Once again, I have been contacted through Gigmasters by the same organization that asked me last year to donate my time to helping kids for cancer… I remember well the dust up that happened after that whole episode.

PLEASE ENTERTAINERS, MEMORIZE THIS AND STOP TAKING GIGS LIKE THIS FOR “EXPOSURE”. –

Hello. Although I think what you are doing is wonderful you really shouldn’t be trying to get people to donate their time to your organization for free. It would be one thing if your claim of “being tax deductible” were true. Unfortunately, it’s not. The IRS only allows us to write off the cost of our materials, which for a caricature artist like myself, might be about $2.50 total. If I might make a suggestion… Please find an actual sponsor to sponsor your entertainment for the fundraiser. There are many people or businesses that would jump at the chance because unlike the entertainers, they actually CAN write it off. That way, you’d get the entertainer you would like, the sponsor could get a tax write off (and feel good about the donation) and the entertainer can get paid! The only alternative is for you to pay the entertainer their full pay and then they could in turn donate it (If they felt like contributing) and THEN they could receive the write off. Unfortunately, this is still hard on the entertainer because oftentimes, all of our business for the week happens on the same days around the same time of day, which means they would be putting off a paying customer to donate to your cause. It also happens that we are bombarded with offers like this and many of us feel that no matter how worthy the cause is, it is our preference to donate our time, money and efforts to those organizations we choose, rather than those that choose us. In case you were not aware, the gigmasters service is a pay service. That is to say that we, the entertainers pay for the service to generate our leads so we can work and find potential customers. If you would like to actually offer to pay the entertainers via a sponsor as I suggested, please do continue to contact entertainers this way, otherwise your request should not be posted by the site as they actually take a cut of the profit of the entertainer to refer the customer to them. I am just letting you know so that you can be more successful in your efforts to acquire entertainment for your organization in the future. Thanks, and sorry, I am not interested in donating my time but I am available and would be happy to help should you choose to find a sponsor.