Fundraising in my hospital - looking for advice

iludovico

iludovico

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196
Name
Davide
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi guys


I am a Consultant Surgeon in London and I was discussing with nurses and colleagues about a foundraising initiative: I was thinking to display my best (I m an amateur) pics in a simple frame and sell them for charity purposes (research etc etc).

Usually I am printing my personal ones via Loxley colour but is quite expensive if I m thinking to make some profit in favour of my initiative.

Any advice? I m looking for a website that can offer a good printing quality with some decent frame (20x30 and smaller sizes, wall mounted)

Thanks! I hope it will work!

D
 
Hi Davide

A good & worthy thing to do :)

However, as I perceive it if your aim is to make some (meaningful) profit then you need to control the cost by more than getting a cheaper print.

When you say Loxley are expensive...............what type of print are you talking about a budget C type or a more expensive Giclee print???

If you are paying them to mount and frame it, to make any profit you will likely find the price you hang them at will not be attractive to possible buyers. Therefore, perhaps your best option is to get them printed and you frame (mounted as you see fit?) them. I appreciate that your time is 'expensive' but to get the likes of Loxley to take say a £5 print then mount and frame it to a total cost of say £30, are you really going to offer that on the wall at, say, £50

Whereas, if you frame the same print in a budget frame to total cost (your free time labour vs paying a company to frame it) of say £10 to £15 means you could offer it at £30.

Just simplified suggested ways to keep costs down to raise the profit as needed.

HTH :)

PS Without knowing just what quality of print and framing and the hung price you are planning it is not straightforward to make suggestions ;) NB all about the budget & target price!
 
Dear Box

Thanks a million for your reply. You advices were precious.

I truly don't have a clue about budget C type or Giclee etc etc. I m looking to print these photos in the most balanced way in terms of costs and quality. I have mine done with Loxley on aluminium and I m really happy but of course is well beyond my budget and most of NHS attendees

Where should I look in the Loxley website to have a right compromise between quality and price?

Can you advice a place where I can buy good quality frames? on Ebay a 20x30 is about 15gbp.

I think I have to consider smaller size than the standard 20x30, probably will be easier for a "customer". I think a selling price should be around 30-35gbp
 
Better to just donate a percentage of your wage instead.
 
LOL

Most people do cake sales.
This sounds like a welcome change to the usual, but is quite labour intensive :D

I'm going along to a pole dancing event next week to take some pics for them.
Honestly, it is a charity event!
 
kendo1 said:
LOL

Most people do cake sales.
This sounds like a welcome change to the usual, but is quite labour intensive :D

I'm going along to a pole dancing event next week to take some pics for them.
Honestly, it is a charity event!
Click to expand...

Of course the Poles have been an established part of the UK population since WW2 (their contribution should not be forgotten) so not odd at all if that community holds dances to raise money for charity :) ;)
 
I volunteer for an organisation and we have sold prints to raise funds - some, but not all are my images - printed with permission of course.

I get them printed locally - either A4 or A3. I buy mounts from Amazon (either 12x16" or 20x16" mounts with just smaller than A4/A3 aperture) which come with backing board and cellophane wrapper. There are various sellers and the quality can vary. I put four in frames which I purchased from Readers Interiors, for demonstration purposes really, but we have sold these too.

When I first started doing it, it took me ages, but that was partly because the first mounts I bought were a tight fit - very little leeway around the edge of the print. I am quicker now, but it does take time.

I could print them myself as I have a pigment ink printer, but I prefer to get them done locally as all the expenses are more easily accounted for.

Although these have and are still raising money, I've found card sales to be easier - less labour intensive - and seem to be steady sellers.
 
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Just to add.... frames can be a very personal thing - they need to fit the interior decor e.g. modern/traditional, wooden/metal, colour? etc.. as well as suit the image.

We felt that there was less profit to be had on the frames, and it also required more labour to frame them. So, we chose to display two framed images of each size.

If you are planning on putting images for sale on the wall, then you would have to frame them, but you could give a price for mounted only as an option.
 
@Bebop

Out of curiosity & interest who do you use for printing the larger prints and is it the same printer for the cards (greetings type notelet cards?) and do they supply them with envelope & in cellophane sleeve???

