For businesses big and small, pro bono (or voluntary) work is the provision of professional services for people, organisations, or other businesses that either may not be able to afford these services, or who face barriers when trying to access them.
Whilst the act of offering your companies services free of charge is a cause for caution in some cases, pro bono work provides the opportunity for positive business developments and collective social improvements.
In our case, Marriott Communications has had the opportunity to work with a multitude of third sector organisations and start ups across the UK, and have donated over 700 hours of pro bono support – totalling over £200,000 worth of services donated to these charities. Through our involvement with voluntary work, we have been involved with and have collaborated on several socially transformative projects – including with one of our current clients, Held In Our Hearts.
We have seen first hand the value of participating in this type of work, especially as a start-up agency. For any new business starting trading within a previously unexplored market, there is always the inherent risk that clients will not be acquired quickly and that services go unused – ultimately risking investment and a companies long term financial position. However, whilst pro bono work may not prove to be profitable, it does in fact provide the opportunity to develop best practice through real-world experience. Working on voluntary projects allows a business – and in our case an agency – to develop a portfolio of case studies that ultimately highlights the quality of your work and the positive impact that you are able to have on a business or organisation. These case studies can subsequently be used for digital promotions of your business, as well as, for when responding to tenders and creating proposals for any briefs or projects.
At our agency we have also been able to use these professional experiences to identify shortcomings in terms of practice and within our business model which allowed us to adjust our service provision and structure – ultimately meaning that we were able to implement positive business developments and growth.
Community collaboration on the basis of pro bono service provision offers the chance to enact real, tangible change in the form of collective social improvement. This collaboration brings socially transformative projects into fruition, and subsequently works to support social causes and people that are often marginalised, underserved, underfunded, and in fact disenfranchised. Working towards a collective common good, not only creates a socially responsible reputation for a business or an organisation, but also develops a personal and professional sense of fulfilment and contribution as you are working towards a goal or achievement that is greater than even your business, or yourselves.
The value of participating in pro bono projects is strongly tied to initial business developments and the creation of best practice. For Marriott Communications, and hopefully other small businesses, we have successfully been able to gain realworld experience of how our business operates within an active market, and through such an endeavour, we have been able to demonstrate our social and ethical responsibility at a community level, humanise our position as an agency, and ultimately ensure that our business practices, processes, and business model could successfully survive and thrive in the saturated market of Communications and Public Relations.
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