Create Fundraiser Cookbooks at Home for Fun & Non-Profits

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Creating a fundraiser cookbook for a local charity, church, school, or community organization has long been a respected way for groups to earn money to finance many worthwhile projects.

I have at least 45 fundraiser cookbooks from all over the country on my bookshelf. Some of them are my favorites, and I use them constantly for potluck dish ideas and volume cooking. (Yes, eventually I will pick out the recipes I like and add them to my own recipe collection in my own family cookbook. But for now, let’s focus on your fundraising goals.)

In general, the collective effort of producing a fundraiser cookbook is not only rewarding for those involved in creating it, the fundraiser cookbook as an end product is often the most lucrative means for raising money for a specific cause. Until recently, fundraiser cookbooks were typically made using a traditional cookbook publisher, but they can now be made at home using the latest cookbook-making recipe software.

Here are some thoughts your group may want to consider before creating a fundraiser cookbook:

Group Commitment

The group must be committed to completing a fundraiser cookbook that is marketable, so it is vital that only dedicated members be on the cookbook-making team. This is true whether the fundraiser cookbook is for a community organization or a business using the cookbook for promotional purposes. Members of this team must be willing to shoulder the responsibility of collecting, editing, typing and proofreading the fundraiser cookbook. And, they must be willing to meet deadlines!

Financial Goal

The group must determine the financial goal of the fundraiser cookbook, such as how much money it is expected to raise, after expenses. Get a consensus about what price supporters will pay for it in your area, and whether to include advertising to offset the costs. (When creating the fundraiser cookbook at home using cookbook-making recipe software, costs are considerably lower than cookbook publishers charge, and the results are professional quality, too.

Cookbook Software

The group should utilize an easy-to-use cookbook-making recipe software to keep costs low. The beauty of making a fundraiser cookbook with recipe software on your own computer is there is no excess inventory of unsold books collecting dust in boxes in someone’s garage. With cookbook-making recipe software, you don’t have to print a minimum order (like the cookbook publishers require). You can print a few, a dozen, or a hundred at a time, depending upon the group’s fundraising needs.  Some cookbook-making recipe software (like ours) allows you to add stories, photos and anecdotes about the recipes and contributors throughout the fundraiser cookbook.

For more information about our cookbook software products, please see our features page for Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software. For worthy fundraisers, we’ll actually donate a copy of the software to you for free. For more information, email me at info@cookbookpeople.com. Please include some information about your group, your goals, and a link if available to your site.

Happy Fundraiser Cookbooking!

Erin

About Erin Miller

PS: As a thank you for visiting, why not grab a few free recipe card printables? No signup forms, no obligation.

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11 Comments

  1. I would like to know if there is a free step by step information on how to get started and about what it would cost to do a cook book.
    Thank you,
    Rochelle Alaimo

    *For your protection, I’ve removed your email and address. Bad idea to leave that on any site! -Matilda*

  3. what if I wanted to print a large number, and I didn’t want to print them myself, do you have any suggestions. Can they be easily printed at a staples or other printer.

  5. What a great site! I have just referred a customer to this site solely on the personal comments and insight that are provided by Matilda.

    Fundraisers that are trying this for the first time are in real need of quality support and resources once they decide to engage in a fundraising campaign.

    Keep up the good work Coupon Book People and I look forward to referring more customers who are looking for a quality Cookbook Software and support!

    Chris Manning, CEO
    Community Fundraising Books
    http://www.CommunityFundraisingBooks.com

    You make a living by what you make; you make a life by what you give…

  6. Matilda,

    My daughter’s preteen girl softball team will be traveling to Florida for an event in July. We need help with putting together a cookbook easily. So many of us are working moms and just don’t have a whole lot of time to structure one ourselves at a reasonable cost. Any help you could offer would be appreciated!

  7. Just finished a Cookbook for our school fundraiser. I am a teacher in the school so I (we actually, because i made two teacher friends help me) worked on the cookbook during planning. In previous years, we copied and pasted the recipes (from a survey form on our school website) and then created a running section in Word. We always had problems with spacing, as well as fitting enough recipes to a page. It created huge headaches for us. This year we were a bit short on time due to other “stuff”, so i searched online trying to find an easier way to deal with the book. So very glad i found your site.
    Our cookbook featured 422 recipes brought in by 6th and 7th graders. I also used database photos for each student and added those to each recipe. I was worried about space/pages since we had to pay for them to be printed, but we came in around 10 pages less than last years with approx the same number of recipes. This years book was around 65 pages, front and back.
    I couldnt be happier- the books were easy to compile, looked professional, and were an easy sell because of the photos.
    Thanks again for a great product.

  8. Hi Matilda, I found your site after doing a search for cookbook software that led me to your post on “majorgeeks forum”. I’m the Youth & Family Minister at a Church in Texas and our youth are in the process of gathering recipes to put together a cookbook at the end of the summer to pay for their summer mission trips. I would love a copy of your software to do this. How do I go about purchasing it?

  9. Also, we want to take a picture of one specific youth event to use as the front cover. Does your software allow for us to create our own covers using your templates?

    Thank you so much!!!

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