Why Pro Bono Work Is Good For Business

Money! Profit margin! Stacks ‘o cash! Synergy!

Buzz words are awful and usually conjure up the wrong connotation regarding your business, especially when your only focus is on the fiscal end of the company cow.

Yes, a business exists to make a profit but that only affects you and your immediate circle. When was the last time you asked yourself, “What are we contributing to the COMMUNITY that we are a part of?”

Whether you’re a lawyer, a chef, a doctor or a video producer, you have the ability and the responsibility to share that. Keep on keeping on to see BizBear’s Top 3 reasons pro bono is good for business.

GOOD FOR COMMUNITY

Nonprofits, charities and sometimes individuals doing good work need our help. The reality is they don’t have the ability to attain services that most for profit businesses do, which makes sense. It’s hard to justify a marketing budget when every dollar they have needs to be put back towards their mission. Are they helping provide housing to the homeless, running a food pantry, or maybe even providing medical services free of charge?

Find out who’s providing a necessary service and give them a hand! One small marketing video can do wonders for a small charity. Many of these places do not require as large of an investment as your other clients, so a small contribution of time from you can mean the world to them.

Set some boundaries for yourself as not to overwhelm those from your team who will be involved. For example:

• 2 half days of production

• 1-2 Interviews

• Limit 60 second to 2 minute finished video.

Just because you set these limits, don’t feel constrained by them! Once you get into the project, inspiration might hit, which brings us to our next point.

GOOD FOR YOUR SKILLS

If you’re donating a video, you obviously want to make sure it’s filling a need for the receiving party, but because you’re donating your time, that usually means you have total creative freedom within limits of their goal.

How refreshing is that!? How many times have clients put us in a sandbox we don’t want to play in? Use this opportunity to try something new. What’s a new lighting technique you haven’t been able to use on a client shoot? What’s a unique setup you’ve always wanted to try? That new After Effects tutorial you keep putting off...use it to make the lower thirds!

Personal and professional growth is priceless, so use this opportunity to your advantage and further your cinematic education.

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

Although you just completed a video for an awesome community partner, you’ve also completed a great video sample to show future clients! And on top of that, your community partner will be able to tell anyone who asks who produced their new marketing piece. That could lead to new clients or, better yet, more ways for you to have an impact on your community.

At the end of the day, you hopefully created a piece you can take pride in. We definitely do every time we finish one at UBK Studios. We feel it’s our duty to provide our partners with these services and hopefully, you’ll take the duty upon yourself as well.