Photographing for nonprofits: giving your time

Level: intermediate to professional.

A significant share of my proceeds goes to charities I work with, including Honor Flight, Operation Patriot and The Dirt Road Project. If you want to do the same, giving your time is generous, and it helps most when you bring the care you’d give a paying client.

Talk to the organisation before the day and find out what they need the pictures for, whether that’s a fundraising page, a newsletter, social posts or a report. Then agree the date, how long you’ll stay, how many edited photos you’ll deliver and when they’ll have them.

Write it in an email. Being clear on both sides avoids hard feelings later.

Decide how the charity can use the photos and how you’d like to be credited. Most are happy to use them across their own channels with a credit line. If you want to keep the right to use some pictures in your portfolio, say so up front.

The people you photograph at a nonprofit are often vulnerable, or they’re at a meaningful moment in their lives. Ask the organisation about their photo release process, and follow it. Some people can’t be photographed at all.

Treat everyone with dignity. Ask before you shoot where you can, avoid pictures that people would find embarrassing, and think about how a photo will look in a public fundraising campaign.

Send a short email to the person who handles communications or events. Say who you are, link to your work and describe what you can offer. Keep it simple: one event or one project to start. If it goes well, you can talk about doing more.

Be honest about how much time you can give. A charity would rather hear you can do two events a year than have you promise ten and disappear.

Ask for a shot list, and ask who the key people are. Arrive early and check the light. Bring backup batteries and cards. A charity is trusting you with a day they can’t repeat, so the same rules as a paid job apply.

Send the pictures when you said you would, ready to use, with a short note on how to download them. Late files lose value, because event photos are most useful soon after the event.

Ask a few small questions afterward: did the pictures work, and what would help next time?

Rules about deducting donated time or services differ, and in many places donated services aren’t deductible. If you want to give prints or a share of sales as well, an accountant can tell you how to record it.