June 9, 2005 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Helen Hicks, executive director of the Food Bank of Oakland County, in Michigan, says she is always on the lookout for people who might listen to her stories from the front lines of the fight against hunger. She says that people are so struck by her tales of older people who can’t make their Social Security checks stretch, or children who have lost their parents to drugs, they sometimes write a check as soon as she finishes her talk.
So when a woman suggested after one such meeting that Ms. Hicks gather those stories into a book, she jumped at the chance.
The resulting 162-page hardcover book, One Hungry Child, has been raising money — and attracting attention to the plight of the poor — since it was published in December.
To write the book, Ms. Hicks hired Carol Dunitz, a writer who used to volunteer at the food bank. Ms. Dunitz contacted charities across the country for story ideas. The food bank also held a national competition for children to illustrate the book’s cover, and received hundreds of submissions.
So far, the organization has sold 1,000 books at a discounted price to other food banks, which has raised more than $10,000 toward its initial outlay of $35,000 to publish 6,000 copies.
Ms. Hicks hopes that by selling the rest of the copies — half to retailers and half to charities — her organization can make $65,000 in profit for the food bank.
The book is also an effort to produce money for other similar charities. Readers are encouraged to use an envelope found inside the book’s cover to send a check to their local food bank.
Because books are so expensive to produce, Ms. Dunitz recommends that charities consider carefully how they will sell the books before starting a project.
“It’s not enough to have a wonderful book,” she says. “You really have to have a marketing plan.”
Other charities are looking to professionals to publish books for them.
For example, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation recently collaborated with RandallFraser, an Irvine, Calif., publishing company, to create a new children’s book.
The book uses imaginary characters to tell the story of Mr. Reeve, the actor who died last year after battling spinal-cord injuries sustained in a horseback-riding accident.
By donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of 50,000 copies of the $18.95 book, which was released last month, the publishers say they hope to raise $250,000 for the foundation.
Barron Publishing, in State College, Pa., offers six books on estate planning that it customizes for nonprofit groups by putting the organization’s name and address on the back cover.
About 50 nonprofit organizations have purchased the books, which include Estate Planning Success for Women and Wills, Trusts and Your Estate Plan.
The California Pacific Medical Center Foundation, in San Francisco, bought 500 copies of two of the company’s books to give to trustees, elderly volunteers, and supporters who have taken estate-planning classes. Leonard Graff, the foundation’s director of gift planning, says 50 of the 200 people who have been offered the book free have accepted it.
Purchasing the books at that volume costs the foundation $12 per book, but Mr. Graff sees the books as a long-term investment. “People don’t tend to throw away a book the way they toss away a pamphlet,” he says. “And one bequest will pay for the order many times over.”
Robert Harrison, director of gift planning at the University of Maryland at College Park, ordered 100 copies of the books and is giving them out to big donors or people interested in estate planning. The university takes the publisher’s customization one step further by affixing a label with suggested bequest language to the book’s inside back cover.
Mr. Harrison says that donors have been grateful for the book. “They feel like they’re learning much more because they’ve got a resource,” he says.
For more information on the anti-hunger book, contact Helen Hicks, Food Bank of Oakland County, (248) 332-1473; http://www.onehungrychild.com.
For more information on the estate-planning books, contact BobHarrison, Director of Gift Planning, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742, (301) 405-0323; or contact Leonard Graff, Director of Gift Planning, California Pacific Medical Center Foundation, 3700 California Street, First Floor, San Francisco, Calif. 94118, (415) 600-2410, graffl@sutterhealth.org.
