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?

Are you aware that gofundme take a percentage of all money donated? For this alone- I wouldn't use it was an option for fundraising!
I agree with asking for toy or craft donations instead.

What craft items are you making? Could you make them from everyday items parents could donate such as egg cartons, kitchen paper centre cardboard tubes, empty plastic bottles etc? Home made play doh? Dried garden leaves to stick on paper?

I agree with all of this, particularly the part about the crafts. In the toddler groups I've been involved with the parents love the crafts (it's a great selling point of the group, getting people through the door, images of the crafts do really well on SM etc) but the kids don't seem to care at all 😂

I'm reluctant to ask for more, as I don't want to drive people away.
I think you've probably got to decide what your main aim is then because that will reflect what you offer and what you charge.

This is oversimplified but either:

You're an affordable playgroup and want to maximise the number of people who can come, in which case you're probably going to need to cut back on crafts and other costs to maintain an affordable option. The group is pitched as a standard community hall, toys and a cup of tea playgroup.

Or

You're running a play session with unlimited drinks, biscuits, food for the children and craft activities, in which case the pricing needs to cover costs and the group needs to be pitched more as a play session/ like a more affordable version of many baby and toddler classes.

I might be barking up the wrong tree but it seems like stuck in the worst of both worlds offering more than a standard playgroup, but not enough to make the jump to a slightly more expensive session, whilst also wanting to keep the price low and attract people who can't or aren't interested in paying a little more.

Playgroup here Scotland, you leave two year olds and pay a small fee.

Family toddlers you stay and still pay a smaller fee.

Lots of local charities and bigger ones offer grants.

Lottery for example. Down to charity begins at home here.

Church shouldn't be charging that.

Go fund me would be my last option, and I run one, albeit a playgroup.

We do grants, fees, £4 for two hours a week with snack no parents.

Community fundraising twice a year.

Coffee mornings, quiz night, bingo, stall at school fair

I'm going to put the price up. I don't want to offer less snack and drinks, as that's part of the groups charm - parents can bring their children and drink as much coffee as they like as it's help yourself. No one really takes many biscuits. It's relaxed and the kids get fed, and we want to hold on to that.

Ask if the church (or congregation) would consider sponsoring it as part of their community outreach.

I think that’s reasonable. I help with a similar one and it’s all very similar pricing - we charge £3 but that includes drink, biscuit and hot drink for adults. Definitely couldn’t do unlimited snack plates on that!

Would you like to attract more people? Do you do social media?

Do you not have a community Facebook page? Ask on there. I have a large dolls house with all the bits, a table and chairs and a melissa and doug hospital/drs surgery large wooden role play, a smoby hairdresser role play salon toy that I donated to our local playgroup. I made contact with them on Facebook and showed them pictures. All the toys were used but had all the parts and accessories and were in great shape.

I would be careful about how you ask this. I've been the person dealing with hiring in a church. 75% of hirings are charities, and you regularly get groups that think theirs is such a good cause that you won't mind giving them the room for free.
However the church still has to pay for lighting, heating, heating the hot drinks up etc. So it's not free for them. People always think churches should do things for free, but energy companies don't pass that one one - they're just as expensive as for anyone else.
They're probably also storing the toys, and groups are always asking for "just a small corner space in a cupboard, we'll pay for it!" and storage is very limited.

And we were certainly in the position that if the playgroup had decided to go elsewhere we had a waiting list for that room in the mornings who would have paid more for the room.

Definitely! I'm surprised they're charging you. Is it the only playgroup run at the church?

OP I was a community midwife years ago, and appealed to my church congregation for baby clothes and maternity clothes which families no longer needed.

I got loads of stuff donated! And baby equipment.

Can you ask the minister to make a similar appeal, for used toys? Not to mention monetary contributions.

You might be surprised what you get.

What about something like bag2school? We used to do this at preschool, it was a lot easier to ask for outgrown clothes than money!

bag2school.com

I used to run a similar group, and we found that a Toy Swap was a good fundraiser - everyone pays, say, £2 to get in, and then if you bring 5 toys you can choose 5 toys to take home, or you can buy toys for a set amount. Same thing for books and clothes.

We would also occasionally do "extra" events that made a bit of money, like a Christmas craft morning where parents could bring kids for a couple of hours and do craft together. They'd pay a fiver or something and get to do a few crafts, and have tea/coffee/juice and biscuits.

