How to Price Your Fundraising Cookbook

I think that is always the hardest part of a cookbook fundraiser: setting the cookbook price. I think $20-$25 is very reasonable, but it really depends on the cost per book printing price which is based on the number of copies printed and the size of the cookbook. Generally, a cookbooks sales price should be 2-5 times the cost of the cookbook.

When setting the sales price, you need to consider your audience. Are they looking for a “good value” (then the price should be lower) or are they looking for a way to help your cause and would be willing to pay a little more for supporting your efforts.

Also to be considered is the size of your audience. If you are a high school with 2,000 students, you can price the cookbooks a little lower and make it up in volume, while a church with 50 members might not have the sales volume to support your fundraising goal.

Finally, you need to consider your projects goal.  If your goal is to purchase $20,000 of new equipment for an organization or pay for a trip to a competition costing $5,000, the costs are specific and you can figure out how many cookbooks have to be sold at which price to meet this goal. If you are looking to raise an open amount for cancer research or other cause, you have more flexibility as to how you price your cookbook.

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 AI tools, peer-to-peer tools and the power of the Internet to meet group funding needs Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest!