A Volunteer creates artwork - who owns it?

[madcity123]

I volunteer at a nonprofit. I specialize in advertising/marketing/graphics. I have no contract with the nonprofit.

I created a new fundraiser for a nonprofit based on coffee. I developed the name of the product, logo/related graphics, website, marketing strategy and all promotional materials. I organized the actual selling of coffee and made the organization $6k.

Now I want to take all of my designs, including the name of the product, and start my own nonprofit where I sell coffee [the nonprofit I volunteer at does not sell coffee as it's primary function -- they just use it to raise money].

They're mad and say I learned about coffee through them; they're right.

They also say they own the name, logo, etc. everything I did. Do I have any rights to use my own creations? Do I have the right from preventing them from using my design, including name of the product?

Ever thankful!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is a very difficult question to answer and it will not be answered here. There are so many parts of the equation and this one is messy. The fact that you aren't an employee (and possibly not a paid consultant either) might tilt the scales towards your favor but this is far from clear.

Did they every pay you for any of your services? I don't even know the relationship, e.g. sometimes people will set up lemonade stands for the purpose of generating money to donate to charity - which doesn't necessarily mean the charity owns the lemonade stand and was only the beneficiary of funds collected. I'm curious to know what happened and why you've decided you want to exploit the opportunity on your own.