Yep....lots of years ago a group I belonged to wanted to raise money for a gift of preservation to the county for the clock on the courthouse.
We gathered and self published a cookbook...ring binder and we colated the paged ourself...we sold all copies and made $700.
I don't think they make big bucks, but it is a way to provide a task for the group...
I have more than a few cookbooks bought because I contributed a recipe and then when approached felt I had to buy the blasted cook book!
To answer your question....yes but not a lot!

Linda is right, unless for some reason the book really takes off. I think the Jr League has been successful with their cookbooks.

We did one for our library a few years back and it included some great recipes that I use to this day. However, it was an enormous task getting it together (we did taste testings, and so does the Jr League). I'm not so sure the revenue made all the work worthwhile.

I do enjoy cookbooks from non-profit organizations when they are well done. Too many just print every recipe sent to them and it's a big hodge podge of recipes that may or may not be any good. Too many seem to feature "a can of this or a can of that."

A group I belong to did one a few years ago.

It was published by Fundcraft Publishing.

It was a lot of work, but we sort of went overboard with it.
Over 600 recipes (all contributed by members).
Lots of photographs, etc.

We didn't do any taste testings.
We went on the theory that no one would submit a recipe they didn't like.
And everyone's taste's are different.

There was the usual number of recipes that had "a can of this and a can of that".
But face it, that's how a LOT of people 'cook' now days.

There were also a goodly number of gourmet recipes.
And we were soundly criticized by a number of people for including them.
They claimed they were too 'complicated' for the average cook in this area.

But all in all, it was a good cookbook.
It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
And we more than tripled the amount of money it cost to produce it.

The proceeds went to a number of charitable organizations.
And helped initiate a college scholarship fund.

So I would say that yes, they can raise money.
But as in so many things, advertisement is the key.
The public has to know you are offering the cookbook.
And also know where the funds will be going.

We also sold a number of them on Ebay.

Rusty

Didn't someone recently tell us that she raised a few million with a cookbook she put together? Maybe Teresa_MN?

* Posted by teresa_mn (My Page) on
Mon, Jul 12, 10 at 17:09

Welcome! I live in Minnetonka, Minnesota and just recently joined the cooking forum. I've been a member at the hosta forum for several years. My interest in cooking has ebbed and flowed over the years. I went to cooking schools in Paris and in Italy and worked in restaurants there. I wrote a cookbook for Habitat International that raised $3 million dollars.

HOLY DEAR GOD!!!!!

You raised $3 MILLION on a fundraiser cookbook?????? How the heck did you do that?!?!?!

Wow, Teresa, that is beyond impressive. Please send any pointers my way.

Jo
(oh, and LindaC, $700 isn't bad at all.)

I'm sure they raise money, mostly from the people who contribute recipes and their families and friends. The bigger question - does anyone find any useful recipes in these cookbooks?

Moomj47, good question. I wonder if I am the only one that has never cared for this type of cookbook. I've bought them in the past but only out of a sense of obligation. Kind of like buying a chocolate bar from the local school kids. Most of these fund raising cookbooks have repeats of the same old, same old recipes. Many using ingredients that I don't use.

It doesn't surprise me that a Habitat for Humanity publication would generate millions of dollars. It receives donations world wide. Not exactly your little local church or school, club, etc... fundraiser.

According to this article Linda Fuller,was responsible for publishing a number of Habitat for Humanity cook books. Teresa, how were you involved? I find this very interesting.

Ann

It was a very unusual set of circumstances that caused it to be successful. A lengthy explanation, but all parts necessary to explain the success of cookbook project from he*!!

The company I worked for was owned by General Motors. It was a subsidy of GMAC. We got involved in building a Habitat House every year.
I did all the catering for our Habitat build the first year. It was very cold spring - with snow! Instead of pizza and subway I opted to turn my mom's farmhouse kitchen into a place I could make 300 hot meals a day. I made huge containers of beef stew, turkey and dressing, hot breakfasts like Sausage and Cheese strata. A friend in the catering business lent me catering equipment and a van.

The idea for the book came from employees that wanted scaled down versions of what they were eating every day. It was a very young company and most of these people lived on fast food.

That year, our homeowner had 3 small kids, two of which had asthma. Habitat Houses don't come with air conditioning. I wrote the book with the idea with we could raise a couple thousand to put in central air. Almost everyone in this company (500) worked on the house and had met the darling boys and were eager to help.

I wrote the book, printed and bound it in the company business center. It was less than 80 pages and sold for $3. The company considered it a donation and matched the $3.

