What the best way to tell an non-profit company that you are not interested in doing

business with them? I'm 17 years old and do website startup services. I normally am hired out by contract, but recently, I was approached by a non-profit crime watch who wanted to pay me to make a website for them.

However, when I met with them for the initiation, they said that they couldn't pay me and that they still wanted me to do work for them. I told them that I would be willing to work with them, once they got some funding, got an idea for marketing and and expanded their membership. (As of now, the crime watch is a 3 person group who ride out in a pickup truck every Tuesday night, reporting suspicious things to police)

Since then, I've spent the past week dodging their relentless phone calls, all leaving me messages of "We have no money, but please do this work for us." I'm used to doing work for local politicians, large churches and other prime-time work, all who are willing to pay me big-time and contract me out. This organization wants me to run and maintain a website for them, without pay.

Because these 3 people have contacts who are a lot of my potential clients, what is the better way of telling them I'm simply not interested in their business, without ruining my reputation? I fear that if I just tell them to give me some sort of compensation and meet my normal demands, they could turn around and ruin a lot of future business for me. Any suggestions to fix this dilemma?

Expecting to be paid for your work won't ruin your prospects except among those who would also like you to work for nothing. In fact, doing this site for nothing devalues the work -- why should anyone pay you when you just did the same thing for their friend for free?

Stop dodging their calls, thank them for thinking of you but say that you have a lot on your plate right now, and ask if they'd like you to refer them to another designer.