fundraisers & tips!

Hello,
So I'm going to be working for a fundraiser to help raise money for multiple sclerosis. They called & asked if I can volunteer, they will advertise my company put it on their page & I can also advertise & have a tip jar. My Question is, from the previous fundraisers you have done, do any of the parents contact you because of the Event? Another Question... Do people actually leave tips? thank you all in advance.

Yes and yes. However, in my opinion, I find it best to charge a small "materials fee". I have never, not once, had an event or fund raiser coordinator turn me down because I request a small materials fee. Face paint is not cheap and painting for free keeps people under the impression that face art is some cheap crap they can get for free. This is just MY opinion and what works for me. You are, of course, welcome do run your business however you see fit

YES, you will get exposure for this. Put your business cards on the table. You will get sick of saying "I also do parties" and pointing to your cards, but it will be well worth it.

Yes, you will most likely get tips. I know I always do. Make sure your tip jar is visible and have a nice colorful sign on it so people cant miss it.

One more thing to be wary of, volunteering to paint will bring more and more people asking you to "volunteer" your services. It can get costly to you and burn you out fast. Choose a couple of charitable causes that you want to support, and don't be afraid to turn down the rest.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!!!

i volunteered at a fair once and it was fine cus it was in a wealthy community. But! I was painting to attract attention to the booth i was volunteering for. does that make sense. well ok the problem was I was inside their booth and I had my huge tip jar & cards but, parents were sending in kids to be painted and would walk away to look at other booths close by. So I was not getting tips and it sucked cus I had a line the whole time. So maybe have a sign asking parents not to leave kids unattended and/or be close to the front of the booth so "parents" cant ignore your tip jar.

Yes and no.

People do take my card and I do get inquires and people saying they saw me at ** event. I do not work for free so am being paid to be there so do not solicit tips.

Once...just ONCE I did a charity event for no charge, worked for tips which would be split with the charity... 9 hours of painting and a total of $87.42. I kept $47.42

I saw parents giving their kids nickels... NICKELS. One dad put in a $20 for one child... bless him. And there were pennies in there too.

After that, no more freebies.

Oh my goodness Shannon! I would have been mad as hell!

In my experience, the answer is sometimes you get enquiries, but rarely get tips, if you are not charging, people assume you are being compensated some other way, and b: they don't take you seriously and you are not treated with the respect and professionalism you deserve. I learned that lesson early in my painting. I gave a 50% discount to a big local charity...and I mean big REPUTABLE charity, so I didn't make them sign a contract...d'uh. A couple of weeks before the event, the guys says, "Sorry, we have no money to pay you, but it would be great exposure for your business and we will advertise for you in our program, full page, and it's a great cause, with rich patrons...blah blah blah. In the end, I did it, because they had already been advertising using my work...but I got nothing but grief and demands from them, and $0 tips...it was a $100/plate dinner, no one carried cash. I told him as I packed up that I would not cover the cost again...he would need to budget for my services. This year, I get an email from the organizers...asking me to work for free. I said "No" and gave him my charity rate. They still tried to minimize it, get more for free, sneak more hours into the contract then we agreed on without me noticing...but I stood my ground, and 2 days before the event, he asked for another painter and agreed to pay for it. We were the hit of the night, and we made them look wonderful....but in no way would I recoup the costs of what I donated if I hadn't charged them.

Charities have money...this coming FROM charities. I'e had an executive director tell me "There is money, maybe not alot, but there is money, it is our job to get stuff for free to make that money go further, but you should get something, never do it for nothing" They need to be paying you a kit fee...or at a minimum you keep a portion of what you make and do pay per face. The ONLY time I would ever work for free is if EVERYTHING was donated...the venue, the other entertainment, the food and wait staff, all of the advertising, AND the whole committee that runs the event. If ANYONE gets paid...I don't work for free.....and guess what...since I implemented that policy...I've never worked for free, and I've never had another day where I was treated poorly or went home with $80 in my pockets after a full day.
P.S. Not one call for a party from that big event last year, but I know people remember because they were telling me how excited they were to see me again after seeing my work in pictures and on the website, and even the first time attendees were telling me how excited they were to see us. So it wasn't a quality of work issue that kept them from calling.

in my experience, the only events you get asking about booking you are more freebies.... well, you did THAT one for free....

Tips really depend on the crowd and the venue. If they are paying for other stuff too, they'll save their money for that. At this point, I could fill my entire calendar with freebies and never have time for paid stuff. So I offer 30% off hourly rates or 30% of my PPF takings. It used to be 50% but I was still too busy working for almost nothing most of the time.

The only time I've done a gig for tips it was at a PPF fair I booked last minute to fill up a Saturday and I was working with another painter who was working that way.

It was awful. At the end of the day I made enough to cover the gas to get there.

If a charity/non profit are the ones to contact me (rather than any I might contact and paint for free - certain ones that mean something to me personally) I offer two options: either a reduced rate and they can charge the participants whatever they want or I charge $6 and give the charity $2 for every face painted.

People just don't tip around here, from my experience.

And yes, I have had calls from people seeing me paint at various events.

Oh Wow, Okay so how can I tell her that the charity needs to at least cover my materials?

At the very least cover your materials, cover your insurance, cover some of the cost of your training, do you eat? You are not looking to get rich off a charity...but...what everyone is saying is true. If you work for free, you just get free advertising as a person who paints for free...but in reality, you don't paint for free...you pay for the paint. You PAY to paint. Stand up for your business, it will pay off. When ever I paint at an event that "seems free" there is a sign that says "face painting provided by..." so that patrons do not assume that nobody paid me.

I do one free event. One, it is close to my heart, and I want to do it, and I go to them. Everyone else pays. I may choose to take on a fundraiser at a reduced rate, but only if I do not have full paying gig, and only in the slow months. The longer I work, the fewer fundraisers I think I need to take, but the more calls for them I seem to get!

Value yourself, or nobody else will.

Our parent group volunteer paints at a local information fair summer - it's sponsored by the Police Officers' Guild. We paint for free and they pay for new snazaroo palettes each summer. Usually they buy about $120 worth. We don't use the palettes up and then we have them to paint at school events for the next school year - it's pretty much a win/win for us.

Caveat - as a group, we aren't professional face painters though there are several professional artists. We do this every year and get together for a couple practice nights in advance. So, even as non-professionals, donating our time, they are at least paying a supply fee.

You asked, "how do I ask them to pay a materials fee?" .... Simple: "If you want me to paint, I need you to cover the cost of my materials." Decide what that is and they pay it or you don't do the event. Stand up or lie down, but if you lie down, you're going to be treated as a door mat because you look like one.

That is totally true, I Really don't want people to think that I work for free Or that my paints cost a dime! Do u think if I ask for $100 is to much? I'm young & don't know much, I'm sorry if I'm asking dumb questions!

No question is dumb! You should ask for what you think is fair, what you think you can afford, and what you think is going to help your business. You may make mistakes, and you adjust along the way. Have you read all the tips in Shannon's Free Resources? She has been so generous to all of us by sharing so much of what she knows. Click on them up in her post.

as far as the amount, it depends on how long or how many kids, etc. I would figure out a percentage of your hourly or pay per face rates and make that your consistent charity rate, so that if someone asks you later, you can easily calculate it instead of pulling a number off the top of your head. It makes it much more specific and makes you look much more professional.