I’m not going to get all political here, but what I will say is that I’m concerned for the vulnerable in our society over the next few years, whether they’re vulnerable because of poverty, mental health, physical health, food poverty, lack of opportunities, disability, ethnic background, refugee status, gender, sexual orientation, age, or any other reason. Rather than ranting about it uselessly, I’ve decided to try to do something to support people who support people who are vulnerable.

I’m offering my work, free of charge, to a charity or community group. I will work for you in the same way that I do for my regular, paying customers. Here are some more details – feel free to ask questions in the comments or in any other way you choose.

What can I do for you?

I’m an editor, proofreader, writer and transcriber. In practice, this means I can do things like …

• Proofread your website, leaflets, training materials, newsletters, reports etc.
• Proofread and make suggestions on your bids for funding (I have experience editing tenders that businesses submit to get work from local authorities etc.)
• Write up text for you for your website, newsletters, bids for funding, reports, etc. from your notes
• Help you to optimise your website to appeal to search engines
• Transcribe tapes of meetings, dictated letters and other materials
• Review your use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and write a report with my suggestions

I can do any or all of these things for you on a one-off or monthly basis.

Obviously, you’ll want to check that I can do what I say I can do – please do have a look at my references page to see comments from satisfied customers. I’ve been in business since 2009 and work full-time for many regular customers.

What am I offering you?

I’m offering 5 hours of my time per month.

Why 5 hours? I can get a lot done in that time. For example, I could review your website and check the words in your weekly newsletters, edit a funding bid or write one up from your notes.

Why only 5 hours? I have a full-time job (but I’m self-employed, which makes it easier to fit your work in) but I do also have other volunteering commitments (training people on using social media and volunteering at parkrun) and I want to make sure that I can deliver what I promise to deliver. Once I’ve been doing this for a few months, I will review how it’s going and see if I can offer more.

What do I want from you?

Nothing. Apart from working well with me, not rushing or over-burdening me and taking account of my terms and conditions (see below), I will ask nothing of you. I’m not looking for any links, references, mentions, etc. Thank yous are always nice, of course, but that’s all I would ever ask of you.

How would it work?

If you’re a local organisation (in Birmingham, UK), I’d be happy to meet up with you initially if you’d like me to.

Once we’ve got going, it’s easiest if you send me work via email in a digital format, e.g. a Word document with your newsletter, an MP3 file with your tape to transcribe, etc.

I will keep track of the time I’ve spent per month and let you know how much time you’ve got left every time I do some work for you. You can use the 5 hours all at once, or throughout the month. I will never charge you for any work, but I will reserve the right to turn down work if it goes over the 5 hours.

I would like to try to avoid last-minute rushes (as I do have customers with deadlines I need to honour), so it would be great if you could let me know when you’ll need me and send me work in good time, to avoid panics and rushes.

My standard terms and conditions do apply here (except for the bits about payment) so you might like to pop over and have a look at those.

How do you sign up?

If you’d like me to help you, please get in touch via my Contact Form or email.

Please let me know …

• Your organisation’s name
• What your organisation does and who it supports
• A website or other source of information about your organisation (and your charity number, if you have one)
• How you think I can help you

If I get several enquiries, I will choose someone to help based on how much I think I can help them – whether what they do fits in with topics and groups I know about, for example. I would also like to help groups local to me in Birmingham at first (I also donate to national and worldwide charities).

If I can’t help you, I will ask around and see if I can find someone else willing to help. I will let you know whether I can help you as soon as I can – I will make my initial decision within a week of posting this information, so by 18 May.

I hope to hear from a charity or community organisation that I can help. If you do have any questions, please get in touch using the Contact Form or email, or write a comment. If you know of someone who could do with my help, please share this post with them. Thank you!