Had a chat with a nonprofit director that flipped my pricing strategy entirely

I was talking to Sarah, who runs a small animal rescue in Portland, about why she never hired me for their website updates. She said straight up "your $75 an hour feels risky when I don't know if it'll take 2 hours or 10." That hit me different because I always thought hourly was the safest for both sides. She mentioned she pays her graphic designer a flat $300 for each newsletter layout and it works perfect for her budget planning. Now I'm testing flat rates for specific deliverables like a 3-page site edit for $150 or a full homepage redesign for $600. Has anyone else switched from hourly to project-based pricing with nonprofits and seen better response rates?

2 comments

2 Comments

carr.luna1d ago

Yo, that's a great point about the risk shifting to the client with hourly billing. But here's something I haven't seen brought up yet - flat rates can actually make you more money on repeat work. Once you've done a few homepage redesigns for $600 and you get fast at it, your hourly rate effectively goes way up. Plus nonprofits love predictable costs cause their budgets are usually set a year in advance. The downside is you gotta be real honest with yourself about how long stuff takes, or you'll end up working for minimum wage on that $150 edit when the client keeps asking for "just one more tiny change.

morganl711d ago

Kinda changed my mind too honestly. I was all about hourly billing for years because it felt safer, but after some projects where I got paid the same flat fee in half the time, I started seeing the math differently. The nonprofit thing really clicked for me, they hate surprises with budgets. But yeah, that "one more tiny change" trap is real, I learned to write my flat rates with a clear list of what's included so I don't end up eating like 10 extra hours on a simple edit.