Come On, Man: Let Me Remind You—I’m Doing You A Favor

Many non-profit associations ask if I’ll speak pro bono. I try to accommodate as many of them as I can. Yet some of them then give me more work and demand I conform to more rules than my paying clients! It seems that non-profit boards are strongest in bureaucracy, and are frightened that people doing them a favor are somehow going to (gasp!) promote themselves. Then there are those which simply don’t follow-up and are non-responsive, as if “volunteer” means “not obligated to be professional or accountable.”

How do these people earn money for themselves? I delivered a keynote once for a major, national, non-profit in the professional services industry whose members worked for major organizations. I found that most of the board was unemployed!

Of course they were on the board—they had plenty of free time!