Design

Written by Jerry Johnson Wednesday, 15 June 2011 09:29

There are a lot of good reasons to do pro bono work as a professional web designer or web design firm. If you are new to web design and don't have a lot of experience, pro bono work may give you that exposure and experience you need. A good place to start may be Churches, Boy Scout troops or other non-profit organizations.

There are a lot of good reasons to do pro bono work as a professional web designer or web design firm. If you are new to web design and don't have a lot of experience, pro bono work may give you that exposure and experience you need. A good place to start may be Churches, Boy Scout troops or other non-profit organizations.

Another reason to do pro bono work as a graphic website designer is tax breaks. The hours you spend working on graphic website design for free can be deducted from your taxes at the end of the year as a charitable donation. Check with your accountant or tax preparer to determine the most reasonable rate, but highest rate, that you can get away with charging per hour for your tax deductible hours so that you can claim them as a charitable donation.

Another good reason to do work for free as a website designer is to gain experience while building your portfolio. If you are a web design student or just getting started in your web design career, this can be a great opportunity. Build up your web design portfolio with projects that not only show off your talents, but show off your generosity and sense of community. Doing pro bono work can increase your career opportunities. Build up your experience, education and knowledge with on the job training in web design.

All the small business can rest assured that their are many website development companies that are ready and able to help them be a dominate presence on the world wide web. Their are web developers who can build websites specific to each industry and help them compete on local, regional and national levels. Some may charge and others may be happy to do that work pro bono just to get the recommendation or gain links to their own sites.

Once you have found pro bono graphic website design work, you need to treat it just as you would any other freelance graphic website design assignment or project. That means you have to find out what the client wants in their graphic design website. Create a creative brief so that you and the client are on the same page with where you are going with their graphic website design project. You also need to set up a work schedule and time line for the client so that an expected completion date can be given to the client for completion of the graphic design website.

Once the pro bono graphic website design project is completed, follow up with the organization to make sure that they are happy with their graphic design website. Then, keep in touch with the organization in the future. This will open up networking possibilities for graphic website design freelance projects in the future with paying clients. It will also open up possibilities for more pro bono graphic website design freelance projects for that and other charitable organizations.

Overall, doing pro bono graphic website design work is a great, fulfilling, rewarding way to gain additional experience, graphic website design samples for the beginning graphic artists portfolio, and tax breaks for the freelancing graphic website designer.