We quickly passed the amount needed for the A/C. HH houses did not come with washer & dryers. I sent out an email that went something like this. You've met Lily and her 3 rambunctious boys. She is a single parent who uses public transportation. How many of you could manage 3 boys and 2 large loads of laundry on a city bus??????? More orders poured in - including one VP who did not want books, just wanted to purchase the washer/dryer.

Her house was on a busy street corner so then we decided to buy a chain link fence. We hit that mark and ended up installing a fence for the other Habitat family on the same street.

I'd tally the numbers daily. If sales started to slow I would send out an email like "Oh no! The Trading Floor has surpassed Marketing in sales of cookbooks!" The enthusiasm and competition at this company was nuts. Lot's of under 35's working there and they weren't about to let another dept out buy them.

The head of the company (Mark) was also very civic minded and bought 50 books. Once the other execs saw the stack he purchased, they all jumped in and bought ten or more. Then Mark was appointed the head of GMAC Mortgage out in Horsham, PA. He asked me for a couple dozen books to take to the board meeting in PA. He talked about it at the board meeting and gave the books to the Community Affairs dept. The sales poured in.
Just when I thought project had run out of gas, someone in Community Affairs dept at the GM headquarters in Detroit got wind of it. It became a total flying by the seat of my pants operation.
For more than 4 months I spent every lunch hour, after work and weekends, printing and binding the book. Again, I thought things were petering out. And then our crazy head of Marketing and Communications got a local news station to do a story. The theme was "not only does RFC build Habitat Houses every year, they take it ten steps further." (nice chunk of free advertising for them.) Nice - but my fingers were getting numb on the binding machine.

So one Saturday, I'm in the business center binding what I hoped would be the last of the books, and in comes the M&C Director with cameras from the news station. They wanted to know the story from the beginning, and the whole time I talked on camera I kept binding books. I just want to get the heck out of there.

The story aired and the local GMAC Finance Offices started calling to order books.
In the end (thank God there was an end) the money came to more than $3MM. Some of it went to build three houses the following year at the 20/20,000 Habitat International project in Americus, GA and two in Minnesota. All of the houses in Minnesota that year and subsequent years that we participated in got fences and washers/dryers.
When I left the company there was still $$ in the HH Fund for future home projects. They participated in two more Habitat International builds, one in Mississippi and one on the Cherry Creek Reservation in SD.

So - as I said, it was an unusual set of circumstances that made this so successful. But the concept of knowing your market is an important one. I would never have written a book if so many people had not asked for recipes. And I had a captive audience of young people that lived on McDonald's and could not believe they could cook meals like this. And your market has to believe in whatever non-profit you are raising $$ for. And related to costs....there was no cost for the materials as it was done in our business center - the corp acct paid for it. And all of my time was donated.

And of course my corporate sponsor (GM family of companies) matching the sales of the books was huge.

It took way more of my time than I ever would've imagined - more than 4 months worth of all of my spare time. And a guy I was dating at the time dumped me because I had no time for him! LOL

But I will say - I got a really big bonus that year. :-)

Great story, Teresa!

I've never participated in the creation of one of these cookbooks, but I've bought many. The quality of the recipes varies, and it's very hard to predict what kind of organization is most likely to produce a winner. But I have several that I've kept for many years, because they contain many recipes that I find interesting.

There is a company in Winnipeg that has published several of the ones in my collection. They kind of hold your hand and lead you through the steps if you are a newbie to this type of project.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rasmussen Company - Cook Book Printers

So how does one get a copy of it? You personally printed and bound 500,000 copies in 4 months, there must be a few still in circulation. Did you keep a few to autograph and give to friends?

That is an absolutely amazing story!

Alexa

A heartwarming story, Teresa! Thanks for sharing it. Wow!

Alexa - the books were sold thru various entities of GM. And it was not that many 500,000. It was somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000. I stopped counting because I could not keep up with the binding. I just turned the checks in everyday to the accounting people. The rest of the money came from people who would pay $100 for a book. Or just give me a big check for the cause. And once the my boss, the CFO suggested that people gave me big checks to make me go away!

I have some buried in my storage/holiday decoration room. I was going to look for one a couple months ago for barnmom and promptly forgot about it. If/when I find them I could mail you one. Of course that will be the project I take on when I start/finish fall clean up on 4,000 square feet of gardens. Not sure what I was thinking when I planted that much.

It seems I have a habit of biting off more than I can chew! :-)

Wow, Teresa_mn. that is one impressive accomplishment!
You should be extremely proud!
Regardless of the "unusual circumstances".

As I have mentioned before, I collect cookbooks,
and it is this type that I prefer.

YES, I do find "useful" recipes.
Sometimes only one in a book, sometimes many,
Once in awhile, none.

I enjoy just reading them even if the 'useful' recipes are few and far between.

