Dilemma

Last december, I volunteered to take pictures of the kindergarten class from my daughter's classroom. There were about 15 kids I took pictures of, doing the alphabet of sign language. The project was a hit. I put together their photos and their hands into alphabet and in the fundraising auction, it was the hottest class item and sold for $1500!!!

When they had this printed, I put it in my webpage with original protected, so they ordered it at a base price, now I set it up more for the profit, after the fundraising is done.

Now, they asked me if they could make poster prints at the local store to be given to the parents ...

THe question is... if put about 40 hours work to put them together, for free for this school. My daughter is no longer at this school, we still love this school. We moved.
Should I get any profit from this work I made ? SHould I sell the digital file, or should I talk to them and ask for the percentage profit ? What do you think I should do ?
I planned not to get any money for the fundraising, I did it for the school, but now I think I should get some money from it. Definitely they loved my artwork...

If I should charge, how much should I charge ? Please help.

Fundraising is one thing, the SCHOOL made $1500 and I think that is fantastic.

This does not mean the parents should get freebies, considering someone else paid $1500 for it!

I think you should sell the posters to the parents, and maybe give a % of the money to the school as donation. Otherwise consider selling the digital file, but don't give it away...

I agree, don't give it away.

this is a dilemma. it seems like you were fine donating your time before the project but once you realized what a hit it was you are trying to figure out how to make money from it. on the other hand, you didn't expect any more more than the initial fundraising effort.

how much extra time is this on top of what you originally donated?

what about giving away the rest to parents if they agree to let you use the images of their kids commercially? you may be able to make some more money off of this than just the parents at the school.

I put on 20 hours of work on this piece of art. I had no problem having them for free for the auction, but they asked the digital file for them to print it out so they can sell it to parents.

I offered them to order it straight from my webpage (original protected file), if they decided to buy as batch then sell it for more profit, I have no problem or the parents can order it straight from me.

Do you think it's better ?

Very good points Joe.....but let's try to view this in the proper perspective. I'm all for donating to fundraisers and give my time and talent regularly to some favorite organizations. I think it's wonderful that she made them that much money.

That being said, her child is no longer there and they have moved away.

I don't know that I would sell the digital file. That pretty much gives the store away, or puts a price tag on it that may be too steep for them. I think continued support is a good thing. At the same time "Free" seems to devalue art, effort, and talent in a lot of folk's minds.

So if I understand correctly, the store will make a bazillion copies of this and give it to anybody who asks?

I'm for generosity but at the same time feel you should get some sort of fee, royalty... call it some sort of compensation. It should not be a gouge though. Perhaps license the image for a modest fee. Sure, you didn't expect it to take off like it did, but it was quite successful - that's wonderful - and we don't always foresee how a project will work out. but the store will benefit by "handing out" your work by getting people in there, and there may be some other benefits as.

You should be rewarded in some modest fashion - I just don't know what that "reward" should be. My .02 - Stu

CosmoKid wrote in post #10081840
this is a dilemma. it seems like you were fine donating your time before the project but once you realized what a hit it was you are trying to figure out how to make money from it. on the other hand, you didn't expect any more more than the initial fundraising effort.

how much extra time is this on top of what you originally donated?

IT's tough, isn't it ?

I also found out that when they put the flyer for the live action, they didn't put my name on it, while they put other parents' name who donated the live action. I felt I was not appreciated.

And of course, when we feel we are taken for granted and under appreciated "after all it's digital, and real easy since there's no film and anybody can do it..." we tend to feel less generous. This is a major problem with the public, especially when things are given away.....

blissonearth wrote in post #10082034
IT's tough, isn't it ?

I also found out that when they put the flyer for the live action, they didn't put my name on it, while they put other parents' name who donated the live action. I felt I was not appreciated.

I would go for the middle ground here - give them a reasonable rate for the files (after all you are no longer involved in the school so the files will have no subsequent use for you unless you have all the kids' parents signing releases for commercial use).

i wouldn't want to give them away free though.

Credit is always a funny one- its nice to be appreciated but it doesn't do anything but give you a warm feeling.

None of the kids can be made out in the photos, correct? is it a picture of the kids using each letter of the alphabet or is it specifically of their hands with the kids faces not visible?

this may be marketable way past just this one school district if it is the latter. sign language is something taught to infants lately. my kids are 20 months and have been using sign for almost a year. it's a craze in parenting right now.

this may be marketable to school districts across the county.

i would not give away the digital file but I would have the school promote the poster with a sizable discount with code XXXX and a link to purchase it. or give them the choice to not have a discount code and you will donate a percentage back to the school district.

heck, you could do individual letters of the alphabet on index cards that are 2 sided. side one being the sign and side 2 the letter and sell them a box of index cards.

if the poster has the images of the children you will have to approach this differently. then i may just trade a model release for a poster and a percentage of future profits (small one) if marketing this past the one school is an aspiration for you.

but i do think this could be bigger than one school district.