Professionals join online community to support charities

A completely new concept in charitable giving has been launched through a web-based community of freelance workers who are using their professional skills to support the charities of their choice.

In just a few weeks, hundreds of freelancers and contractors have joined people4charity.com and agreed to supply their services to registered charities at discounts ranging from 5-85 percent.

People4charity.com is an off-shoot of people4business, which matches companies with skilled freelancers and contractors in an online environment.

ìThe concept of people4charity is unique because it enables self-employed professionals to support charities through their skills at discounted rates,î says Duncan Taylor, Managing Director of people4business.com. ìA number of nationally-known charities are already using the service.î

Emma Wood is now managing people4charity, having spotted the potential benefit for charities after originally registered with people4business as a freelancer.

She comments: ìCharities often need the support of professionals for projects ñ just like commercial organisations ñ but what they also want is complete price transparency and, where possible, support from people who share their values.î

The people4charity database covers sectors where freelance and contractor support is most sought-after. These include administration, education and research, finance and accounting, human resources, IT & Internet, training and development, legal services, management consultancy, marketing and PR, and property and construction. Registration is free and sellers control their rates, availability and charity discounts from their personal home-page.

Charity buyers search the database for the people they require by sector, skills, track-record, location and price and the two parties then deal direct to agree the project scope and contract terms.

people4charity earns revenue by applying a fixed 10% margin to the sellerís chosen rate, and is also committed to returning 5 percent of profits to the voluntary sector.

Charities will find that they have an increasingly large pool of skilled self employed specialists at their disposal. Recent figures released by the Economic and Labour Market Review, from the Office of National Statistics, showed self-employment at a 10-year high, at 13.1% of the working population ñ a total of 3.8 million people.