freelance day rate - quick question

[laladaff]

Hi all,

Putting in a bid for some freelance work and have been asked to provide a day rate.

Trouble is that it's for a charity. I don't want them to baulk at what would be my standard rate for this type of work - I could go a bit lower as it would be interesting and I would love to be involved - but equally I don't want them to think they can underpay me because I quote a lower figure 😂

My standard rate is £300 per day. Should I put 'with some flexibility' or quote £250-300, or just say nothing?

Do wish organisations wouldn't waste time like this and would just be direct with what they can afford!

I'd just tell them your standard rate.
Unless you are temporarily short of work and could do with a project.
You are not doing it for charity, you are doing your professional job.
The client just happens to be a charity organisation.

Freelancer here too

I always say my rate is XXX but happy to be flexible for the right opportunity

@Branster - thanks. It's tricky because I do need the work - and £250 a day is better than £0 a day! Also aware that most charities operate on small margins...

@BrentfordForever - thank you. I guess part of my reservation is that I've always done similar...but I recently had a company that honed in on my rate and said bluntly they couldn't afford it and that was that, despite my stating that I could be flexible 🙄

I would say my daily rate is £300 but I am always able to be flexible depending on the project.

Could you go in at £275 and then drop to £250 if they balk?
Of course you risk them just saying no and going with someone else rather than negotiating
You could say that your rate is £300 but you do sometimes offfer a lower rate to Charities so if they have a budget you can try and see if you can work with it

State your rate. If you say £250-£300 they'll expect to pay £250, not unreasonably. If you're prepared to do it for £250 quote £250. If not, quote your normal rate of £300.

They are the charity not you. Unless you are wanting to do the work at a reduced rate because it's a charity you support anyway. I have done freelance work for a charity and commissioned work on a charity's behalf. Often (but not always) charities will have specific funding anyway for work they commission.

Some really good advice on here, thanks so much. I think I will quote my standard rate, but say I could consider a bit of flexibility on this for a great cause...

I work a lot in this field so can you let us know a bit more about the type of work you're doing and I can give you the standard prices.

If they're having the work funded via a grant rather than paying it through their own reserves that also makes a difference in my experience.

@Middleagedstriker - thanks! It's a heritage organisation, they need a communications consultant to raise their profile. Glancing at their accounts, they have 4million in unrestricted reserves - this role would be funded from that I imagine, not from a specific grant.

They have a very small team. This role would be 2/3 days per week...

The thing @laladaff everyone is taking advantage now due to the market struggles

if you’re really after the work make it very very obvious you’re flexible

Is it for a set period or ongoing? If it's ongoing I would aim at about £250 a day of it's for say 20 days work you could go up to £350. If it's for something like three days work then you can go up to £500.

If those are unrestricted reserves don't worry too much!!

@Middleagedstriker - thanks again. Yes it's unrestricted reserves - pretty impressive given they are so small and received little in the way of funding, but they have been running for a long time.

It's ongoing but for 2 days a week. I said my rate was £300 p/d but there might be room for some flexibility on this....I'll let you know if I get it/what they say!