A Time to Go Pro Bono

As a freelancer, I'm always on the lookout for that next paying gig. The bigger, the better. But as a person of occasional conscience, sometimes the gig that comes along is one I'm compelled to do for free. Pro bono, as the good Romans liked to say.

A nephew recently contacted with a money-making market to tap. He'd been researching entrepreneurship and in his scholarship came across many a crowd-sourcing pitch that seemed to be written by a one-handed monkey working on a tight deadline.* My nephew's clever idea then, was to provide these nascent millionaires with copy that would better promote their dreams by using things such as syntax and punctuation.

It made sense. People are pouring their sweat and souls into their ventures, but then try to convince people to invest in their dream with copy that is sloppy and unconvincing. It's like parking your food truck behind a stench-belching rendering plant and hoping that everyone shows up with a big appetite.

But then I got to thinking. I too have come across a lot of poorly-worded pitches on crowd sourcing sites, but these people weren't seeking funding for a commercial endeavor, they were asking for donations for a cause. Maybe a friend needed surgery. Or a neighbor's house burned down. Many of them just wanted to provide a loved one with a proper funeral.

This is where my conscience kicked in and visions of dollar signs were replaced by whatever it is that symbolizes doing something decent. So I'm going to start volunteering my writing services to anyone setting up a crowd-funding campaign to support a worthy cause. If you know of anyone in this unfortunate predicament, please direct them to this website. In dire times, hopefully it will be on less thing for them to do.

It should be noted that this altruistic gesture will not preclude me from taking on paying gigs during this time.

*This is a clever reference to the Infinity Monkey Theorem that posits that given an unlimited period of time, a monkey pounding away indiscriminately at a typewriter would eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare, or at the very least, some Kiss lyrics.