How much to bid per child in School contract?

[Paul Kuroda]

My kids' school district is looking for me to give them a bid to shoot 400 kids and need a kid per price. No reprints, they just want a single overmatted 8x10 to be used as a fund raiser.

Having never done such a thing before, I'm seeking you advice to how you would price it if that is at all possible. They hope to "auction" each portrait for around $50-60 and have other local photographers bidding. I'll have some volunteers to help organize the prints.

Thanks,
Paul

[ChrisPerry]

Do you want the job? If it's a fundraiser and you believe in the cause then bid low. If it's a PITA then big high to make it worth your while.

So are supplying prints or just files? If it's prints, then you know your cost on that.
Any retouching or can you do this straight from finished JPGs? (less work of course)
How long will it take, or do you have, to shoot 400 kids? Any remake/retake/make-up days?

I'd figure the time it would take me and mulitply that by my hourly price. for a fundraiser I'd to the prints at 'cost' (most likely 10-15% over my actual print cost).

things that might modify my pricing - is it in january or feb when things are slow? Will it give me any marketing benefits? (to the parents, to getting sports teams, etc) Do I believe in the cause they're raising money for?

[DougAxford]

If they think they will get $50 to $60. for an 8x10, they're completely off their rockers!!! Too much Christmas cheer in their heads.

I'd run, fast. Lucky if they average $10.

Sorry for being so negative but this one has red flags - 400 of them. BTW, I'd check to see if Lifetouch or whoever has the photo contract is aware of this. In every school I know, this would violate the contract.

As a serious answer - if you really have to, I'd bid: labor cost for all your staff and time at cost x2 plus print cost x 2. If you are in a huge profit situation for the year, bid $20. each and donate 100% of it back to the school with a charitable receipt issued based on $8,000.

Please let us know how this ends up.

Doug

[michaelnotar]

just seeing the lifetouch point, curious to know what happens if the school hires another photog with a contract to them. i think i recall lifetouch or whomever doing all my portraits in school.

[Richard_Coyle]

And if you find there's no contract violation/conflict with this work, make sure you have your own contract with the school, with the necessary liability and other waivers, including students and support staff/volunteers! Good luck!

[Paul Kuroda]

Last year fund raising auction...all 400 prints sold between $40 to $95. This year the reserve will be raised and hopefully the prices will go above $100. Prof. portraits would be $95/8x10 in my studio and is not unusual for this area. Auction prices do go above retail at this fund raiser since it is for the schools in a desirable area. I'll take your responses in consideration.
Thank you.

[DougAxford]

OK Paul, I admit complete failure on my answer. I still think they are nuts, but the customer is always right.

I've never heard of this so I appreciate knowing about it. It will be stored somewhere up in my cranium forever. If I thought that there was a hope in h*** that I could do that locally and get more than $15, I'd consider it. Perhaps our schools are not full of families as dedicated to fund raising. We rarely can get schools to allow us to do family portraits as fund raisers and THAT should be worth what you're getting for one student 8x10.

Back to your question: I can easily photograph 400 kids in one 4.5 hour school day (you cannot photograph during the full school day due to a whole host of issues). If I had to take portraits of each student, I would guess that I'd need 3 days. The bigger question that I would point out is this: can you count on any residual business if you do a good job. My answer is: if you are relatively new or unknown, yes; if you are well known, no. We've sent out thousands of family portrait coupons with our summer sports photos and get .1% response. We stopped because the profit from the resulting portraits did not cover the cost of us printing the coupons ourselves.

Back to school fund raisers: Actually our government is starting to crack down on fund raising because it favors wealthy school districts having better equipped schools than poorer districts. They also passed a law last week prohibiting vending machines with junk food and coke in them on school property. That was a huge fund raiser for the schools. No comment on our socialist gov't.

Doug

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