What’s your approach to non-profits?
I have at least two or three reach our a month asking for discounted plan. Generally I’ll offer some kind of discount if it’s a genuine charity and cause. I assume there’s tax benefits to offering discounts to genuine charities - but I’m not a US business so more just doing it to help out decent organisations.
I’d like to get smarter about offering discounts or working with non-profits though if anyone has experience.
Unfortunately, there are no tax benefits in the US to offering discounts to charities.
Like the other respondent said, it's a karma thing. Beside, there is nothing in the world that feels much better than helping others.
I do provide discounts, even give away premium features for free. Most of all, it's a karma thing.... and comes at near zero additional cost of operations.
The actual decision depends on the specific non-profit: avoid politics and NPs supporting inappropriate positions. Large NPs can cause significant traffic strain but they usually won't ask for a free lunch.
In particular, any open source related non-profit should receive discounts or even free tiers. Most of what indie makers do would not be possible w/o open source.
Though, this is my very SaaS perspective. Unfortunately, your profile doesn't describe the project so I am simply assuming app/service/website.