The non-vanishing conjecture states that if \((X,B)\) is projective log canonical pair such that \(K_X+B\) is pseudo-effective, then there exists an effective \(\mathbb R\)-divisor \(D\) such that \(K_X+B\sim _{\mathbb R}D\). In this paper, the author shows that in order to prove this conjecture, it suffices to prove the analogous statement when \(X\) is a smooth projective variety and \(B=0\).