Rasing Money For Your School With Family Style Cookbooks - A Great Fundraising Idea

Coming up with the best school fundraising idea can be a challenge. There are dozens of methods for generating money for your school band, athletic team, science club, debate team, or booster club. Each type of fundraiser has its merits. Some are better than others, depending upon the age group with which you are working, the time of year, and how many people you have working with you.

What Options Are There?

Some schools have chosen to conduct a car wash in a parking lot of a local business. Not a bad idea unless you're going to do it in February in northern Minnesota. It does require a lot of work and long hours to make it profitable, too.

Other fundraisers are selling candy, or popcorn, or magazine subscriptions door-to-door. That might be fine for high school students, but I don't recommend it for the younger people. Two reasons: One - I retired from Law Enforcement and have heard too many horror stories about kids wandering a neighborhood all alone. Two - you know that you are going to be shadowing the kids the entire time. (Or at least you should be following them!) You might as well be doing it yourself.

OK. What Else Is There?

Auctions of donated items from families and businesses might work, but often times the stuff you get isn't worth a whole lot. How about raffling off a quilt? OK, but you have just one or two quilts. It doesn't provide the opportunity for a large amount of donations to roll in.

How about the family style cookbook? I don't know. They are so…so…well, I can't really think of any reason why NOT to create a personalized cookbook for a fundraiser. In fact, one of the fraternal groups to which I belong did just that a few years ago, and it was a great success. We have some reprinted each year and sell them all.

Family Style Cookbooks. Tell Me About Them.

Imagine owning a cookbook that has the best recipes from the finest cooks in your school district. The variety will be tremendous, and the quality top-notch. (Nobody will contribute a dud recipe. Only the best will be submitted.) You design it from cover to cover so it will reflect your school's image. Students, teachers, administration and staff, and parents will be anxious to buy one not only for the recipes, but because it is for the school. That is a great built-in customer base. If you elect to sell them at street fairs, various school activities, through local churches and even through local businesses, you could sell more than you think.

The Process.

It isn't that hard if you work with a good on-line cookbook publisher. That's the key. Find one that has lots of options from which you can choose, as well as a publisher that gives you tips and hints on marketing. There is one that even offers a way to submit all the recipes on-line, which makes the process extremely simple.

You gather recipes by sending notes home with the students, or sending e-mail messages to parents. The staff will surely have some to offer, too. You won't have any trouble amassing a great library of recipes.

Designing it is important. As mentioned above, you should have as much creative control (or as little) as you want. Options should include the cover design, the organization of the book, the kinds of divider, paper stock, ink and fonts, and whether to include advertising or dedication pages. If your publisher doesn't have those offerings, you might think about finding another one. Remember that this cookbook will be a reflection of your school. It should display the pride you have for your institution by the pictures and graphics you include.

Last, the publisher will need to print them. Usually they will have recommendations on minimum orders for the number of recipes you have, etc. If they have been in business for a while they will have lots of experience, so I would trust their judgment. Once you have the cookbooks you need to sell them, obviously. Again, you can send home notes or use e-mail to announce that they are ready. Sell them at school events, and have a stack in the office. Your secretary might end up being one of your best salespeople!

So, find that reputable cookbook publisher. Find one that has been in business a long time, and if you can find one that offers a guarantee, so much the better. And, yes…there are a rare few publishers that actually do offer a guarantee. You can't beat that with a stick!

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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.