I offered to make a fundraising recipe book for my nieces school and was wondering if you could help me, not only with any recipes you would want to share, but also with ideas as to what type of recipes are the most "used" out of a fundraising recipe book. How many recipes should I include? Also, what do you think a fair price is, considering the book will be ring bind (plastic, not wire as it is too expensive) and it is for a good cause.

Feel free to PM me.

I welcome advise and ideas from those of you who have done it in the past.

Thanks!!!

Argie Girl

If you are fundraising for a school I would use recipes that can be used for lunch boxes & easy family meals. Also made with what most people would have in their pantry/fridge. OR if you have quite an ethnic mix what about different recipes from the different cultures. Good luck.

hi
i always love the tried and true baking receipes
good luck

I also like to know the recipes are tried and true, I am always on the look out for lunch recipes as seem to make the same few recipes, perhaps get some from celebes eg Our Helen, Alyson Gofton, Jo Seager etc. How about one from Helens radio partner Tony

The ones I tend to keep using from any fundraising books re the 'old-fashioned' ones...recipes that are relatively cheap to make or use leftovers and ingredients that you would usually have in your pantry. Maybe thats just me though!! I hope it works out well.

And don't forget to include 1 or 2 recipes for people who are diabetic or require gluten-free, please.

I have a fundraising recipe book sent to me by a friend in England. Its theme is recipes that kids can cook and each recipe has Dedicated to....and the child, children's or family's name at the bottom - it's lovely. It has all the usual categories but each recipe has simple ingredients and methods.

I'm all for anything that teaches kids to cook as it's a dying art with so much packet and canned food (more expensive and less nutritious) in many family diets these days.

Of course kids are more likely to want to eat things they have made themselves, so it's practical from that point of view also.

Re price - you really have to start from the end and work backwards ie. how much money would you like to raise, where the books are going to be on sale, how many books you therefore need to print and what the print and graphic design costs are going to be - get quotations from two or three sources and for different quantities, remembering that in printing it doesn't cost twice the price for twice the quantity as many of the costs are incurred in the initial set up. That will determine the price the book will need to be sold for. You may like to consider seeking sponsorship to reduce costs - even the printer and/or graphic designer may come to the party If you adopt the theme I have outlined, it needs to be affordable by families, so $5 would be a good price to aim for. A different theme eg celebrity recipes as per a previous post may mean a different type of distribution and therefore a different price.

So there there are quite a few things to consider but it is important to be focused right from the beginning as the last thing you want is to produce a beautiful book which cost more than the income it generated.

Good luck!

Regards,

Barbie Girl

The school I work at has just completed a community cookbook as a fundraiser. The parents who took it on asked for donations of recipes from the staff and families and then collated them (also weeding them out, there's only so many chocolate brownie recipes you can put in one cookbook!). They also asked local businesses for donations and for their donation they had an ad inserted in the book. There are sections for Soup and Entrees, Salads and Vegetables, Mains, International (the area our school is in was settled by Germans), Desserts, Baking, Sweets, Special Diet, The Larder and Fun for All (playdough, goop etc). What we/they found was - you need more than one person to proof read everything and mistakes still got through, it took wwwwaaaaayy more time than they thought, it cost way more than they thought to have it bound (and that was doing it in a very plain manner). Also, in hindsight, they should have consulted more with the school before sending it to the printer (the staff spent time ripping out one page at the front that had staff photos in it but they were distorted, one name was spelled wrong and it wasn't even all the staff!) and some parents have commented to me that the recipe they submitted (because the donee's name was with all the recipes) was altered! (and not in a minor way - which isn't on). So, tread carefully. At the end, it's not going to make any money, we will be lucky to cover the costs. But, these sort of recipe books are great. Recipes tried, tested and true (as long as they're not altered!) by people. I have several from other organisations and I use them a lot. We had one visitor to the school buy some for his American wife to take back to America with her because apparently these sort of cookbooks are really 'in' in America.

I put a fundraising recipe book together a couple of years ago. I asked all my friends for recipes and the FL. I also got some celebrity recipes. The book ended up 62 pages long (including index) and has 85 recipes. Mine were spiral bound (wire) with plastic covers. They sold for $10. I also did some stapled ones for $8. Initially we did the spiral binding with plastic but we found that they came apart really easily. The plastic binding really only works with a few pages. We did the photocopying, cutting and binding ourselves with the equipment and supplies donated by my husband's work. we made a good profit from them but it would have been different if we had to pay for the binding. Perhaps you could get sponsorship for the binding?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2007 08:24AM by PennyG.

Thanks for all your input! I have heaps of time to prepare it, as it will be out for sale at the beggining of school year and I will make sure other people proof read it as I know mistakes happen!

I welcome any recipes you would like to share and I'm getting all sorts of quotes at the moment. See what I can do re getting sponsoring with the metal ring binding, I know it is better and also more practical to have on the kitchen bench or recipe book stand.

Keep the ideas coming please!!

Thanks heaps!!

Argie Girl