What is it that freelancers do? Most of the time I get asked the question, people presume I do fundraising because I work for charities. It\u2019s interesting that a lot of people can’t conceptualise a charity as a whole organisation, with all the internal and external functions needed to run it effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be honest, I never had any idea about the huge variety of work that\u2019s offered on a freelance basis. Some of it is incredibly inspiring, some of it is straight-forward and some of it is outright bonkers. Here\u2019s a selection of what I\u2019ve seen lately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A four-month contract to support the communications strategy for a charity, at 2 days a week. Their focus is creating momentum behind a new fund that supports Black and Minoritised communities through social investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A wonderful left-field one – an Assistant Drama Workshop Facilitator role for children living in temporary accommodation. Offered on an hourly-pay basis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A community coordinator for an early years\u2019 arts development organisation. A role designed around building relationships with nurseries, schools, higher education providers and art organisations, and developing their offer to local children and families. Offered as a one-year contract at one day a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honestly. A Head of Veg to grow produce for the kitchens of an artists\u2019 residence and hybrid pub\/arts space. On-site accommodation and training was offered as well as awesome job title. This one was advertised as a 9-month contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone was on the lookout to build a bank of associates for a consultancy that supports workplaces to become more inclusive. Their focus was on coaches, virtual assistants and trainers who have experience with neurodivergence, particularly those with lived experience. No more details but associates are generally long-term relationships, often on retainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one was a fee-for-result piece of work, looking for an independent researcher to undertake a literature review of content covering the systemic risks of extreme\/concentrated wealth to society. I\u2019d like to read the findings of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An organisation looking for a programme mentor to a group of community enterprise leaders in a particular region of the UK. Their focus is on developing leadership capabilities for the cohort. This one was a 15 month contract, at roughly a day and a half a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one was looking for someone to evaluate the pilot of a digital debt advice and personal finance management platform. A partnership of organisations have been funded to run a pilot for 18 months, and the evaluator will focus on whether the functionality and efficiency was strong, as well as benefits for participants and wider lessons around building financial resilience. Another total sum project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This opportunity was for an experienced campaigner to scope out a new campaign to phase out North Sea oil and gas production in the UK. Lots of work around context analysis, stakeholder mapping and advising on how a campaign could have most value. This one was advertised as a more intensive short-term project, running for up to 6 months but at an hourly rate for a 36 hour week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another total sum project, with just a month\u2019s worth of time. This organisation was looking to start a major programme around digital exclusion, health and wellbeing, and they were looking for a freelance economist to help them model the affordability of internet connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This organisation was after a subject matter expert in children and young people to support the rewriting of their toolkit on preventing gender-based violence. A total sum project, and estimated at 10 days work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A small charity looking for strategy expertise and facilitation for a Board away day, with the work focusing on running a 3 hour session. They were looking for help setting objectives and agreeing measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An organisation on the lookout for someone to create a short film that celebrates new British citizens and their community engagement such as volunteering. A chunky budget and a chunky application process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one was a paid per hour role. They were looking for someone to write a digital literacy curriculum, designing a set of one-hour sessions to be led by their course coordinators. The organisation supports refugees and this would be part of their specialist employment support, helping refugees integrate into the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An EU-based tender for work looking at the emotional politics of democracies. They were looking for longitudinal analyses and cross-country comparisons looking at how changing emotional landscapes and shifts in popular feelings interact with practices and values central to democratic politics. Big concepts. Big money. Presumably also big timelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m focusing my searches for work on those doing social good, which is almost always in the not-for-profit sector (charities, social enterprises etc) but occasionally other bodies creep in. None of these I\u2019ve gone for personally but I have absolutely loved reading (and still do) all the new opportunities as they pop up. It feels like constantly getting a better insight into how deep, diverse and interesting the work of freelancers is as well as getting buoyed by realising what incredible and ambitious work is being done out in the world, some on a tiny individual scale and some on a systemic level to change the world for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by\u00a0Gabriel Gurrola<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is it that freelancers do? Most of the time I get asked the question, people presume I do fundraising because I work for charities. It\u2019s interesting that a lot of people can’t conceptualise a charity as a whole organisation, with all the internal and external functions needed to run it effectively. To…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[13,11,12,21,25,10],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracts","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t