No one is. If you want to donate your time there are a million non profits that will gladfully take the donation.
There is no reason this process has to devalue everyone else's work on a paid job.
There is no reason this process has to devalue everyone else's work on a paid job.
If you literally can't compete with volunteers maybe you should see what they says about your niche and then find a new one.
Once when replacing a server (and fixing the wiring, etc, etc) I also replaced a router and dual-homed the company's site as a freebie because it made my job easier (the new router had diagnostics, managed-switch features, etc). It was a line-item I could have billed for separately, or it was a new level of service.
By the "save the work for the guy feeding the starving children" philosophy we should nickel-and-dime our clients instead of providing our true value. I don't like that.
And as to why I didn't charge anyways - the change actually made my other work faster.
Perhaps the lesson here is that non-profits need to make it as easy and clearly-defined as 18F has in order to receive more donations.