Profitable Fundraiser Is The Personalized Cookbook

It had been many years since I was involved in a fundraiser of any type. While in college we did a few car washes in the parking lot of a local grocery store. A few bucks were collected, but it wasn't as profitable as we would have liked. Still we had fun. After graduating from college I worked in retail electronics for a few years. We had several occasions to put donation jars on our front counters so people could drop in their change to help a particular charity or cause. Again, they collected a few bucks, but it wasn't a lot.
Fast-forward about 30 years and I found myself involved with a family oriented civic group. Suddenly the idea of raising funds wasn't simply something that was good to do, it became one of the thrusts of our club. Each year we picked a charity or other good cause, and did our best to help out financially. Among the various fundraisers, we did chili and pancake feeds, raffled several homemade quilts, and auctioned off the adult men who were required to work for the winning bidder for an entire day.

What Worked Best

The most profitable venture we undertook was when we chose to create a family style cookbook. We got the idea of a personalized cookbook because a local company is in the business of creating them for fundraisers across the country. After talking to them and researching their website, we saw that it had great potential. Not only did they offer all the on-line tools and advice, they provided a guarantee! Yes…an actual guarantee.
Each year we order more of the cookbooks and they continue to sell. The cookbook fundraiser has helped us out for about 4 years now. I don't know of any other fundraiser that "keeps on giving" like that. It's wonderful.

It's An Easy Process

The process was relatively simple. The most time consuming process was gathering recipes from the people in our organization and community. It wasn't difficult, though. In fact, the people who were responsible for that aspect of the job said that they met a lot of interesting people they would have otherwise never come to know.

Form Your Cookbook Committee
Gather And Organize Your Recipes
Design Your Cookbook
Sell Advertising
Place Your Order
Market Your Cookbook

A good cookbook publisher will allow you creative control over most aspects of the finished product. You can pick the style, the paper, how it is organized, the photographs to be used, and what kinds of recipes to be added. Of course, they should be able to offer assistance if you need it. After all, who has more experience designing a successful fundraising cookbook than a fundraising cookbook publisher?
Getting started is easy. Find a reputable on-line cookbook publisher and check out their website. It should answer most of your questions. Any questions that remain can be answered via telephone.

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Andy Barber writes for Cookbook Publishers, which is a company that has been printing fundraising cookbooks since 1947. When he isn't writing or enjoying his family on his 6 acre farm in eastern Kansas, he is riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle across the US to visit friends and see the country.