I find it a bit sad that some of you consider buying them an "obligation".

Rusty

We put one together for our food bank in the early 90's and it seems like we made $3000. We printed it twice. A few years ago we reprinted a library cookbook from 1948 and added recipes. It did well also. Both books took awhile to sell out. It was a small, steady income. Book stores and gift shops were happy to take them on consignment, and I sold the library book on ebay. We also sold advertising, which offset the cost.

I collect community cookbooks, too. It's interesting to look at what communities cook(ed) in different regions and different generations. I like the local ones because I always know some of the contributors and I treasure the old books that have recipes from some of my favorite people who aren't with us any more.

Teresa_mn,

You are crazier than I can ever imagine!

dcarch

Please dcarch - provide some input on a cookbook as a fundraising tool!

That's amazing Teresa. I would definitely want you in my corner if I were doing charity work.

I have bought quiet a few fundraiser cookbooks from civic organizations, churches, etc. I quit buying those and don't think they earn what they once did. It seems they all began to be alike and like someone else said, called for a can of this and a can of that. That's fine for people who have to cook in a hurry, but I rarely cook like that.

I do love the Junior League cookbooks and like to buy from various areas of the country because you can tell the difference in what people eat say between Texas and Georgia for example. They also seem to have better caliber recipes for the most part than many of the other fundraiser cookbooks.

Amazing....I will look at cook books differently as a fundraising tool.
so how many were in the printing? So the company matched the price of the cook books for a donation?...so every cook book brought in $6? What were the costs of the printing? Did the company do it for free?...Wow What a tax write off!
Wondering how many you would have to commit to printing and selling to make that kids of money?
Were they spiral bound?

Ann - the first cookbooks Millard and his business partner published were a money making venture. I was not aware of them until I read the article your link provided. They were quite lucrative in addition to Millard's law practice.

I was aware that once Habitat really took off Linda went into publishing several books with the proceeds going to Habitat. All going back to the fact that Millard found that publishing can be lucrative. When I worked on the 20/20,000 project in 1993, Linda's first book for Habitat had not been published. We were able to purchase their other "mission statement" type books. I bought "Love in the Mortar Joints" and "No More Shacks." I bought them for my company library, not for myself.

My book was put out in early fall of that same year. I prefer to use the term "put out" instead of the term published. It was not a hard copy book and it was done (not by a publisher) but by me in a company business center. Spiral bound books with 40 lb. card stock covers with work great when sold to employees for a community fundraiser.

jojoco - I don't know what your organization is. But if people contribute recipes in addition to crediting them you could add a tidbit of history on where the recipe came from. If it is for a school, you could add, Deb, mom to Taylor and Madison contributed this. Surely they would buy one for themselves and each of the girls.

lindac - yes they were spiral bound. Try to get a local printer to donate the printing costs. If they don't want to bind them, ask if they will donate use of their binding machines. The machines are easy to operate. A few ads from local companies on the back cover are nice if done for a civic fundraiser.

Those fund raiser cook books are my favorite cookbooks. I have contributed recipes to them and buy any I can get my hands on. I'm not only helping a good cause but getting some good tried and true recipes. So what if some use cans of things, as long as the end product is good, that suits me fine.

They are usually family favorite recipes. Sure there are some I would never try but there are a lot more that have become my family's favorites. The same can be said for any cookbook. I have looked through gormet cookbooks and saw things that just don't appeal and I would never try too.

Some include things like substitutions,weight conversions--eg. how many tablespoons in a cup. One had a contribution from a caterer on how much of things to prepare for crowds of 25 to 100. I must say that one has come in handy a few times.

I would guess that fund raising success depends on how large the nonprofit is and how well their marketing efforts are. I enjoy and use the community recipe books I have bought, mostly put out by the German Baptist community. The recipes were simple, delicious, and T&T. I bought several and gave them to my kids. Their family fights over them and when I contacted my source for a couple more copies of their latest they were all gone. Maybe it was just too much work beccause I haven't heard of any more publications of late.

"It was somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000."

I am still astounded at the superhuman effort you put in. If one guesses at 280,000 (to make the math easy) that means 70,000 per month, or 17,500 per week which works out to about 2500 per day.

If you worked 10 hours a day that is 250 per hour, every day for 4 months.

That is amazing.

