Free Range Graphics, the geniuses who create flash videos (my favorite: the unforgettable "Friends with Low Wages" attack on Wal-Mart), are giving away $15 K worth of services to some lucky deserving non-profit (h/t kk. Obviously, this is a great deal for the winner. It probably doesn't hurt for Free Range to review a bunch of proposals from needy nonprofits; at least a few will not win the contest but decide to buy services from Free Range anyhow.

But I wonder overall about the wisdom of these sorts of efforts. Inside the social change community, a lot of us act like NGOs but sell like regular vendors. I've got bookmarks and feeds from lots of folks chattering about social marketing, messaging, technology to improve social change efforts and everything in between, and I'd say more than half are from people whose principle income stream is not grants from foundations but fees from selling their services to non-profit clients. (Full disclosure: we are offering consulting services at market rates, natch.)

So already it feels circular for so many of us to be talking, under the guise (honest, for the most part) of sharing tips on doing the job better and more efficiently. I get even deeper down the rabbit hold when I think about how we're also quasi-auditioning for the audience of fee-paying NGOs who browse these blogs and buy helpful books and so on.

What's the redemption? I find it in the fact that we've got good things to offer them and each other. For my money, there isn't a community of competitors more friendly, more interested in helping each other, more connected and willing to share their insights than this one. As we develop this blog, and build a blogroll (something we're going to do organically from a starting with a shortlist we'll be posting soon), I plan on highlighting organizations and messengers selling things and giving them away who are making their contribution to the community a high priority but still making money.