can you exclude a person from whatsapp chat to plan a surprise?

[granana1]

Hi, can anyone help?
I am in a whatsapp group has has approx 50 members and I don't know most of them IRL. I need to arrange a money collection for one member as a present and will set up a paypal thing and send the link round for members to donate. But how do I send it round to all the members excluding the one that the collection is for? Is this possible or will I have to DM every member?

You set up a new WhatsApp group that includes everyone else

But that is 50 people most of whom are not in my saved contacts. I was hoping there would be a quicker way!

Message one of the people you know who seems to know most of the others and ask if they will invite everyone else. You'll probably have to make them an admin of the group.