Is it appropriate to set up a go fund me for a playgroup? Other fundraising ideas welcomed

[willsandnoodle]

I run a play group at the local church. Money made from attendants is used for rent, snacks and toy replenishment (all second hand). There is never much in the pot, so I'm constantly using my own money and paying myself back as and when.

I'm thinking of making a go fund me page and sharing on the local town groups on Facebook, is this really cheeky or would you donate? I wouldn't be asking for much, maybe a £100 total or something..

If this is ok, how would you word it?

If you need craft things, consider doing an Amazon wish list so you can specify the items you need and parents can choose to donate them directly to you.

A go fund me would be fine if you were trying to raise money for something specific but they don’t work so well when you need money for general running costs.

You want to be applying for proper funding for this. Local council give grants for under £5k fairly easily, or they should be able to give you suggestions of other funding organisations

How have you set up your finances? Self employed? Community interest company? Charity?

A gofund me will work well if you want to fund specific items like a Wendy House or Lego table. Don't ask for generic cash - people want to know what they pay for.

I assume that you want to make the playgroup as accessible to families as possible and don't want to raise prices or exclude anyone. This is a really good case to make when applying for funds.

Some of the advice here is well meaning but you often need to be an incorporated group, CIC or registered charity. I would find a local charity or trust you can sit within as a group. Whatever you do keep financial records.

Also get to know local organisations and charities as they sometimes have funds for community projects. A local school might do a sponsored walk or non-uniform day for you, for example.

National Lottery small grants
https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/under10k

'I would find a local charity or trust you can sit within as a group.'

The church would be good for this

I agree that I wouldn't put the price up above £3 as that might be the threshold of some people feeling they can't afford it. Realistically that might mean you cut back on what you provide for snacks. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing a gofundme/collection/sponsored thing/etc but as someone else said it's not that sustainable and if you start relying on donations for crafts you'll either need a lot of storage or it'll be a bit of an ongoing chore.

There are plenty of fundraising options although some need a bit more work than others but if you did them on a semi-regular basis then it would mean you wouldn't have to pay out of pocket. I've been involved in a few different local groups and we've raised money in a few ways.

Contact all the supermarkets. Tesco have their blue token thing although there can be a waiting list. Community champions could provide you with things for refreshments too.

If you have people who can volunteer then bag packs at supermarkets can be good for money.

Other ideas could be a quiz night, bingo night, beetle drive, selling "squares" on a sheet, raffles (although depending how it's run you may need a gambling licence for raffles). Quiz nights especially can be popular and if you ask around local pubs there may be some who would organise it for you and give you a share of the entry money if it's not something you'd want to organise yourself.

If there are any local markets, boot sales or craft fayres you can often get a table to run something like a tombola if you tell the organiser you're doing it as a fundraiser.

Check out any local Masonic lodges or Round Table groups, they often donate to local causes.

If you're a not for profit group and everything goes back into the running of the group then make sure to highlight that to people. Does the group have its own bank account rather than the funds going into yours? That will obviously help.

We got funding from the Co-op, we were a local charity for a while ( you can choose which one to support) and got 2k! Are there any local fairs or events you can have a stall at? Have a raffle, second hand toys, ask the parents to do some home baking. Local wind farm has a community fund they gave us a grant too. Got a grant from parish council to serve the kids fruit!

We also negotiated a discount on the room fees for the hall.

Then don't give them unlimited drinks.

I’d stop the unlimited drinks and charge £1 for each additional drink

@willsandnoodle understandable that you don’t want to drive people away, but you cannot continue to find this yourself - if you were fabulous wealthy you wouldn’t be posting asking for advice!
You have the option to create a small slush fund by either putting fees up, cutting costs or finding alternative revenue streams. I found when asking for grants etc even from community funds such as Waitrose scheme, you need a bank account set up purely for that group - I might be out of line but I’m guessing that you don’t have such a thing for your group, and it’s more a run from a petty cash box style set up. In which case you need alternative revenue stream or cut back on what you offer until the books balance.
Alternative revenue stream might be something such as asking the church for a whip round, asking for people to donate materials so you save on purchasing them (amazon wish list or a poster on the door). Or get creative and start a chargeable lending library for surplus toys eg one toy at £1 per week to borrow to take home. Or sell off some surplus toys. Or ask for donations and do a car boot sale/ garage sale. Maybe do a sponsored car wash in the church hall car park in the summer?

