Florist Requesting Donations?

3rdcoast85 · January 2014

Our florist - a personal friend - operates her business in a different way: The client pays (wholesale) for the flowers & all the materials. For her fee, she requests a donation to be made to the Church to support her son's Ministry - a Mission in the Equadorian jungle.

I asked her what is the customary donation amount and she replied, "Whatever you think is fair.". I have no clue as to what would be considered "fair"! Any suggestions?

MayDay513 · January 2014

3rdcoast85 said:

Our florist - a personal friend - operates her business in a different way: The client pays (wholesale) for the flowers & all the materials. For her fee, she requests a donation to be made to the Church to support her son's Ministry - a Mission in the Equadorian jungle. I asked her what is the customary donation amount and she replied, "Whatever you think is fair.". I have no clue as to what would be considered "fair"! Any suggestions?

This is hard. If I were to do this, I would contribute about $18 an hour for her time and effort. Will she be coming to set up at the wedding too?

[Deleted User] · January 2014

Can you ask her approximately how much time she expects to put into getting your supplies & putting the arrangements together? Then maybe come up with an hour rate (I would say min. wage at the very least even though I know a good florist is worth more then that) times the amount of time she expects to spend doing your flowers for you. I think that would be a fair way to come to a donation amount. If after getting your flowers you are super impressed with what she did & the flowers exceeded your expectations and you feel you should have donated more, you can always make another donation.

sarahufl · January 2014

It is a little strange. How much were you budgeting for flowers? Maybe pay that?

RebeccaB88 · January 2014

I wouldn't hire a florist who worked like that. Terribly unprofessional IMHO. And if I didn't support his cause, I would tell her I wasn't making a donation because of that. And if I knew anything I paid her was going to that cause, I'd probably find a new florist anyway. Does she give out receipts for the donations for taxes? Is his cause a 501C3 organization? If not, I'd find it even more shady.

Jen4948 · January 2014

This is unprofessional. She has no business asking for charitable contributions in lieu of professional fees.

I think 0 is fair as a fee if you don't support her church or her son's ministry. She should charge you a professional fee. What she chooses to do with it later is her own business.

Maggie0829 · January 2014

That is an odd way to do business. Anyway since you would be making this donation directly you give what you want to give. There is no right or wrong amount.

Does she get a lot of business? Because I could see this type of thing causing a lot of people to not use her mainly because they may not want to support her cause.

QueerFemme · January 2014

That is ridiculous. There is no way I'd hire her to do my flowers, personal friend or not. If you insist on using her, I'd tell her "I'm not comfortable making a donation directly to a charity. Please tell me what your fee will be, and you are free to do whatever you'd like with the money".

phira · January 2014

I think that's actually terrifically unprofessional. An easy fix for her, business-wise, would be to charge for the cost of flowers and materials, charge for labor, and then donate the labor charge herself. So if your flowers and materials cost $300, she can charge you $400.

In your shoes, I would not take advantage of her offer. I would not donate to that church, so I'd therefore feel too uncomfortable having her essentially do free labor, since I wouldn't be donating.

3rdcoast85 · January 2014

The florist is a long-time friend who started the business just as a way to help her son's ministry. She would only work with friends from the Church who also supported this ministry, so there's no conflict of interest. The donations are made to the Church and forwarded to the Mission, so we would be getting a tax receipt. I'm sorry I neglected to clarify that.

Her work is just stunningly beautiful, so she is beginning to get requests from people outside the Church and her circle of friends. She told me that she will no longer work for donations (after my daughter's wedding) - that she will be launching a professional business.

You've all had some very good suggestions - thank you! I think I will just donate the amount that we budgeted for flowers- it is a reasonable budget for our area (things here in South Texas are a real bargain!). She also offered to act as the DOC, so I'll donate that as well. Yay - two more things to cross off the list!

Florist Requesting Donations?

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