Aug 11th, 2007
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Building a community of Pro Bono Junkies
Esther Lardent, the queen of pro bono and the head of the Pro Bono Institute (PBI), introduced me to this term at a recent board meeting. It is apparently a term they have been using for a number of years to describe people who compulsively do pro bono work in the legal community. The way she described it, as I recall, is that 5-10% of the lawyers in a firm will never do pro bono work regardless of a firm’s commitment. On the other end of the spectrum are the Pro Bono Junkies (PBJs), the 5-10% of lawyers who will do pro bono work even if the firm discourages it. The remainder of the firm is open to be influences by either group.
I love this term as it describes so many of our volunteers at the Taproot Foundation. It is the goal of this blog and our site to help build a community of the PBJs who can support each other in the fight to convert the 80% of business professionals who are open to join the movement with a nudge.
We estimate that there are 7 million business professionals with skills needed by the nonprofit sector. That means that there are likely at least 350,000 PBJs in this country. We want to hear from all of you.
To all the PBJs out there, welcome home.