Why I don’t shoot non profit events anymore?
In the past, I have spent a lot of my time and energy on volunteering to shoot events for non profits. I no longer do that. I will donate available prints that I have on hand, for a fund raiser from time to time and /or I may volunteer as a regular volunteer. However, I no longer shoot events for them as a volunteer.
Why?
1 Non profits will pay for a venue, marketing and various other things needed for their one day event ( most are one days, some may be longer). However, they rarely budget in for a photographer..but, yet, they want to use the photographers images, as commercial use, long after the event is over.
2 The event venue gets paid for their one day of use, the marketing and everything else got paid for their one day of use…but the photographer? They expect their services for free and expect to use their images to promote their org and other events ( commercial use), long after the event is over, all for free.
3 They are asking photographers to give up their time that they can be using for profitable shoots.
4. Contrary to popular belief, a photographer cannot write off their time shooting an event on their taxes.
5. My volunteer work has never ever resulted in any kind of sales or bookings for me. The “exposure” was useless. “Exposure” is just a term people like to use to try and get photography services for free.
6. Speaking of exposure, exposure does not pay bills. The event venue and the other vendors that they pay get to pay their bills but the org doesn’t think the photographer deserves that same luxury.
7. Shooting events is hard—and it is long. The photographers also have to spend days, if not weeks, after the event processing all their images. The venue and other vendors, that are paid, get to finish with the event the same day of. However, the photographer, that does not get paid, has to continue to work long after the event is actually over. The time they are using to process those images is time they can use to spend with their families or time used to make a profit for their business.
8. Most non profs take photographers for granted a lot and don’t appreciate all the work it takes for the tog to shoot their events–and they did not understand copyright laws. Some actually think they own the copyright to the photographers images. ( NOT!)
9. Exposure doesn’t pay bills?
10. Did I mention exposure doesn’t pay bills?
Why do non profits think that its ok for photographers to get screwed?
As I said, I will donate a print that I have available or even volunteer as a regular volunteer but I will not shoot for free.
I would also let them hire me for the event. However, since I am not a non profit and have bills to pay, I will not give them a special “non profit” discount either. It s great and admirable when an org chooses to be a non profit. However, that doesn’t automatically mean that everyone owes them a discount because they choose that route.
Trust me. Just because an org is a non prof, doesn’t mean they are broke and can’t afford to budget in a photographer, along with everything else needed for their event.