Contracting at high rate for charity

[northernladuk]

Could you elaborate a bit pls? Do they have a particular rep or way of working?

I'm genuinely interested

Different reasons I seem to remember. One took a low rate to get off the bench but he said it was a complete mess. Expect him to sort it all out. Just no support or structure many large companies had. JFDI on a shoestring type thing. Another had problems getting paid. Although they were all charities there were enough problem stories to switch me off.

That said some people said PS is a nightmare and I've found it OK. Maybe just horses for courses.

[Eirikur]

I now declined the offer, also for reasons NLUK gave, a charity just looks absolutely rubbish on your cv. They are in a constant mess, nothing seems to happen. All you achieve is deskill yourself.
Accepted another contract with a large telco/ISP, bit lower rate but looks better on cv and more widely used technology.

[garethevans1986]

I did a 3 month stint with a charity a few years ago, good fellas and really nice people to work with, all of the work was remote so didnt need to travel into their office etc, unfortunately their budget was tight so that put a limit on the amount of contract work I could do for them but they came back to me a few months later and still a customer today.

GE

[fullyautomatix]

Got this opportunity, 6 months initially, they are paying an above private sector average rate for my area of expertise, because it's urgent. How long until they ditch me or start begging me to accept a lower rate, it because it's too expensive for them?

I'm close to declining the offer, but would like to see what others have experienced

There must be a reason why charities offer above average rates. Let me think what it can be. I know, maybe its because all the contractors start thinking there must be something fishy with charity offering above average rate and so start declining, thus triggering a vicious cycle.

[fullyautomatix]

I've never been asked to lower my rate for any of the charities I've either contracted at or provided deliverables to. I knew someone who had a lengthy contract with a well-known charity. Not the greatest rate, but he did have whole swathes of time where he had no work. They just paid the money.

That said, I'm yet to work with a charity that was even half-way organised. They seem to be full of people who couldn't even cut it in the public sector. Pay wise, they are fine though.

Charities and Councils are just spending money which they did not have to earn. So yeah, they will spend it like there is no tomorrow paying the highest rates. Ironic really when it comes to charities, they are set up for a specific cause and should focus on spending on that cause.