How to Motivate Your Fundraising Cookbook Recipe Contributors
As with any group project, getting everyone to contribute can be a challenge, especially if they have not seen the end product beforehand.
Here are some tips to keep your CookbookFundraiser.com contributors motivated:
The more the merrier – Be sure to include everyone, not just the great cooks. Everyone in your group will like to be asked to participate and the more you invite, the more recipes you’ll likely get. To add contributors, upload your member list and have them receive regular email and text reminders throughout your campaign.
Set a reasonable deadline – Set the submission deadline on the “Project Information Editor” page, but don’t set it too far in the future generally 30 days is plenty for a fundraising cookbook. We all tend to put off whatever we can and contributing recipes is often one of those things. A month is usually enough time to give everyone to find the recipes they want to contribute and get them entered. Two things to remember: most of the recipes will come in just in time for the deadline and second, you can always extend the deadline if you want more recipes.
Send regular updates – Use the Reminder Tool to email some or all of your contributors on a regular basis. Remind them of the deadline and ask them to meet a specific goal, like “please add one or two recipes to each category”.
Target the biggest recipe boxes – Every group has a handful of people who are known for their cooking (you are most likely one of them in your group!). Send a personal message to them either using the remainder tool or reaching out by telephone, Facebook or with a personal visit. People are flattered when their skills are recognized. Let them know the cookbook would not be complete without their contributions.
Get your fundraising committee involved – Most groups will have a committee assembled so one one person is overwhelmed with fundraiser efforts. Get these people ask their friends in the group to participate. Also make sure they lead by example and have their recipes in early so people can see the progress.
Use social media – As you add your own recipes to your family cookbook, it is easy to post them to Facebook or pin them to Pinterest. Sharing your recipes this way shows other group members that you are contributing and shows them they should as well. CookbookFundraiser.com offers a library of predesigned posts for you to use. Just add the image and the details and post regularly.
Bill Rice is the Co-Publisher of Family Cookbook Project and CookbookFundraiser.com which helps individuals, churches, schools, teams and other fundraising groups create cherished personalized cookbooks using peer-to-peer tools and the power of the Internet to meet group funding needs. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest!
