When I started my little publishing company it was part of my mission to help non-profits whose goal it was to serve children. Because my first two books were about adoption from Russia and EE, the charities I’ve partnered with and donated to so far have been specific to either Russian orphanages, orphaned children around the world, or to children in general. You can read more about the specific charities I’ve given to on my website.

Basically, my giving has manifested itself in 3 ways: first, I give 5% of my profits to non-profits each fiscal quarter. Second, I partner with non-profits to help them raise funds, and third, I have a fundraising party every year on my family’s made-up holiday, “Family Day,” where I ask friends and family to donate to whatever cause my family’s decided would be a good one. One year we asked people to bring some shoes to donate to Buckner’s Shoes for Orphan Souls project, for example. Another year we raised enough money to buy a self-sustaining farming orphanage for older children in Siberia to buy a couple of sheep. That has been a really fun way to raise money for organizations I believe in, but it doesn’t have specific business applications (or at least I haven’t thought of any….yet).

It’s the second way that I’ve helped charities that I wanted to talk about in this blog: partnering with non-profits to help them raise money. In addition to being “a good thing,” this has very clear benefits to the publisher. First, it makes you look good. Second, the people involved with the non-profit are essentially selling the book for you - they’re a little marketing squad out there doing good things. And finally, the split you give whatever charity you’re working with can be as much as 50% the cover price of the book - which is no more than what you give Amazon just for being a giant mega-store.

At DRT Press we’ve partnered with EEAC, with different chapters of FRUA, as well as a few adoption agencies. I’d really love to do more partnerships with our adoption books, since the few organizations we’ve partnered up with have done well. EEAC, for example, had a click-through review of When I Met You on their website and the first year I send them checks that totalled about $800. With The Big Fun Guide to Tar Heel Country we already have two partnerships in place: the first is with Woods Charter School; they will be using our book to raise money for the outdoor spaces at their new school. The second is with Head’s Up Therapeutic Riding, which will use the money for whatever they need. Head’s Up is an organization that my youngest son has been involved with for a couple of years as a peer rider.

I am hoping to do a lot of fundraising with The Big Fun Guide to Tar Heel Country - one of my marketing strategies is to contact all the schools in the area and offer them the same arrangement we’re having with Woods. I’m actually really thankful to Woods for taking a chance with me and my little book before it’s even published! (It doesn’t hurt that I’m very good friends with the women on their fundraising committee…)

VIrginia Brucker, the author of Gifts from the Heart, has perfected this fundraising strategy. When I first started DRT Press she was a regular contributor on the self-publishing list on yahoogroups, and she was kind enough to send me a multi-page document that told how she started her company and how she’s sold tens of thousands of copies of her books since she started her company - solely as fundraisers for non-profits. I still have a print out of what she sent, but alas, don’t have it in electronic form.  Here is a summary of what she says about using your self-published book as a fundraiser:

• create the best product you can- read everything about self-publishing, marketing, production
• create a product that will work for the non-profits you wish to partner with
• market nonstop
• be ready to work hard
• choose a non-profit that you believe in. You can learn many aspects of self-publishing but you can’t fake commitment.
• research your fundraising partner and use what you learn to create your marketing plan
• choose a charity that’s high profile
• realize that many non-profits move very slowly
• communicate!
• have a contract
• evaluate your financial commitment carefully. It’s easier to give more than you’ve committed to than less.

Have any of you D.I.Y. publishers had any success partnering with non-profits? How has it worked for you? Do you have any advice for publishers trying to market their books this way?

Here’s another blog I wrote (with help) on partnering with non-profits to sell books.