By Tash
Huges
We did a cookbook last year at Emily's kinder and it was quite successful
- and the book itself looked great! It is a bit more personal than raffles
and other fundraising events, and can provide a lasting memento. Following
are some hints about setting up such a fundraising event.
Obviously, you need one or two people to be in charge of the event, although
having others to help at various tasks is worthwhile - the more the better really!
Firstly, consider what style of book you want, remembering production costs and
presentation. Our kinder apparently tried this a few years ago - one woman did
most of the work and produced a book of stapled A4 pages. She sold them for about
$3 each, and sold less than a dozen (much less I think it was.) So I'd make it
more of a book although it is more expensive to produce.
Set some guidelines, too. Will you accept recipes from non-members?
Is it worth sharing the fundraiser with another group? Do you want a
section of recipes children can make?
Set yourself a style guide - that is, a list of features that the book will
adhere to (eg Tbs or tablespoon, o C only or F as well, preferred font, ingredients
listed first or throughout recipes) having this makes it easier to be consistent,
especially if a few people are typing it up.
Collect recipes - allow yourself a bit of time for this. Some people will give
you multiple recipes, but many will give you one only on the last day! If you
get two for the same thing, use the one from someone who hasn't given you more
recipes (ie Mary & Sue give you a cheesecake recipe. If Sue also gave you
a soup recipe, only include Mary's cheesecake recipe.)
Start typing & compiling recipes as they come in rather than waiting til
the deadline as this will be more manageable. Try to get a couple of people
to help with data entry - even suggest recipes can be submitted by email so
they don't have to be retyped.
Get the final copy edited - you'd be surprised the mistakes I found editing
ours last year. Don't forget that one person can edit a section or the whole
thing - and again the style guide will help here! If you have the time, get
each section checked twice; if you have the means, consider a professional
editor.
Look around for printers & see what they offer. Don't forget quality and
speed are as important as price. They'll go through different boards for covers,
etc, too.
Decide how personalised you'll make it. We had a quote or drawing from every
child in the kinder added to ours which is a great touch - the book is great
to read as well as to cook from! Drawings will need to be done carefully so
they can be printed .
Start in second or third term - you want to allow time to get it together and
printed and then available before the end of term 4. It is a great Xmas gift
idea - press that selling point!
We sold ours for $10 each or $8 each if you ordered 10 or more. They
were sold largely through the kinder, but some local shops also had some
to sell for us, which worked well, too.
Selling points: I bought one for myself & have one put away for
Emily when she's older, plus heaps of presents! Remind people that everyone
loves such cookbooks 'cos they know the recipes work in real kitchens
and usually aren't too complicated!
Any not sold this year can still be sold next year by the kinder, so its not
a huge thing to print too many.
Copyright issues – any homemade recipe is fine if the creator gives it to you.
Note that recipes copied from cookbooks etc do have copyright implications
unless sufficient changes have been made. |
