Our office team gets calls asking us to “donate our time” or “provide free face painting” daily, so we finally wanted to blog about it. We love working for nonprofits–actually, we specialize in it! But a lot of these types of phone calls end in this: “I think we’ll just have our volunteers do it.”
It’s tempting (we know) to get a service done for free when you’re on a limited budget.
Hiring Kaleidoscope almost always mean you can actually make money off of face painting, but it’s still a leap of faith. So if your organization is still looking to get free face painting, here are a few tips from the professionals on making sure your event’s face paint isn’t a disaster:
1. Use safe products.
The biggest face painting rule is this: don’t hurt anybody!
This might sound silly (what are you going to do, poke them with a paintbrush?) but nothing is more important than the safety of the kids in our chairs. Kaleidoscope only uses FDA-approved cosmetics that are safe for all skin types. Volunteers who use acrylics or dollar-store face paint can lead to serious allergic reactions, rashes, and even scarring in some instances.
Acrylics or tempra paints often have cancer-causing ingredients on them since they’re not meant to be on skin. Always make sure you use FDA-approved makeup (it should say so right on the packaging) and nothing else! Walmart or dollar-store brands will often come with warnings such as “don’t apply near eyes”, so again: just read the packaging. (If the package doesn’t say anything, assume they’re hiding something. Sad, but true!)
2. Be clean.
Germs, viruses, and worse can be transferred by dirty equipment.
Kaleidoscope always uses a fresh sponge for every kid, washes brushes between kids, and regularly clean and sanitizes our kits. Make sure you have more than enough sponges and disinfectant for everyone you’ll be painting.
3. Figure out how many you can do in an hour.
Our speedy face paint packages quote up to 30 faces per hour (which comes down to about 2 minutes per face). Most first-time volunteers assume this is easy, so to prepare yourself set an hour and grab some kids and see how many designs you can do per hour.
In our experience, volunteers will only get 5-8 faces painted per hour per volunteer. When you’re organizing an event, think about how many kids will be there–and that’s how you determine the number of volunteers you will need.
4. Know your limitations.
If you can’t draw or have never done this before, get a sign with a few simple words with what you will do: heart, start, letter, or balloons.
Kids have seen glittering fairies and full-face tigers at other events or online, and many will even have a favorite design they get painted on them every year at the fair. Without a simple design, volunteers are normally buried in requests for mermaids, superheroes, and exotic animals.
Adding your limited design to a sign will help keep them from getting disappointed and keep your line moving faster.
5. Have a good work setup.
Will the sun be moving either in your eyes or to bake you in the summer heat? Do you have a tent in case it rains? Do you have enough chairs and large enough tables? Who is going to manage your line once it gets long? Try to run in everything that you could need through your head and prepare the best you can!
Remember: adding professional face painters to an event actually helps you raise money! We have worked with national non-profits, local schools, community churches, and hundreds of volunteer organizations of every sort. Our staff knows how to make sure we are an investment for you (not an expense) and that your guests will leave smiling. Get a quote from us today!
Categories: Party Planning Help