Fundraising Personalized Cookbooks Become Heirlooms

How many different fundraising ideas have you seen or been involved in? Dozens, most likely. One fundraising idea that seems to consistently out perform most of the others is the personalized family cookbook. Unlike car washes in the parking lot, or door-to-door popcorn sales, the family style recipe book has been around for generations. Literally. One company of which I am aware has been publishing cookbooks for fundraisers since 1947, and is currently run by the founder's son.

Fundraising Is Great.

What a noble gesture it is to raise money for a charity or to keep your organization's books in the black. Human beings are naturally generous. No other species on the planet is as giving as we are. That is why charities and fundraisers are so successful. To expound on that human trait, one can offer a valuable product or service in return for their charitable donation. A personalized cookbook is something that is not only valuable, but it is long lasting. In fact, they can often time end up being a way to document some local history.

How?

The recipes in the cookbook are gathered from all the people in your organization or community and organized into a very professional looking cookbook. All the locally famous cooks will have contributed, of course. Decades from now, as someone is looking through it to find a great recipe for dinner, they will run across the name of the "little old lady" who lived down the street from them when they were a child. "I remember Mrs. Atkins! She used to bake cookies for us when we played near her yard. Those were wonderful days."

My sister inherited all of our grandmother's cookbooks…and she had many of them. As she pages through them she runs across notes that Grandma wrote in them. We had no idea that she had written in them, but it was like going back in time and hearing her tell stories to us again.

These personalized cookbooks will end up recording bits of history and become a mechanism for triggering fond old memories, too.

Back To Reality.

Sorry for that trip down memory lane.

Anyway, the process of creating a fundraising cookbook is relatively simple if you are dealing with a good cookbook publisher. That is the key to your fundraising idea success. A reputable publisher will have all the steps outlined and detailed for you. Depending upon your desires, you can be intimately involved in the design, or you can have the publisher make recommendations for you. They will also help you with ideas for selling and marketing your cookbook. You can even opt to sell advertising in it to bolster your fundraising efforts. Regardless of your decisions, make sure you choose a good publisher. Pick one that has been in business a long time and you won't be disappointed.

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Andy Barber is a retired police/fire/EMS dispatcher. After a quarter of a century of "stomping the pedal," as he likes to call it, he took an early retirement and became a freelance writer. Currently he is working for Cookbook Publishers, a company that has been helping people and organizations raise money since 1947. When Andy isn't writing, he spends time on his eastern Kansas farm with his wife and the 2 younger of their 3 sons. Andy also has a love for Harley Davidson motorcycles. He regularly criss-crosses the USA on his bike to meet with friends and see this beautiful country. Cookbook Publishers has been helping people with fundraisers for years, so check them out and see what they can do for you.