The Airs

Donations, donations, donations…..

Richard Charpentier Notes from Rich 1 Comment

Every year folks roll through the gallery and request donations.  The number of causes I hear about is mind boggling.  And of course you do want to help out where you can.  But really, as a small business owner you can only do so much.

Normally requests are for artwork to auction off at a silent auction (or a noisy auction).  Folks requesting donations always offer the same carrot.  “It will get you exposure.  It’ll bring people into the shop.  We’ll help get your name out there……..”

If you recall the “Should I work for free” flow chart from a few months back all of these statements go right along with requests for free work.  And normally no real exposure comes out of it. 

Unfortunately, in my case, I can tell you that I’ve never gained a single client through donating to a charity.  So when I donate it’s because the cause is of interest to me.  Pretty simple.

To other small business owners out there, how do you handle donation requests?  Personally I have 4 things I donate to each year.  Once the 4 limit is reached I’m done.  Especially in these economic times where sometimes I wish someone would donate to my business to keep it afloat (July & August).

Comments 1

  1. You’ll be happy to know that the two photographers who just accompanied me to Montana’s Wildhorse Island follow your blog and have been particularly interested in your “great” HDR images. They’re from Idaho, me from Montana, so you get a diverse following just from this random sampling.

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