Also worth asking the church about how the group before was run. In general I think if it's run as a church group then you wouldn't pay rent, but would have to accept input from the church, including any rules around what can and can't be done. If you're hiring the hall then you probably have a bit more freedom.

I agree with whoever said above that churches have to charge rent like everyone else - they need to cover heat (often quite expensive, especially if they have to put it on specially for your group), electric, water, general building maintenance, and probably a caretaker to make sure the room is safe and clean for when you come to use it.

Your charging policy isn’t the fairest, what happens if you’re one adult who doesn’t drink coffee with a baby who isn’t going to eat? Personally I wouldn’t be donating for
other peoples’ children to have a craft and a snack unless you were a charity specifically targeting disadvantaged/ disabled etc. I’m not sure who is going to donate, if it’s the people using the service you might a well have an honesty box donate what you can for crafts or whatever

I hope the church isn't charging you much rent though! They don't charge round here for not for profit playgroups like this.

and ask the Church to do a second collection for you

Why do you think the people that attend the Church, and already are trying to maintain the building and pay for all the increased utilities, insurance costs etc, should also subsidise the playgroup ?

There are huge numbers of charities out there that you could apply to - particularly if you are only looking for a small amount.

As has been suggested, lots of the supermarkets do small grants like this, but there are 100s of charitable trusts with funding for all sorts of things if you do a bit of searching.
Our Council produces a 9 or 10 page list every quarter to whoever wants it, of Charities to apply for for all sorts of things - it is a case of working through and seeing which ones you'd fall under the remit of.

Even the small grants often expect you to be a constituted non profit group with a bank account.
How are you funding your public liability insurance?

Instead of raising the costs if that will alienate some people, why don't you get a little money box and if people are having more than one drink they could donate towards the costs. But if they can't afford it then that's ok too. Even if half the attendees could afford an extra 50p or £1 a session it's better than nothing. Sometimes with raising prices it's not worth it if you have fewer people attending, it can be a balancing act but this could be a first step before considering a cost raise.

If your snack offering is what sets your group apart then I think you're right to increase the price a little and keep what you like about your group. Charging a little more when it's obvious you're offering more than other playgroups seems fair to me.

You could introduce a Pay It Forward option so those who can afford it pay an entry cost for someone who can't afford it. It would help keep things balanced when you're letting people come for free.

Whatever you change someone will complain. Sometimes I found some parents were quite cheeky with what they expected and seemed to think groups should run for a couple of quid, and be at the right time for them, and do refreshments for adults, and biscuits, and juice for the kids, and have a good selection of toys, and have a big enough room, and have some sort of craft and activity or a story, and run in the holidays. It's like they don't appreciate that these groups are ran by volunteers and have their own overheads and lives. The ones complaining weren't the ones volunteering at groups either.

Are you running the group yourself or as part of a church? If it's part of the church and done as some of their local community work, there will probably be grants available.

Our church has a parents/tots group and we received funding for padded flooring, toys as well as kid friendly plates and cups for snacks. Local authorities might offer grants and there's bigger grant making trusts too.

Oh also, if you're doing snacks etc, definitely contact local big supermarkets and ask for donations of milk, biscuits etc. Again, we do a weekly lunch club for people on low incomes/in receipt of benefits and we get donations of sandwiches, crisps and drinks from a supermarket. Big shops do like to be seen supporting their local community.

Make a list of consumables and contact the Tesco community worker locally. Ours is always donating to projects. They do like a photo for social media.

Contact all your local supermarkets, our Tesco, Co op and Waitrose all regularly donate goods to local not for profits like yours, that should cover most of your food and drinks for a while.

Join all the local freebie Facebook pages and check them frequently, there are always toys and craft stuff being given away. Most don’t let you actually request items but a few do, or general pages for your local area might.

Check local grants available. Small ones are usually very easy to apply for. Our Parish council gives such grants and you just have to fill in a simple form, you could easily get a couple of hundred pounds that way.

Good luck!

The £25 room hire would barely cover the church's costs for cleaning let alone heating, lighting, other electricity costs.

A toddler group I used to go to would ask parents to bring a piece of fruit with them (as in a single banana or a handful of grapes) the volunteers would chop all the fruit up for the children's snack. This worked really well and would cut down on some of your expenses.

With regards to the church reducing the hall rent, you could try asking them but, at the end of the day, they still have to pay to heat the place and might have to turn down a paid booking because you are using the hall. Does the playgroup have any sort of Christian element to it or a link to the church? They may be more amenable to reducing the rent if the group was part of their Christian outreach.