Writing an Office Public Statement to people who want free work

So right now most of the calls I receive are people who want things for free. I'm feeling really down, and discouraged. I'm having to take on a regular job in order to make ends meet. I don't know what happened. I was doing great last fall, and then it just stopped. Now everyone's calling looking for free, work, I get the it's for a good cause, etc etc.
Does anyone have an official statement,? I'm thinking it will be easier to point folks to a link or just copy and paste my policy in an email response. Just seeing if anyone had experience. I will post my statement when I'm done.

I've been telling them that my charity rate is 1/2 of my regular corporate rate of $100 per hour but that I simply can't do every charity that asks for free. Most of them are trying to run events for "zero budget" so they won't hire you but at least you've given them an option. You can add that they can still charge attendees for the face painting to offset the cost of hiring you.

It's hard. I've been in the same boat since it got warmer. Another thing to consider is that in the U.S. you CAN'T take donated services off of your income taxes. I thought you could if they were 501(c)3 but hubby looked it up and service was exempt.

I've been offering the non profit festivals to attend their event at no charge to them, that they can keep 100% of my tips, but I am going to charge per face. They want me to work for tips only, which I tell them considering all my expenses, insurance etc that I can easily walk away loosing money and it's not fair considering they are asking for my services. They still frown upon this, and still expect me to come for tips because there are plenty of hobby or artist with their acrylic paints that will paint for tips.

Don't get too discouraged....things always slow down in the winter for most painters! It's still a good sign that people are finding you to contact you...the ones with a budget will start getting through fine! Ever since I made a charity section on my website, I get less questions about it:

My Charity Page

I did one event free years ago that was a benefit for a little girl with big medical bills. Today I only paint for free for my own church events. While I usually offer a discount or offer to charge per face so they don't have to pay me, I find they usually are looking for completely free (meaning a huge loss on my part).

I have never worked for free but offer a discount at MY discretion which means only if I feel like it. Mostly I don't. I do the MS Walk here for a 40% discount (my sister has MS) and I've been doing it for about 10 years. But that is the only one who gets that big a break.

I used to get asked for "freebies" a lot but for the last, oh, six years or so that has dropped of to almost none as I am well known and it is known I don't work for free. Any calls I get are from people outside the usual circles or from people in retail who think I want to get exposure attracting customers to their stores by setting up at their events for "exposure"... ha... ha ha... not.

yeah exposure. ha ha ha. I hear that line EVERYTIME... Shannon I bought your e book on the business stuff, and I really thought it was well worth it. Just learning how to turn some of the conversations around getting sponsored, and pay at festivals. has really helped me to sound like I know what I'm doing! lol It has helped me make this transition from being a professional and just doing it on the side not too long ago.

I think it's great to do a free event here and there, especially when your really helping out something you feel is close to your heart. Just can't do every free event!

Gretchen thanks for sharing your page. I appreciate that.