As anyone who is a small business owner knows, you could book yourself solid with "donations of your time" .... this is not to say that we don't want to support charities. Quite the opposite in fact, we love helping charities. Charity work IS great exposure... potential customers LOVE to see that you support their preferred charity and would rather hire you based on that. HOWEVER, you have a business to run! You aren't just "donating your time" as you well know. You are booking yourself during time when you could be doing paid work, you are probably using supplies (balloons, face painting, etc) that cost you money, you are definitely using up gas in your car, wear and tear on your costume and/or props, and using up your own makeup. You can of course choose to donate all of these costs if you would like to a charity of your choice, but you can't do it for everyone that asks.
So, do you just choose one or two to make those donations to or do you find some other way to help out the charities without bankrupting yourself? Not all charities will take you up on these offers, but some will and you can feel good that you are helping out their events, getting some visibility (while not devaluing your services), and still making a little money for your work. Don't feel bad charging them something, they have to pay for other things too... halls will usually give them free rent, but only if they sell a certain number of plates of food at the event... that kind of thing.
I offer my services to ONE charity free every year. My husband is involved with the Returns for Leukemia bottle drive at Ontario locations of The Beer Store and I help out with those events.
For all other charities, these are the options:
- Donate a Gift Certificate to their auctions - I often donate a $50 gift certificate to charity events that are not looking for me to be present during their event. Since my smallest party packages are $75, it means that I will still be making some money from any bookings that result from this. To be completely honest, I've given out at least 20 of these and have only ever redeemed ONE of them. But it gets your name out there and someone probably gave the charity some money in exchange for it.
- Discounted Hourly Rates - Take off a percentage of your usual hourly rate to accommodate their reduced available funds. You decide how much you are willing to take off, it really is up to you and it doesn't have to be a huge amount. They can charge for tickets at their own rates, but many charities want your services to be free so that their patrons will donate all the money they brought.
- Charge the public and give some back - I often do face painting and charge the public at fundraiser events, then give the charity a percentage of the money. They don't have to put anything out of their budget (you are raising money for them instead), but you are getting compensated for materials used. There is a bit of risk involved with this as you are still using up time, gas and costume wear and tear at the chance that you won't make any money (or at least not very much), but many charities prefer this option because it makes them money instead of costing them money. Be sure to put out a sign that says "X% will be donated to XYZ today!" Again, the amount of the percentage is up to you and what you feel you can afford. I recently changed mine because I have gotten so busy that I'm turning down multiple paid events because I already agreed to appear at charity events (it is now costing me money, so I needed to be making a little more from the charity events than I was).
I hope this has been a helpful and informative article for you. Don't feel bad charging something, you need to eat too. Here's an amusing video: Donating Clown Services
Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown :oD
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