I run a baby and toddler group in a church too. It’s not a church group as in non-denominational, but the diocese contributed some money and I applied for a grant from our council. I charge £2 which includes hot drinks for adults and snacks for adults and toddlers and kids and can’t currently spend my surplus. But we don’t pay rent and split the proceeds between the church and the group. We get loads of toys and play stuff donated, I’m having to pass some on to a local charity as we lack storage!

Definitely look into getting a charity bank account set up if you don't have one already - will help massively with getting funding

Our local nursery did a sponsored toddle and raised £800!!!

Is it a business you're running or does the income go to the church?

Some great ideas on here. Depending on your area and local demographic though I agree that simply raising the attendance fee isn’t the obvious answer. It can be make or break for some people as to whether they can get out of the house for maybe that one thing per week. However, you know your demographic best, so if you do raise the price you could make clear that if anyone will find the increase makes the difference between them being able to attend or not to speak to you privately. I saw a woman in tears at one local to us who had thought it was free and looked terrified when she was told it was £1.50 partway through the session. Of course they let her stay anyway and made it clear she was welcome back, but it was clearly more than she could allocate to it. That said, there may well be many attendees who can pay more or donate as a one off.

Sorry if I've understood, rather than a church run playgroup, is this a toddler group you run yourself and hire the church hall for £25?

Could you ask for a reduction in rent? Most churches run their own community playgroups with no need to cover room hire. Apologies if I've misunderstood.

More great replies, thank you.

So it's £3 per family, but if you can't afford it you can come for free, so no child has to miss out.

Unlimited drinks are just instant coffee and tea. Nothing fancy. Biscuits are from Aldi.

It's not a business, and nothing goes back into the church apart from the £25 hire fee.

We have petty cash, no bank account.

I think carboots, table top sales and sponsored cycles around the park are probably the way forward.

The people who ran it before us ran it through the church and didn't charge for it. It was all funded through the church. Not actually sure how, or why we have to pay hall hire. I'm going to need to investigate

When I volunteered for a social enterprise to raise funds, we once asked people for donations of toys/baby equipment etc then held a big table top sale and sold everything off cheaply. It was great because everyone benefited, people decluttered their old stuff, people got bargains with lovely clothes/toys (we were so lucky, the quality of the donations were fantastic overall) the SE made money and all while recycling and helping the environment!

There is a lot of funding and grants available for community projects. Try searching your local council website or enquiring with your district or parish councillor.

I would definitely ask. If they are lucky enough to have you as a volunteer then you really shouldn't have to be covering the cost of the room to run a playgroup for them.

Charging people a small amount for teas and coffees is reasonable of course.

I’ve done several fund applications. The Waitrose one as mentioned above is the easiest. Just fill in a form. I’ve had 3 different charities listed with them in the past.

Hold a jumble sale. People love a good rummage, and others will appreciate a good clear out. Charge everyone 50p to come through the door and you will have a nice chunk of money at the end of the day. I bloody love a jumble sale.

It's pretty bad that the church is charging you £25 a week in hall hire! Our village playgroup is in the local school and they don't charge them anything. Is there somewhere else you could run the group, or can you challenge the church on this?

We pay £3 a family (or £10 for four sessions) and get unlimited drinks and a box of toddler snacks/some oranges. There's usually about 8-10 families there so they'd barely break even on the hall hire if they had to pay it!

I have to say that putting the prices up wouldn't work at our playgroup. I definitely don't think I'd pay more than £3 a week for our playgroup.

The only other thing I could suggest is cutting down on the craft activities, depending on the age of kids you have coming. Our group tried doing crafts but it wasn't getting enough interest from the kids to be worth the hassle/expense.