NZ Wins Top Community Publication Award. Congratulations St Andrew’s College

TOP ALUMNI/ COMMUNITY RELATIONS PUBLICATION

St Andrew’s College, Christchurch – St Andrew’s Cookbook. 

‘Recipes from the Tartan Kitchen’ is the St Andrew’s College cookbook published in October 2014. This initiative was a fundraiser for the College’s new Centennial Chapel, built to replace the beloved Memorial Chapel destroyed in the 2011 earthquakes.

This community publication was the first cookbook the College had produced and as well as being a fundraiser it was intended to engage the community in the lead up to the centenary celebrations in 2017.

Although the project was initially started in 2013 it was delayed due to a number of issues. An amazing effort from the Advancement team and many hours of work from volunteers ensured that this project was delivered successfully. To date we have raised $133,000 for the new Chapel.

 The Advancement Team was committed to best practice ensuring that communications were professional, a budget adhered to and that sponsors and volunteers were  acknowledged for their support.

If you are thinking about producing a cookbook, we recommend taking the time to understand what sort of publication you want to produce and what the cost of this will be, particularly in terms of staff resource. Strong support from volunteers is essential and, while it does take time to effectively manage volunteers, it is difficult to do these large projects without extensive outside help. A clear project plan and a defined list of responsibilities for each team member is critical.

Things that will take more time than what you initially think are creating data queries to aid your sales strategy and planning and managing the distribution. The marketing plan should take into account a period to build excitement around the book, before the actual sales period begins.

Regular communications with sponsors are also important, especially post-project as they love to get updates on how sales are going.
Francesca Eathorne, Head of Communications