Giving your skills to a project can be a great way to gain experience and boost your resume or portfolio. “Free” is a relative term and, in this case, your payment should — at the very least — be the experience and contacts you gain.

As a general rule, if someone is profiting off of your work, then you should be sure that you are being compensated in some way – whether it’s retaining  intellectual property or some sort of profit-sharing deal. In fact, in the post  To Spec or Not to Spec? What a Stupid Question, I addressed the topic of working for free in the hopes of “winning” payment, which I would discourage anyone from doing.

However, there are some instances in which it might make sense for both the experienced and neophyte developer to work without direct monetary compensation. Giving work away for free is really more about who and what you’re working for. Here are three situations where it might make sense to work for free:

Open Source Community

In the case of contributing to an open source project, your hard work is part of a good faith effort to help maintain, improve or altogether re-invent a software solution that is needed by the community at large.

Sharing your work like this is a great way to network with other developers. In the case of enterprise-level solutions, open source is big business. Between consulting, maintenance contracts, hardware and documentation, there is a lot of for-profit activity surrounding the “free” software movement.

There are lots of ways to get involved. Most notably is SourceForge, a very popular community that  hosts thousands of open source projects. If you aren’t familiar with SourceForge, it’s a great jumping off point.

Non-Profits

Volunteering your development skills to a non-profit can be priceless if it’s a cause you are passionate about. In addition, while you may want to be delicate in pursuing any personal gain, it’s good to note that in giving your skills to a charity you may discover connections to potential clients. (Think about the board of directors for the charity, the other volunteers with their own businesses, etc.)  Trust that good people will see your fantastic work and want to work with you at some point in the future, but be sure you stay in the moment and do the work without the expectation that you’ll have any personal profit.

Startups

Working for equity is better than working for free although – depending on the company and your personal finances – mere equity may not be as good as working for cold hard cash. Getting in on the ground floor of a startup can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It gives you the opportunity to be part of something potentially big and, at the very least, gives you an excellent piece for your resume. However, its important to view the resume-building as the consolation prize, not the end goal. Starting a project that you aren’t passionate about is always a dead end.

It may not a bad idea to follow the money. Start with venture capitalists websites that invest in startups you respect. They often list all of their ventures. Although, if a company has funding, they should be able to pay their employees — which isn’t a bad thing.

Finding a worthwhile startup or non-profit can be tough. Personal connections are best, but there are some online resources that may be helpful:

MeetUp.com – A site to help facilitate everything from social activities to activists groups, tech clubs, non profits, and everything in between.
PartnerUp – A business networking site geared toward helping find business partners and opportunities.
GoBigNetwork.com – A business networking site focusing on startups, helping to connect talent, venture, vendors, etc.
YouNoodle.com – A community geared toward connecting entrepreneurs, startups, and talent.

Regardless of your situation, working for free can be  a positive experience. Whatever your “free” work is, just make sure your talents are valued.

Alex Hornbake is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. He joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, and brings more than a decade of technical expertise to his clients. Alex shares his point of view to help you make informed decisions for your personal and business technology choices.