Alexa

I'm amazed that people building a house had need of 3 meals a day and that 100 of them worked at once. And that I had not before heard of this little book that raised such huge amounts of money!
Linda c

Hello to everyone. I am a long time lurker. I just wanted to tell my experience with these type cookbook fundraisers.Our very small church has used this type fundraiser twice. We went over our goals both times. Two things we found useful: 1)Get as many different indivduals to contribute recipes as possible. 2)Try to get as many businesses to pay for advertising as possible. Both times we had the publishers's fee completely paid by advertising before the books were ever published. All books sold were 100% profit for us. Having may different individuals contribute recipes meant more customers. One lady, who was known for her chicken and dumplings, sold over 100 books for us. She has been dead for several years now and I still get requests for the book that has her recipes. This has been one of our more profitable ways to raise funds. Susan

I have several of those kind of cookbooks. One I love love love, and the others are just OK. The big thing is...editing. If four people send in the same recipe, they print all four, even if they are EXACTLY the same. This is a waste of money, labor, my time, etc. The good ones are edited and perhaps the recipe is listed as :mary Smith, Joan Barnes, Alice Aker, Myron Martin" or something like that, showing all who contributed the recipe instead of listing the recipe four times.
I guess if the cookbooks are done well, I really do like them, but if they are done sloppily, I usually throw them away.

Sherry, I recall one of those cookbooks. I must have tossed it in a purge because I can't find it. It had numerous pages of beef stroganoff recipes, all from different contributors and all a bit different from one another. I can see that it would difficult to omit recipes based on repetition for fear of hurting someone's feelings but editing and formatting is important.

About 5 years ago, I did one for my daughter's elementary school (grade 8). All the recipes came to me, and I typed them all out, formatted the book, etc. The school board printed out the copies. The book sold for $10. It was in both French and English. The book was 1-1/4 inches thick.

They all sold out. Actually, many people who bought a book came back to buy more copies... 2 or 3 more! Some bought extras for their teenage kids who would be of to college in couple years, some people had neighbors who wanted a copy, etc.

The cookbook also contained little cooking tips here and there throughout the cookbook as "fillers". I also included a cooking temperature guide for beef, chicken, etc.

What truly made it worthwhile for me was the fact that many teachers scoffed the idea of a cookbook but when they saw the final product, they were very surprised and eagerly bought a copy. They were even more surprised when the books sold out and had more requests for books.
Two people called me to congratulate me on a cookbook well done and how they enjoyed the cooking tips throughout the book, plus the fact that it was bilingual.

I think the teachers thought a French cookbook wouldn't sell very well (it was a French school), which is why I convinced the principal to include English versions of the recipes for more sales. It was a lot of work doing the translations and formatting, etc., but I enjoyed every minute of it. I ended up doing a family cookbook afterwards, which was very appreacited by all the family.
Now I'm in the process of doing one for my daughter who's away at college.

Can't answer your question jojoco but I know that I don't buy them anymore. I used to but they all started looking alike. The same recipes over & over again and too many of the recipes relied on packaged, processed foods. But I should add that I hardly ever open a cookbook anymore. The internet is my go-to cookbook these days.

Happen to read this thread again.

I had to help to bind a truck load of books for a project once. To meet schedule, it was pretty tough to work close to 16 hours a day, sleeping in the same room with a few other people, taking bathroom breaks only and had takeout food for every meal.

Then, I bought an electric binding machine, the job went much faster.

I still have the machine. Anyone wants to write a cookbook? :-) I will sign a binding contract with you.

dcarch

"Then, I bought an electric binding machine, the job went much faster."

What type of binding?

It is a ring binder (Not three-ring binder) with automatic hole punching.

dcarch

Like one of these?

Here is a link that might be useful: Binding machines.

Nice solution, books can lay flat.

Almost. The same binding, different machine. We couldn't use any other binding method because the possbility of adding more chapters.

Are you thinking of doing some binding?

dcarch

I am always involved in some print project or another. I appreciate having resources!

Posted by barnmom" Nice solution, books can lay flat. "

Actually it create a little shipping problem. The plastic rings were thicker, so you have to flip-flop the books in the box. You are right they are good that when you open the book, the pages open completely. Also, for a cookbook its good because you can add pages anywhere.

dcarch

I was visiting another forum. The was a discussion thread about a new cookbook that is coming out:"Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking." I am surprised that there are so many people are rushing to buy it. $500.00 a copy at Amazon.com.

So I look on ebay, just curious about cookbook prices:

Desperate Housewives Signed Collectible Cookbook***RARE
ONE OF A KIND***FOR CHARITY***
US $10,000

Nice & Easy Cookbook, Anon
US $115,878.25

BTW, The last one has free shipping.

WOW!

I think I am going to write a cookbook :-)

dcarch

Jo,

I bet you could get a few key places in town to carry the book or let you set up a table to sell them. I'd try the coffee house, Tops, the Red Apple, the library or even if it's nice outside, having a table outside (near the corner of Jordan & Rte 20) on the weekends. I think you'd make killing.