New Sports Fundraising for a New Era in Health

In an era of increasing obesity, sports teams need to look to other options for raising money than candy bars and pizza. Cookbooks are a surprising and successful solution, and can be coupled with various marketing options.

Collierville, TN September 15, 2004 -- When high school sports teams need money, theyve often turned to selling candy as their solution. Other options have included the sale of frozen pizzas or cookie dough. But in a nation faced with the recently recognized threat of widespread obesity, these choices have begun turning sour.

School boards across America today face the reality that our children are overweight, and that this can lead to serious health risks for them over time. As a result, cafeteria menus have started changing and candy machines are getting pulled from school hallways. And while sports teams still have the choice of selling candy, this may not seem like a very appropriate choice for teams that are supposed to be promoting, among other things, good health.

Enter an age-old and highly successful way of raising funds that, however, hasnt been widely used by sports teams in the past: the sale of cookbooks. At first glance, cookbooks and sports teams may seem like strange bedfellows, and boys teams may feel it especially unusual to sell them. But in fact, cookbooks offer a lot more variety than candy bars, and a team can put together recipes with any kind of theme, including protein recipes for helping pack on muscle.

"There are so many ways to approach cookbooks," says David Bradley of Fundcraft Publishing, which has helped groups raise money with cookbooks for more than 50 years. "High school teams can afford to do some unusual things, like naming recipes after their players. And since theres such a high profit margin for every sale, they can even choose to include tickets to games as an incentive for people to buy the books, or offer discounted season tickets with every book sale."

In fact, Fundcraft is so confident in the sale of cookbooks, they actually guarantee that a group will make a profit when selling their cookbooks.

If it seems that putting together a cookbook would be a challenge, Bradley offers solutions. "We have ready-made books," he says, "for those groups that dont want to put together a custom book. But on the other hand, we have online tools that allow everyone on the team to do their part -- just the way a team should. If each teammate entered just three recipes from the comfort of their own homes, a book of 100 unique recipes could come together in no time at all."

Candy, pizza, and cookie dough may not have seen the end of their fundraising days, but with our nations new awareness of weight and health, their days may rightly be coming to an end. Cookbooks seem a promising alternative with the chance to promote health rather than abuse it. You can learn more about fundraising with cookbooks at www.fundcraft.com .

Contact:
David Bradley
Fundcraft Publishing, Inc.
(901) 853-7070
http://www.fundcraft.com

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