Pro bono: Nonprofits benefit from the arts. (Free Stuff).

More than 5,000 students from the Art Institutes nationwide system of 23 schools donate a quarter of a million hours each year to nonprofits by designing Web sites, brochures, public service announcements, videos and advertising materials. Students learn valuable lessons about the "art" of giving while the nonprofits receive much needed assistance.

"In a time of tight budgets and deadlines, nonprofit organizations are competing with bigger and better funded groups to get their message out," said Jeffrey Durosko, vice president of public relations for The Art Institutes. "The very large nonprofits have relationships with national ad agencies that often do their work pro bono. We are not looking to take over any of that work. We are really trying to provide service to smaller nonprofits that otherwise wouldn't be able to get the work done, or done with the same quality that we can provide."

Durosko estimates that the schools assist at least 400 nonprofits annually. The size and scope of these programs varies among the schools, and is continually increasing "as more Institutes see the value for the students and community," said Durosko.

Students at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, for example, are using their talents to design comic books for educating young teens about the dangers of domestic violence and abusive relationships. At the Art Institute of Phoenix, the students created a much talked about public service announcement for television to encourage young people to stop smoking. Fashion design students at the Art Institute of Seattle created 50 bras for an online auction to fight breast cancer.

The most prominent of the Art Institute of Dallas projects is the work of the Design Production Team Class in the School of Graphic Design. The class has an ongoing relationship with the Dallas Museum of Art, acting much like a true advertising agency providing pro bono work.

More than 100 students have spent a combined more than 3,000 hours designing promotional materials for the museum's Gateway Gallery, and its family day events and summer programs, according to Maria Teresa G. Pedroche, head of family programs and community outreach.

This unique collaborative partnership is invaluable to the museum, said Pedroche. The work has included logos, T-shirts, fliers, brochures, bookmarks, and various signage. The Art Institute of Dallas estimates the value of these projects at more than $30,000 a year. The program has also helped the museum present a unified brand, attract a more diverse visitor base, and increase attendance and membership, said Pedroche.

Getting connected

One of the newer programs is the annual "Web Raising" held at the Art Institute of Atlanta, www.aiawebraising.net, which launched in 1999. During the 2001 event, nearly 50 student, faculty and alumni volunteers worked from dawn to dusk assembling the building blocks of 10 new Web sites and put them all online in one day.

The program is based on the idea of the old-fashioned barn raising. At no cost to the participating community organizations, Web Raising teams from the graphic, multimedia and Web design, photographic imaging and media arts, and animation programs combined their expertise to create the sites.

After the Web Raising nonprofit executives can receive free assistance from the institute to learn how to maintain and update the site as they deem necessary, said Kim Resnik, director of public relations and marketing for the Art Institute of Atlanta.

There are several benefits for the nonprofit organizations. The first, of course, is the financial benefit of having work done pro bono by these quasi-professionals, said Resnik. "Even the biggest nonprofits operate on a strict budget and are bound by their mission and ethics to use their grants and donations to serve their mission. So, they generally don't have the cash to go out and purchase a Web site, but they do need to be part of the online world."

One of the byproducts of a Web site is the opportunity for nonprofit staff to sit down and assess the organization and make sure there is a clear mission statement, and all of the other information they need to put up on a site, said Resnik. This may include a press kit and brochures needed for grant applications and donors. Preparing for a Web site also makes these organizations take stock of what they have achieved, and focus more clearly on their goals.

Healing Hands for Haiti is one of the many nonprofits that has benefited from Atlanta's Web Raising program. The three-year-old organization had a Web site, but was "homegrown" and didn't have the appropriate professional look the organization needed to convey to donors and potential volunteers, said Matt Ray, the volunteer Webmaster.

Ray worked with the students for a couple of months before the formal Web Raising. "I have the technical ability but don't have the graphic skills that the artists [at the institute] have," said Ray. We sent them a brochure, some pictures and as mush content as we could, and they started putting the site together.

Now the site provides more interaction and offers pertinent information for people interested in volunteering or making donations, said Ray.

The new site, www.healinghandsforhaiti.org has nice graphic elements and a pleasing design, said Ray. At the same time, "we were careful to maintain a design balance. "We didn't want a site that was too cool or slick, which would give visitors the impression that we spent a lot on the site and don't really need money."

Ray estimated that the nonprofit saved $10,000 by having the Web site created by the institute.

These programs don't only benefit the nonprofits, they help the students, as well. Students get to do work they enjoy while making a difference and creating a product that people value, said Resnik. This encourages them in their studies, too. Resnik also pointed to several studies that have shown that the habits students form in college tend to stay with them.

"If community service is part of their experience they will tend to continue in one way or another to be involved with organizations that have a particular appeal to that individual," said Resnik.

For more information regarding the Art Institutes, visit the Web site www.artinstitute.edu or call [phone].