New Bureau Provides Free Speakers To Rockville Area Groups

A new resource for groups and organizations that need speakers is now available in Washington D.C. It's called FreeSpeakers.org - A Pro Bono Speakers Bureau. The new bureau has more than 20 local speakers with more than 30 different topics available. The bureau can be found at: https://washington-dc.freespeakers.org/

"All speakers present programs at no cost," said Andy Richardson, director of FreeSpeakers.org. "This is a community service project that is 100 percent free to groups that need speakers. There is no charge to any group. Ever. Not from the speaker and not from the bureau."

FreeSpeakers.org is a boon for groups who need speakers for their programs but who have limited (or no) budgets. Groups include libraries, chambers of commerce, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, special interest clubs, church groups, retirement communities, women's clubs, men's clubs, etc.

"What’s in it for the speakers," Richardson said. "They are motivated by the opportunity to teach, hone speaking skills, make contacts, convey a message, give back to the community and frequently, all of the above."

Since 1996 FreeSpeakers.org has been providing speakers to area groups in Chicago as a community service project of Ginny Richardson Public Relations.

“We’re excited to bring our community service project to Washington D.C. area,” Richardson said. “It’s been so successful in other cities. We’ve received amazing feedback from grateful groups and happy speakers.”

For more information, visit: https://washington-dc.freespeakers.org/. To become a speaker, visit https://washington-dc.freespeakers.org/become-a-speaker/.

FreeSpeakers.org history

Ginny Richardson is owner and president of Ginny Richardson Public Relations (GR-PR), a Chicago-based PR firm specializing in social media and traditional media relations in the fields of business, healthcare, not-for-profit and arts and entertainment.

FreeSpeakers.org is an outgrowth of this PR business, although the two are entirely separate.

In 1996, Ginny received a phone call from a client who asked if she knew anyone who could give a talk at a Rotary meeting. She recommended four people - a friend with an fitness business (“Fifty Ways to Lose Your Blubber”), a banker with a terrific sense of humor, a motivational speaker she knew, and a camera buff whose talk was titled “How to Take Better Pictures.”

Later, Ginny had lunch with a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, and she mentioned her “just-for-fun” speaker’s bureau. The reporter found it fascinating that no money changed hands.

The reporter wrote a four paragraph story - "Cheap talk for area groups" - that ended up on the front page of a Tribune section. The day the story came out, her phone rang non-stop. Ginny typed the growing list of names with short descriptions of each person's topic. This list was snail-mailed, at her own expense, to clubs and organizations in Chicago and its suburbs.

Today, Andy Richardson, Ginny’s partner (and son) runs FreeSpeakers.org entirely online and with a much, much longer list of speakers. The response from the groups and the speakers has been tremendous.

“Many people don’t understand why we, as a PR company, would spend time on a project that doesn’t make money,” Ginny said, “but we are rewarded with loads of contacts and maybe most important – proof that some things in life are free.”