What would you do?

[Debbi]

I received an email from "the president of a local non-profit professional society" inquiring about a high-resolution copy of my FTW skyline pic to use in their website banner. Not sure how to handle this request or what to even ask. They may be non-profit but I am not. Besides, I did my good deed on this one by offering up a framed copy to the mayor of FTW. Any suggestions?

TIA.

[hotshot38]

Ask him how much HE gets paid to work for a non-profit.

[JohnT]

Ask him to make an offer and see what he says.

[Debbi]

I hear you! He is not specifically asking for it free but said that he is "interested in using the image as part of our website banner. Please let me know if this might work." Very interesting thing is the company he is "representing" per the email/physical address is part of a publicly traded company with over 57K employees and revenues exceeding $11B. This will NOT be a freebie.

[MHampton]

My first thing would be to check out the group and decide if it is a group that I would want to support or not. If you "donated" the picture to them and they really are a 501(c)(3) organization, you could at least get a tax right off out of the deal.

[JohnT]

Keep in mind—and I think this is correct—that "non-profit" simply means the organization can't show a profit at the end of their fiscal year (or that might be tax year). However, this doesn't mean they don't have money with which to work.

[Debbi]

True, John. This just caught me off balance. I haven't really done anything with photography this year and that particular image has been on my website and photobucket for 3-4 years now.

[toverman]

The guy might volunteer with the nonprofit, but have a full-time job elsewhere. This is just a guess, though. Another guess is that they're not going to want to pay usage rights for the photo, but I think you should seek them first. You never know. If it's a group you can support, maybe see if they will give you a photo credit and link to your Web site.

[CaptainTom]

I'd ask for $1000. However, I think you should ask them what their budget is and see if you can work within it.

As someone else said, just because they are not for profit doesn't mean they don't have any money. They have to spend all their profit and some of it might as well be for this image they want.

[Debbi]

Thanks, Todd and Tom! Very good advice and I do appreciate it.

[bondarnes]

Originally Posted by MHampton

My first thing would be to check out the group and decide if it is a group that I would want to support or not. If you "donated" the picture to them and they really are a 501(c)(3) organization, you could at least get a tax right off out of the deal.

If you give them a print you can deduct your actual cost of having the print made. If you upload a file to them there is nothing you can deduct since no expenses were incurred.

[Debbi]

Well, how about cash, photo credit and a link to my website?! Not a bad deal in my opinion. The "banner" is the top third of their site and it shows up on each and every page. The credit and link would be placed by their disclaimer so it would also show up on every page. Non-exclusive agreement so I think it's good all the way around, especially for a photo I took for myself. Thanks again everyone.