Retirement used to be an end of
life journey, but not anymore. Today’s seniors are more active than ever.
They’re going on mission trips to help people in third world countries,
volunteering in soup kitchens and helping charities near and dear to their
hearts, like the church.
In fact, when Concord Baptist
Church in Van Buren, Ark., needed to raise money to participate in a women’s
ministry retreat, it was their senior members who made some of the greatest
contributions. “We have a lot of great cooks and bakers in our congregation and
the fundraising committee thought a bake sale would be a great idea. But during
a lengthy discussion, we decided it would be even more profitable if we could
gather those great recipes our senior members have, and share them with the
younger generation through a fundraising cookbook,” says Tami Walker, the
women’s ministry coordinator for the church.
Walker had worked on a
fundraising cookbook that was very successful for another organization in the
past, and knew exactly what to do. “I put out a call for recipes in our church
newsletter and through oral announcements at church functions. They quickly
started pouring in,” she says. “I think it was a matter of pride for a lot of
our members. They looked forward to the opportunity to share their traditions
with others, and see their names in print.”
When it came time to decide who
would print the book, the congregation took bids from a number of companies,
and in the end chose to go with Fundcraft, a family owned business that has
been printing promotional cookbooks since the 1940s. “We were especially
impressed with all the options and assistance they offered,” says Walker, who
really appreciated the free how-to kit they received.
It included samples of covers,
dividers and bindings. There was a step-by-step catalog that outlined the
process they should follow, and there were tips on how to be successful,
including these pointers for better profits:
* Set a goal. Know how much money
you want to raise and set the price of your books accordingly. It will
establish how many books you need to order.
* Publicly display your progress.
Put the group’s purpose and progress chart on public display in a high traffic
area to help drive sales and support.
* Sell advertising. Get the local
grocery stores and restaurants to run ads in the cookbook. Ask your advertisers
to submit a recipe to run on the page facing their ad to show personal
involvement and support. The fees will cover your start-up costs.
* Start selling before you get
the books. Advance sale coupons and gift certificates (included in the marketing
kit) allow selling cookbooks before your shipment arrives and when your supply
runs out. Since the second cookbook order is discounted, you’ll make even more
money on the reorder.
* If you want or need extra
recipes to enhance your cookbook, select one from Fundcraft’s sister Web site,
Cookbooks.com. Choose from over one million free recipes.
Concord Baptist Church didn’t
need any additional recipes. “If anything we had too many,” says Walker, who
explains there were multiple submissions for the same types of dishes.
They ordered 500 of their
cookbooks and sold them for $10 per book, a great profit margin since they cost
less than $3 apiece to print. “We had a lot of people buy more than one
cookbook so they could share them with close friends and family,” says Walker.
“These books are the recipe for
success to meet your fundraising goal,” says David Bradley, Fundcraft
Publishing’s president. “A personalized fundraising cookbook for your church,
school, favorite charity, civic organization, hospital group or employee group
will raise $1,000 to $10,000 every time.”
Fundcraft Publishing is the
largest and most respected cookbook publisher that provides a guaranteed
cookbook program designed to guide any group, step-by-step, in creating their
very own cookbook. Get started on your fundraiser by signing up for your free
fundraising kit at www.fundcraft.com or by calling (800) 853-1364, ext.206.
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