How to find out from charity if a freelancer got paid for 'voluntary' work I did?

Comms69

SpaceisthePlace wrote: »

Thank you for a considerate and non-rude comment!

If I'm right, and the freelancer was paid for my work, the manager involved knew about it. But I am going to meet the volunteer liaison and express my concerns. She could possibly take those concerns higher up. I am concerned for the charity but I also feel personally wronged for reasons I've given in other comments.

Then why didn't you say - yes I can do the work and this is my rate?

SpaceisthePlace

Voice your concerns at national level if you feel either somebody has been paid for work they didn't do or that you should have been paid instead. But the charity will not disclose financial arrangements between themselves and third parties (other than donations where prior agreed)

Thank you for your comment. This was all I needed to know, and look everyone, it's possible to say things in a polite and considerate manner.

SpaceisthePlace

If I was the manager I would be cagey as well, especially as you seem unwilling to let this drop and would wonder what agenda you had for pursuing this matter.


Would it be to get payment for it or would it be to highlight some financial irregularity within the branch - and I can only assume that it's the later as you've said you've willingly given your time in the past.


So I guess the answer is no you don't but my question to you is if you'd been told he had, what would you have then done with that information ?

I haven't been hounding the manager or not letting things drop. I've talked about this project with him once, maybe twice. His evasiveness has put me off asking further and so I wondered if I could try more official channels. Hence the original question.

If I knew for certain the freelancer had been paid for my work I would want an explanation, an apology and to have my say about how I feel I've been treated and how this is not good for the charity. It might perhaps encourage them to be more transparent and to treat volunteers with more honesty and respect, and consider whether this particular freelancer is someone they want to do business with.

If on top of that they were willing to pay me for this particular piece work then of course I would be very grateful for that.

SpaceisthePlace

No, that's all wrong. They had already paid the freelancer. Then they asked the OP to do it before the freelancer had had the chance to complete it. He didn't "come along" and invoice for work he hadn't done.

It wasn't that he hadn't had the chance to complete it. The project deadline was looming and the work hadn't been done. He went on holiday presumably knowing the deadline would pass before he came back. I did the work so the deadline wasn't missed.

SpaceisthePlace

Listen mate I get you............

If someone was paid for work you did voluntary. Then it sort of means you wasted your time volunteering as it cost the charity anyway. You may as well been paid.

Ignore the rudeness just put it down to experience. You did a good thing and that's what counts. Next time you will be wiser.

Thank you for your kind comment, I really appreciate it.

SpaceisthePlace

Why do they owe YOU an apology? You've lost nothing. You've done work for free that you agreed to do for free.

If they owe anyone an apology, it's the donors to the charity whose money they have wasted.

I would like an apology mainly because I was not fully informed about the project before I agreed to undertake the work for free (along the lines of 'Hey, SpaceisthePlace, by the way Mr Freelance has already been paid to deliver this project; knowing that, are you sure you want to do it?'). Secondly because I was not fully informed after I'd done the work but left to piece things together from hints and overheard conversations. They could have been straight with me. They weren't. And maybe legally they don't have to be, but it's a sh!tty way to treat a volunteer.

And it's not true that I've lost nothing. I spent five days in total on the project, that I could've used more productively than doing someone else's work for them.

I agree that the donors have also been wronged.

SpaceisthePlace

Nobody is saying this is fine. People are saying the charity could demand their money back, but only if they gave him the chance to complete the contract. If he didn't do what he was supposed to do in the time he was supposed to do it, he is in the wrong. If the charity got you to do it before he had a chance to, they have been stupid and wasteful.

The fact remains that you, personally, have not been cheated as you seem to think you have. If you want to raise the possible wastefulness of the charity, then go ahead and do so. But you will be doing so on the part of the donors and beneficiaries of the charity, who are the only ones losing out. Paying you would only make them lose out more.

Well then, he is in the wrong. Because there was a deadline, and he went on holiday rather than stay and meet it. When he got back the deadline had passed and I had delivered the project. As I've said in another comment.

I disagree that I haven't been cheated. Maybe cheated isn't the word I'd use. I feel wronged for all the reasons I've stated. The charity's behaviour is unethical. There's no excuse for not being upfront and honest with volunteers about who is paid and who isn't for certain projects etc. And it's not on to get a volunteer to do something for free that you know you've already paid someone else to do - all the while not telling the volunteer.

If they paid me and the freelancer, I agree, that would be paying twice therefore a waste of funds. If they got the payment back from the freelancer and gave it to me instead that would be for them the same financial situation as now. I know this is unlikely. The best for the charity would be to get the payment back and use it for something useful. However from what you've said this also seems unlikely.

scd3scd4

When you volunteer you normally want to think you have made a difference. If someone is getting paid for work you are doing you may as well stay in bed or help another charity. What's the point.


If I volunteered and they said.........."Listen scd3scd4 me old mate. The freelancer has not finished this job but has trotted odd to Benidorm before he finished. Any chance you can finish the job for free and we will pay him when he returns."


I know what I would say but if it was yes, then at least I had made an informed choice with my time.

SpaceisthePlace

I just don't see why you think you having a say over the charities finances is with-in your remit

I don't think that at all and I'm not sure where you got that from. The comment you quoted was a reply to another user who had insulted me for no reason, calling me a jealous money-grubber for admitting it would be ideal to be paid, while remaining strangely silent on the behaviour of the freelancer who got paid for doing nothing. I just pointed out the inconsistency there, nothing more.

SpaceisthePlace

When you volunteer you normally want to think you have made a difference. If someone is getting paid for work you are doing you may as well stay in bed or help another charity. What's the point.


If I volunteered and they said.........."Listen scd3scd4 me old mate. The freelancer has not finished this job but has trotted odd to Benidorm before he finished. Any chance you can finish the job for free and we will pay him when he returns."


I know what I would say but if it was yes, then at least I had made an informed choice with my time.

Exactly. And it wasn't even that he hadn't finished the job. He hadn't even started it. I did all of it.

You're spot on, it's about transparency, being informed and treated with basic respect. I'm glad someone gets it.