Fundraising Ideas for Cooking and Baking
Raising money by selling cooked and baked goods can be a successful and entertaining way to help non-profit organizations and schools. Bake sales, special events and culinary festivals feature all kinds of food for sale, whether it is eaten on location or taken home. Some of the food events last for days, while others occur over the course of an hour or two.
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Grassroots Occasions
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Grassroots fundraising by organizing special occasions centered around food can raise money by associating food events with donations. Artists, cooks or bakers can offer their wares in return for money at a community event. In return, patrons receive a handcrafted item or something to eat in return. An art teacher in Michigan enlisted his students in the early 1990s to make ceramic bowls to raise money for food. The Empty Bowls program eventually became a non-profit program that raises money to ease hunger internationally. Artists still create bowls to donate to local schools or restaurants that provide a simple meal of soup and bread in exchange for money to donors who keep the bowls. The program demonstrates how ideas and actions can ultimately result in effective ways to raise money that helps others.
Cookbooks as e-Books
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Many people use cookbooks to prepare food. While the cost of production of cookbooks can eat into the profits for a fundraiser, e-books cost little to produce and the audience for cookbooks in the virtual world is large. Schools, churches and large organizations can ask members to submit their best recipes and photos of the dishes to include in an e-book cookbook. Cookbook formatting software or templates in word processors can create cookbooks quickly. Burning a cookbook to a DVD is also an inexpensive way to produce a cookbook without involving paper, printing and binding.
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Bake Sales
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Many organizations use bake sales as ways to raise money. Churches and schools ask members for donations that the organization sells to the public. Some of the bake sales combine food with arts and craft sales to reach a broader audience. The proceeds from these bake sales benefit the social or public programs that the nonprofit provides. Unlike eating at a restaurant or in an institution, local, state and federal laws generally approve of selling baked goods prepared in unlicensed kitchens at home.
Food Festivals
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Local, well-organized groups can employ food and fun to raise money using community resources, volunteers and local talent. A food festival requires event coordination, advertising, chefs, demonstrators, volunteers and sponsors who contribute food, time and effort toward raising money for a cause. Since 1978, the Scottsdale Culinary Festival in Scottsdale, Arizona, celebrates food and drink on the grounds of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. The festival proceeds contribute funding for various art programs in the metro area, including scholarships for culinary and art students. The model that the Scottsdale Culinary Festival provides can help other organizations learn to execute fundraising events on a large scale.
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References
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