It has long been held to be true that the appearance of charitable or community cook books came about as an adjunct to raising funds during the Civil War for veterans, widows and orphans through Sanitary Fairs, the first held in Philadelphia in 1864. The Poetical Cook-Book by Maria J. Moss appeared at their Fair published by The Caxton Press of C. Sherman, Son & Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
This slim volume was groundbreaking in the history of women, book publishing, and the uniquely American fund-raising tradition.
In America's Charitable Cooks: A Bibliography by Margaret Cook (1971) the author notes in the Pennsylvania entry The Poetical Cook-Book, "Apparently the first cook book published and sold in the United States to benefit a charitable cause."
Under the New York entries, Ms. Cook says of The Economist (1847) by the New-York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, "Apparently not a fund raising book for charity," but instructions to the poor living on limited incomes.
While researching the history of South Carolina cook books, I read in the introduction to The Carolina House-wife 1847 by Sarah Rutledge (1991, USC Press, Introduction by Anna Wells Rutledge) about Mrs. Elizabeth A. Poyas who "described what old time cooking was . . . long before Miss Sally Rutledge had favored us with that excellent volume 'The Carolina House-wife or Cookery Book, 'which she published for charitable purposes." (The Olden Time of Carolina. By the Octogenarian Lady of Charleston, S.C., 1855.)
Well, it really struck me that the reference to The Carolina House-wife as a charitable cook book is pretty impossible to have been overlooked! The impeccable introduction by Anna Wells Rutledge was first published in 1979 and has been reprinted at least twice by different publishers. There is no indication what charity would have benefited from the various printings of The Carolina House-wife, but I think a historian could look into the literature about her famous family and come to some conclusions about her activities.
So perhaps we have a new first community cookbook!!!
The Carolina Receipt Book; or Housekeeper's Assistant in Cookery Medicine and Other Subjects, Connected with the Management of a Family. By a Lady of Charleston. Charleston S.C. Printed by James S. Burges 1832. In the preface the author states, "...the profits of the work, it may be remarked, are destined to objects of public usefulness, which she hopes will secure for it a still larger extent of patronage. Charleston, S.C., May 17, 1832.
This volume, published anonymously, may have been written by Ms. Rutledge (1782-1855), but it does not match either in the preface or receipts in the The Carolina House-wife. There is some thought it may have been written by Sarah Rutledge's first cousin, Harriott Pinckney (1776-1866), with whom Ms. Rutledge lived in 1849. Harriott's mother had a manuscript book of family receipts several which appeared in Sarah's book (Karen Hess discusses this in The Carolina Rice Kitchen, 1992).
So, perhaps in Mrs. Poyas' comments she erroneously believed 1. The Carolina House-wife 1847 was written by Sarah Rutledge as a charitable cook book, or, 2. She confused Ms. Rutledge's book with The Carolina Receipt Book 1832 that has the charitable attribution in the introduction, or, 3. Perhaps Sarah Rutledge was indeed the author of the earlier work, The Carolina Receipt Book which made her comments as a charitable offering.
Sarah Rutledge gathered not only her own family recipes into this book, but also from the wealthy families of Charleston kitchens thus making it a "community" cook book.
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