I, like most of us here, am a web developer.<p>Recently, 4 friends of mine started an NGO[a organization that works to improve awareness amongst people and looks upon other social aspects(in, well, India)]. They came to me with the idea, and I straightaway agreed to join. We even have quite a buzz now in the local newspapers and otherwise, and that's when we, around 50 of us now, decided that we need to go online. As you guessed it, it was me who was burdened with the task of making the website, I have nearly completed making it, over the past week, but there's a problem:<p>DO I ASK/ACCEPT A PAYMENT ?<p>I know it's not right to do so, as it's an NGO, but the other members of the NGO are arguing that I accept a payment, which I don't personally feel moral. This means not even accepting any money for the hosting and domain registration etc. etc. But this, isn't right, as why should I personally pay for hosting and stuff ??? And after all the cake and watermelon, as Joker would have said it "If you’re good at something, never do it for free."
There are two different costs here and that seems to be what's creating this moral dilemma.<p>Cost 1= Building the website (coding, design...)<p>Cost 2= Hosting the site and "stuff"<p>Assuming that you want to make a "donation" to the NGO, Cost 1 is the donation. And, to be fair, that's really the expensive part of "the website."<p>Cost 2, is what it takes to keep the site running, and those costs need to covered by the NGO. Or, if you left the NGO, you could stop paying for the hosting and <i>poof</i> the site is gone.<p>Their site has to be their responsibility, otherwise it's just your site that they pretend is theirs.
Is your work the same number of hours as others put in doing other stuff? Does anyone else get paid for their work?<p>If the organization has funds, it should pay for its hosting/domain name. If you are paying, ask if you can put a "Created by" link on the homepage. In the US, that would be enough to count your payment as an expense and deducted against taxes.<p>Also, in the US, if this was a 501c3 non-profit, you might be able to have your work count as a donation that you could deduct. Not sure if there's an equivalent in India.
NGOs pay developers and contractors all the time. They just don't pay very well, but nowhere does it say that work for them is free.<p>Do as you wish. You can either donate your time, if you like the cause and can afford it. Or you can charge them a reasonable fee.<p>Non-profit means that the organization's goal is not to turn a profit and give it to its shareholders. But a non-profit will pay salary to its staff and CEO if it can.
How about dividing the domain and hosting cost for the year across the group's 50 members . . . and maybe they can all take you out for dinner for the effort of putting together the website.