Launching our 2024 Fundraising Campaign
Running a toy library costs more than you might think!
New toys, boxes & bags for the toys, utilities, room hire fees, administration costs and most importantly wages for our AMAZING toy librarian Marissa all add up. Rising costs of living are even impacting us.
We know that keeping membership fees LOW is important to YOU so we are launching our 2024 fundraising campaign, But we need your help to make it successful.
What does it cost to run a toy library?
It currently costs over $4,000 per month to run the Cockburn Toy Library. This includes two amazing locations, four opening sessions per week, bookkeeping service fees, access to over 2,000 toys and the wisdom and support of our paid toy librarian Marissa.
While our membership fees cover some of these costs our current income isn't meeting these expenses - we are losing around $500 per month.
What are we doing?
In the short term we have made some difficult decisions to reduce costs and ensure we can keep going.
The quickest way to do this is reduce the hours we are open.
We have paused purchases of new toys, though there has been no shortage of additions to the collection thanks to donations from the community and our members!
Longer term we are looking for new ways to fundraise. Our photo sessions in May were one avenue we tried. We have scheduled a Bunnings Sausage Sizzle for 3 August and have been trailing selling chocolate boxes as another income stream.
How can you help?
As we all know, many hands make light work. We understand you all have busy lives as parents so we have put together several different ways for you to help fundraise for your community toy library.
Do you have another suggestion about ways you can help? We'd love to hear it!!
Email us, send a message on social media or have a chat next time you are in the toy library.
Changes to Opening Hours
From 1 July the Coolbellup branch will open on alternate Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week. We will be opening on 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month and 2nd and 4th Tuesdays. We chose this to ensure our regular Tuesday & Wednesday members still get to use the toy library on their preferred day, and this will coincide with the 2 week loan period. Committee will also be trying to take one Saturday shift per month, which will help cut down our wages expense. We will be closed this Saturday 1 June, as it is the WA Day long weekend.
If you are ever unsure of when to visit, please check our SeTLS database calendar for the correct open hours.
If our fundraising efforts are successful we will be able to return to full open hours - if they are unsuccessful we may need to look into increasing our membership fees.
Volunteer at Bunnings - 3 August 2024
We will be running a Bunnings sausage sizzle on Saturday 3rd August at Bibra Lake. We need members to assist with set up, cooking, assembling, selling items and pack down on that day. There is a variety of time slots and roles to select from. This will count towars volunteering duties for Active members. Please click on the button below to sign up to volunteer.
Can't be there on the day? You can still help by donating sausages, bread, drinks and sauce for us to use on the day. Please contact us via email if you would like to donate items for our sausage sizzle.
Sell chocolates on our behalf to raise funds!
The committee have trialled raising funds through selling chocolate boxes and now you can have a bite too!
We will periodically order boxes for member sto collect and sell either to work, friends, school or family. If this sounds right for you, let us know how many and which type of of box you can sell below.
If just one quarter of our members each sold one box we could make $1,000. Just image how much we could raise if every member sold two boxes.
Don't think you can sell a chocolate box - make a tax deductible donation of $20 instead (the average profit for each box sold).
Can you be our committee Treasurer?
For the last year we have been outsourcing our financial tasks to a book keeper as we did not have a treasurer nominate for the committee at the 2023 Annual General Meeting. This expense could be cut in half if we could have a member assist with the Treasurer tasks. Can you work a calculator? Do you want to learn Xero? Do you have approximately 2 hours a week to spare to help us get back on top financially?
Please let us know if you can help lighten the load!
Collect Containers
Don't let your containers go to waste - give the 10c to us!
We are registered cause with Containers for Change.
We have C4C green mesh bags for you to take home and fill.
Please use our member number C11040663 when dropping cans off at a collection point or alternatively bring your containers to our Coolbellup branch and we will take them to a depot to claim the refund.
If half our members filled a green mesh bag with eligible containers we would make around $400 - just like that!
With thanks,
Cockburn Toy Library Committee
Comments