While chatting with lawyer friends recently I was surprised to hear just how negatively the concept of pro bono work is regarded in that profession. I don’t know the legal ins and outs of it, and I’m sure there are very good reasons for lawyers to be wary, but it got me thinking about how voluntary work is often regarded in my own industry of marketing and advertising.
Every agency I’ve ever worked for has taken on pro bono work for clients that they believed they could do great work for. In theory at least it’s a win-win scenario; the hard-up client (almost always a charity) gets to work with a top flight agency they probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, while the agency gets to produce highly emotive work for a worthwhile client that puts its creative firepower in the shop window.
In practice, however, such relationships seldom last. The agency is usually more interested in producing famous work than answering any kind of ‘brief’, while the demands of paying clients often mean the pro bono client’s work goes to the bottom of the list when it comes to priorities. When goals are not aligned, rarely do things stay calm for long.
Since setting up Frank & Friends, I’ve probably given about a third of my time towards what could loosely be described as ‘good causes’, the single uniting factor being that I don’t charge them a penny for my services. Not because I see them as opportunities to generate amazing creative work that gets talked about, or as a means to boast about my ethical agenda, but because I felt I had something to give to each of the amazing organisations I deal with. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with some great companies, brands, partners and most of all people in my career, many of whom invested considerable time and effort in me. The pro bono work I undertake from time to time is, to my mind, a way of repaying some of that earlier faith shown in me.
Despite me having no ulterior motive, consciously at least, I’ve also found that this kind of work can have benefits I hardly imagined when setting out:
1. You get to learn from some seriously talented people, who often have stellar commercial backgrounds. It’s not often you get access to such gifted individuals.
2. You have the opportunity to solve genuinely knotty problems, that usually have high degrees of relevance to traditional commercially driven client situations.
3. You expand your network of influence in ways that you didn’t expect, often opening up opportunities for more traditional new business
4. You’re able to be more open and transparent, given the absence of funding or politics
And perhaps most important of all,
5. You’re filled with a sense of enthusiasm and ambition that rubs off on your other paid work, thus making it even better.
We’re often in business to make money, but it’s remarkable how liberating it can be to occasionally forego the need to turn a profit, and instead just do the very best you can simply because it matters. Good things often happen when you do.