Got spare time to do some pro bono translation? From message boards and conversations with freelance translators, we know that they sometimes get asked for freebies by clients — for example, they might ask for no-cost translations because the jobs are too small to invoice or care about — or by people like our Argentine Marxist friend. Everyone has the opportunity to donate some of their talent to do some good, ranging from the ultimately commercial to open source to totally pro bono:

• Commercial translation projects such as Google‘s, with opportunities to increase the amount of the main site translated into Afar, Bashkir, and Kirundi from the current 1% to the whole site.
• Open source localization and translation for any any of thousands of projects.
• Charitable and humanitarian organizations. Our favorite is the Chernobyl Children Project, a non-profit organization that provides respite and relief to the children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. There are many such non-profit efforts that require translation, especially in communities where there are large immigrant populations.

And, of course, you could help propagate all the collected works of Hugo Chavez — or devote your free time to translating the collected writings of Lenin into Bashkir. For most freelancers, pro bono satisfaction will more likely come from helping the children.