How would you respond to this?

[STEVE HANLEY]

Just got this enquiry through about an hour ago from a large nationwide coporate recruitment agency. Copied and pasted straight from email.

HiI was wondering if you could help.I am organising a charity event in order to raise money for Ethiopiaid.They event will be on the 27th Aug at **** Rugby Club. I need a dj to cover the following in bold:Start time (approx 6-7 to be confirmed) till 8.30 ishThen raffle etc will take placeThen singer for approx 5 songsThen Last section of night 9.45 ish till finish. Could you please provide me with a quote for this. As you will appreciate Iam trying to get it as cheap as possible as all costs will come out of thecharity money raised and I have been set a target of £2000 before I travelto Ethiopia in November. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind Regards

Now I'm all for helping charities out, but where do you draw the line?:shrug:

[Sapphire Disco]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me who's paying for their air fare to Ethiopia and back , coming out of funds raised ?

[Javlingames]

Cant you say that you already give to a charity but in this instance you will offer them a 20% reduction therefore the fee will be £300 or whatever you want to charge.

[funkymook]

I have decided that unless there is a significant personal interest or benefit in me doing a free charity gig (usually do a couple a year that fall into that category) I just give them a favourable quote.

I usually say something like:

'I have unfortunately reached the limit of my free charity events for this financial year but I can offer you a discounted rate of ££££.'

and price it at whatever you would be happy to do it for. If you really don't want to reduced you're fee then same sort of response without the offer.

The same email would have gone out to lots of people and many won't bother replying, so don't feel emotionally obliged to help if it doesn't touch you in some way.

[funkymook]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me who's paying for their air fare to Ethiopia and back , coming out of funds raised ?

Most airlines have a charity section that will consider free or greatly reduced air fares for good causes - I worked closely with mine at BA when I DJ'd some of our fund raisers.

It was an eye opener when we had celebrities booked to make an appearance - they charged a decent fee (naively I always thought they did it for nothing), but their names helped sell tickets to the events.

[STEVE HANLEY]

Cant you say that you already give to a charity but in this instance you will offer them a 20% reduction therefore the fee will be £300 or whatever you want to charge.

Hi James

I've tried that tactic before mate;) I can't recall a single instance where it's gone on to secure me the booking:( :(


I have decided that unless there is a significant personal interest or benefit in me doing a free charity gig (usually do a couple a year that fall into that category) I just give them a favourable quote.

I usually say something like:

'I have unfortunately reached the limit of my free charity events for this financial year but I can offer you a discounted rate of ££££.'

and price it at whatever you would be happy to do it for. If you really don't want to reduced you're fee then same sort of response without the offer.

The same email would have gone out to lots of people and many won't bother replying, so don't feel emotionally obliged to help if it doesn't touch you in some way.

I'm still naive enough to think these things could secure me other work:daft: :daft:

[CRAZY K]

I'm still naive enough to think these things could secure me other work:daft: :daft:

Yes of a similarly badly paid nature I would suggest.

I wish people would stop trying to organise these things on the back of 60 quid sid and just organise the thing properly with sponsors and make a reasonable profit so they can pay the Entertainer a reasonable fee and get a reasonable nights Disco.

Just offer your normal fee with a small discount--I pay my dues to Charity several times a year;)