TIA :)
 
Box Brownie said:
@Bebop

Out of curiosity & interest who do you use for printing the larger prints and is it the same printer for the cards (greetings type notelet cards?) and do they supply them with envelope & in cellophane sleeve???

TIA :)
Click to expand...
I use a local photographic shop to do the A3/A4 images and a different local commercial printing company that uses CMYK for the cards (can't remember what you call this sort of printing?? Not photographic anyway). The A3/A4 are only printed in small numbers - partly because we don't have an easy way to display and sell them - usually it's at events. The card printers give us a good price on printing the cards because we are a charity, and also we order them by the 1,000 usually. I researched quite a few companies - it has been a learning curve!

I buy the cellophane wrappers for the cards from eBay. The printers were supplying the envelopes, but these have now been sourced separately. They are a little more expensive this way, but a better fit and easier to display - finding display options was a bit of a headache!

I have to fold and bag all the cards. Strangely, it can be quite therapeutic! :D

We don't make masses of money selling cards, but it's a steady income and it's much easier than bag packing or shaking tins and probably more lucrative. Plus people get something for their money.
 
Bebop said:
I use a local photographic shop to do the A3/A4 images and a different local commercial printing company that uses CMYK for the cards (can't remember what you call this sort of printing?? Not photographic anyway). The A3/A4 are only printed in small numbers - partly because we don't have an easy way to display and sell them - usually it's at events. The card printers give us a good price on printing the cards because we are a charity, and also we order them by the 1,000 usually. I researched quite a few companies - it has been a learning curve!

I buy the cellophane wrappers for the cards from eBay. The printers were supplying the envelopes, but these have now been sourced separately. They are a little more expensive this way, but a better fit and easier to display - finding display options was a bit of a headache!

I have to fold and bag all the cards. Strangely, it can be quite therapeutic! :D

We don't make masses of money selling cards, but it's a steady income and it's much easier than bag packing or shaking tins and probably more lucrative. Plus people get something for their money.
Click to expand...


Thanks a lot Bepop. Your contribution is important. I m still in the learning phase. I was thinking to expose 15-20 of my pictures on the ward in my Unit ready to be taken by the generous customer. Cards is also a good idea! I ll have a look and try to get some quotation. Of course the whole process for me has to pass throught the Charity commitee in my Trust (typical tons of paperwork). Will see.
 
iludovico said:
Cards is also a good idea!
Click to expand...

Also calendars. Our village trust makes quite a bit of money from Christmas card sales and calendars. You need to get your act together early though. Prices are much more affordable to the average punter, and a calendar makes a nice gift.
 
iludovico said:
Thanks a lot Bepop. Your contribution is important. I m still in the learning phase. I was thinking to expose 15-20 of my pictures on the ward in my Unit ready to be taken by the generous customer. Cards is also a good idea! I ll have a look and try to get some quotation. Of course the whole process for me has to pass throught the Charity commitee in my Trust (typical tons of paperwork). Will see.
Click to expand...
I was in the same position. I did the legwork researching and then it had all to be agreed by committee.

Check who does the printing for the hospital as they may be able to give you a good deal for cards - not sure if they'd do photo printing. I use the printer that does the local NHS printing for my cards.

If you have wall space, your prints can decorate the wall whilst you wait for sales, so definitely worth trying. We don't have a good sales outlet for prints other than the odd fundraising event, and in between times they, and all the mounting paraphernalia are a bit of a pain to store, to be honest. At one point I did swear I'd never do it again :D

Not sure if cards would be easy to have a sales point for you, but definitely less effort once you've got it all set up.

I think people are happy to donate a few £s on cards, but prints are more of a long term commitment and more expensive, although may earn more. Good luck!
 
A bit of a late reply but me and a friend from work have just done the same thing for a charity event...we had a folder of A4 prints available, with 6 framed prints on display. Then we offered an order form where people selected the print they wanted, whether they wanted print only or the colour of print. Once all orders are in (it was only a short event) we did a batch order of whatever we needed to to complete the orders.

This meant we kept initial costs down and only order stock which was actually sold...and it turned out very sucessfully :)
 
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