I’ve received a few emails this week with a common theme: “I’ve never had anything published. How do I get clips?” and “What’s your opinion on writing for free to get experience?”

I’m a big believer in writing for non-profits. Want to write for free to get clips? Write for a charity. Non-profit organizations are in desperate need of volunteers, and they can usually always use a good writer regardless of experience level. Whether it’s website or print copy, a blog, press release writing, grant writing, journalism or business writing, if you’re skilled, you could put your talents to good use for an organization that needs a hand.

Writing for charity looks good on your portfolio/resume, and doing this will keep you from being tempted to succumb to the temptation to write for unknown start-up sites only looking to take advantage of writers. So, how can you get non-profit writing jobs?

Ask around locally or search online. Kids’ schools and activities might be a good place to start. If you’re involved in religious organizations, ask around there. If you know of a good local charity, call them up, or go on their website and email them. Many charities have a volunteer coordinator, and that person can guide you. If you can’t find anything locally or want to branch out more, and you have something specific in mine, try googling around a bit. Search for the type of charity you want, scan the website for the volunteer section and get in touch.

VolunteerMatch.org is a good place to start your search if you don’t have a charity in mind to pitch your services to. Start at http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/ and in the “distance” dropdown list scroll to “virtual.” Or if you want to work on-site locally, there’s that option too. Play around with the keywords. I’ve found plenty of web writing and blogging gigs, although the majority of requests there do tend to be on the grant writing side.

If your searches fail, ask me. I do a good amount of charitable writing work, and I usually know people who are looking. If you’re new but talented, the American Foundation for Children with AIDS probably wouldn’t turn you away, especially if you’re a web writer or a blogger. Their executive director Tanya is one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked for. If you want other ideas, let me know (here in the comments, or by email).

For those of you who have written for non-profits, do you have any words of wisdom to share? Has writing for charity helped boost your freelance writing career?