Personally, I think you are fine. A few of my thoughts: -You are providing a good experience. Perhaps some of them are viewing this as a good resume/portfoli

Personally, I think you are fine. A few of my thoughts: -You are providing a good experience. Perhaps some of them are viewing this as a good resume/portfolio piece that they can take to an employer or school later. -Some of them may want it to be volunteer work. In highschool, I volunteered time to code a site for a local church, since I needed volunteer hours to get into National Honor's Society. I preferred coding over raking leaves, so it was an ideal arrangement. -I don't think you are exploiting them. It is clearly a volunteer arrangement. And it sounds like they volunteered so that they could keep the site running/functional. -If you still feel bad about it, pay them. I'm sure they won't mind. Make it a learning experience and go through salary/contract negotiations or something.