We give half our work away for free, as we care, rebels with a cause!
Driven by a mission to alleviate expenses for non-profits while increasing access to design strategy for all, At any given moment, we give half of our work away for free by balancing paid and pro-bono or discounted projects, read below to know about our pro-bono structures if you are a social business or a non-profit organisation.
We all have been a part of the debate going on for ages, What is design? Whose problem is a design meant to solve? is it to benefit only the people who can afford good design?
Is affordability the only criterion for the value of design? We at Dastan choose to answer that with a NO. The design should benefit anyone with a problem worth solving for a designer present in the same spectrum of reality.
Have you ever heard of the term pro-bono before? It is short for pro bono public'o which translates to ‘For The Good of the Public’. So it doesn’t mean you work for free, it just means your work for good of the community.
The world of Pro-bono started with the legal industry back in the late 1800s for justice of the immigrant's legal rights coming into the united states. But for me, it started from a couple of weeks long college project back in the year 2013. In one of our introduction to film making class needed us to shoot and edit a short film/documentary. It was around the same time my overseas education consultant, Rishi introduced me to Ria Sharma (founder and president for Make Love Not Scars). They work for the physical, mental, and social recovery of Acid Attack Victims.
This Interaction served as an awakening of a design student into real-world application, up until now we had only talked about utilising design for the betterment of our community. But this opportunity led me to convince our college faculty to let me take this on and mark my college class based on the output, they were kind enough to say yes.
Now, This was almost 7 years ago and after that life took me in different directions, quite a few to be honest. but we did a couple of Pro — Bono but not with the level of clarity and commitment it required. But, the year 2020 has been one long therapy session if nothing else. We have committed ourselves to keep a Pro-bono project ongoing at any given moment.
We shall try to take the project on Half-fees model or even lower if necessary for the Impact and vision for the particular case.
How to become a part of this give half model?
— Write us an email on connect@dastan.in and tell us briefly about your mission and what problems do you reckon need the designer’s intervention. I will get back to you for a discovery call and define how we can take this forward.
We will be trying to organize this as much as possible, We will have a Scope contract drawn out at the beginning of the engagement.
We are also open to our fellow artists, designers, strategists, and business owners to join our Ninja (volunteering) team and become a part of this journey. You can write to us with what projects you are looking for if you are already dedicated to make a certain impact with your skill sets or trust us on bringing the right project on the table.
PS - I wanted to mention and present gratitude to Matthew Manos for leading the way for the design community in Pro-bono space and commit. Check out his website www.verynice.co to know more about this terrific human being or order his book on amazon named: how to give half of your work away for free.
SEE YOU!