Giving Back Update

Good Morning everyone.

I am sure so many of you have already reached out to your community, thinking about something that you could do in giving back to the community.

Yes it is a great way to help a company that might not have the skills or even the budget to raise funds for their cause. They might just be starting out or the work they do might not be as glamorous or exciting as everyone would like them to be.

The reason we give back is first and foremost to help a cause that we believe in. Don't ask a company with the sole intention of you been the only beneficiary. How can you use your craft to better help the company that you are photographing increase their presence in the market place? How can you make their lives better? Are you able to raise additional funds for the business?

If you can help them answer just one of those questions then I am sure you are making a difference.

Now, if you have not found something to contribute to then may I suggest you send a message or post through Facebook. I sent such a post through Facebook just over a month ago and a client I just photographed forwarded the post to someone that they knew and that is how I found my first charity organization.

A director from the Schwartz Organization  sent me an email and wanted to know if I was available to photograph one of their gala evening presentations.

Well, if this is the first time that you are giving back to the community it might be the ideal way to see how everything works with regards to giving back. I asked them what they required? They wanted a few photographs of all the people attending and that is all that they required. It was a simple yet easy way to get myself some exposure.

Now the important question you need to ask when you are doing something for the community. The question is not "How can I benefit from something like this?" The question you need to ask is ,

"Is their a way I can leverage your event to let people know about me as a photographer?" You can always phrase the words a little better. (I know I am not the best with words.) But by asking this question you are ensuring that you get something from doing some photographs for the event.

The response that I got was, "There are going to be about 350 gift basket for all those that donated to the organization and you can add your promotional cards to that basket." That is just what I wanted. I got to add one of my professionally made postcards with some of my best photographs on it, into a gift basket of some of the more generous donors in the community.

I was getting access to a marketing list that is not often available to a local photographer. Don't you think that that is worth 2 hours of your time?

So, I recommend you try Facebook or any other form of social networking to find some contacts. You will never know what will come from it. It is a great place to start and the important part of this exercise is making contacts. You are building your database of contacts for the future.

So have fun out there and don't worry too much about find the perfect charity or organization, but rather find an organization where you know you can make the most impact no matter what it is.

Happy shooting and we will speak again soon.

Denzil