Chester / Central Montco Agency Applicants

This page is designed to offer information for people who may be seeking assistance from Toys for Tots for their Non-profit or Agency

It is important to understand that this is relevant for the Chester / Central Montgomery PA campaigns  only. Each Toys for Tots campaign is run independently, and have their own processes and procedures. Just like our campaign cannot be expected to offer something another campaign does that we cannot, applicants outside our area should not expect their local campaign to work this way. Your local campaign is solely responsible for the processing of your application and the conditions they choose to set. 

Those that donate to Toys for Tots expect their gifts to be utilized for those most in need. These are not "free" or "extra" gifts that are available for public relations purposes or community parties. The goal of our program is to support children who might otherwise receive nothing.  If your organization is requesting assistance from Toys for Tots, it is our expectation that you are using any supplied gifts for that purpose, and that purpose only  

Q: When can we request assistance?

The Agency Application window has closed for 2025

Q: How do we apply?

A: Please select the site appropriate to your county to enter an application:

Chester County: Go to http://chester-county-pa.toysfortots.org/  select "Request a Toy", then  "Non-Profit / Agency Application"

Montgomery County: Go to https://montgomery-county-pa.toysfortots.org/ select "Request a Toy", then  "Non-Profit / Agency Application" Please view the map on the site to ensure you are applying to the correct campaign. 

It is the applicant's responsibility

• Use an email address they have ready access to, and check it multiple times per week during the campaign, especially in December

• Verify their application was submitted

Applicants will be sent an automated email confirmation message. If you did not receive an email within 24 hours of entering your application, it was not processed.

If you didn't see this screen, your application was not properly processed

You can also verify by using the Application Checker tool, here: https://www.toysfortots.org/check-status-of-toy-application/

Q: What is different for 2025?

A:The biggest thing you will notice is:  You cannot enter a request for children in your application. We are changing how we support our Agency / Nonprofit partners, and the default Toys for Tots form does not support what we are doing.

We are therefore using the Application as a way to gather details on the organizations requesting support , but will only be offering support to those organizations that comply with the following

• Agencies requesting support from Toys for Tots are to be working with a specific, known list of families. If you are not, we cannot support you.

We do not want you to send us details on your families. However, it is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure they are only requesting support for a specific, known list of families. We do not receive enough support to support more generalized giving 

• Agencies can request support for no more than 50 families. Again, this is not a goal to strive for. This is the maximum support your organization can request.  

• Agencies must maintain records sufficient to support the Family Matching process. Toys for Tots will not ask for your list of families unless it appears to have not complied with our requirements in good faith. You will need to compare your list to our list of families so we can inform those families they will be served by your organization and not directly from us.

• Agencies will still face the same limitations on the maximum number of children in certain age ranges they can request assistance for as we have faced in the past. Once they have signed up families that hit that threshold, they cannot sign up more. Do not sign up 50 families and request gifts for 100 children 11+. We will not be able to honor your application. It is the Applicants responsibility to track the numbers of children in each age bracket and ensure they do not overenroll.  You will need to find additional sources of support if you do so

Repeating: Toys for Tots will not provide assistance if you choose to enroll families above the thresholds we are able to support. Your organizations will be limited to the thresholds every other organization needs to comply with. It will be up to your organization to find sources of gifts outside of Toys for Tots if you choose to overenroll. 

Q: I'm not comfortable recording information on my applicants

A: We understand why this request may represent a challenge for some organizations. If you have an alterative you would like to suggest, we are willing to discuss this with you. However, it should be understood that Toys for Tots does not receive enough support  to serve anything but families requiring assistance. 

In the past, Toys for Tots has received requests from organizations that have opened their doors to anyone in the community to receive assistance. We do not receive enough support from the public to support such activities. The goal of Toys for Tots is to offer assistance to children that might otherwise receive nothing. We cannot support unstructured community giving or block parties.

Q: What are the limits on the support we can seek

Toys for Tots is dependent on the support of our community to meet your requests, and the donations we receive from the public are unfortunately insufficient to meet historical request patterns. To ensure that we are able to offer at least some support to all agencies, these are the 2025 application limits

Maximum number of families per Agency: 50

Maximum number of children per Agency: 300

Age Group 0 - 2: Max 50 per gender

Age Group 3-5: Max 100 per gender

Age Group 6-7: Max 50 per gender

Age Group 8-10: Max 35 per gender

Age Group 11+: Max 35 per gender

Because your agency will need to have detailed information on your applicants to comply with our application process, we will request a further breakdown to better meet the needs of your families by year. Rather than groupings of age, for your final numbers we will ask for a breakdown for each age - 2 years old, 3 years old, 4 years, old, etc. 

However, they will still need to comply with the general groupings above, as that represents the gifts we receive from the community

Q: What is the 2025 timeline?

On or before Oct 1: Application window opens. Agency / Nonprofit form set as live on toysfortots.org site. They also need to fill out the Intake Survey to ensure they understand the limitations of the 2025 campaign

Nov 1st : Agency application will close. No further agency signups will be accepted

 Nov 1st - Nov 7th:  Checkpoint Survey needs to be filled out, demonstrating that applicants have been recording information on the families they are seeking to support. Agencies that do not fill out the Checkpoint survey or respond to emails will be disapproved. 

Nov 14th - Nov 19th:  Agencies should not be signing up any further families. The families signed up by Nov 14th is your final list. Final numbers must be entered into the Final Number Form

Nov 19th - Nov 24th:  Family Matching. Information on Individual Families that have requested support directly from Toys for Tots will be shared with agencies, in a format similar to the following: Family Matching Template. It is the expectation that you will be comparing the Family Match data with the applications you have been taking. Those families can seek assistance from Toys for Tots directly, or through your organization, but not both. Agencies will be required to send a list of matches, or a statement that no matches were found. 

Friday, Nov 28th: Approval / Denial - Agencies that have complied with all of the above will be sent an email stating that they have been approved, and that additional information will follow. Agencies that did not will have been given multiple opportunities to comply, and will be disapproved at this point. 

Repeating: Toys for Tots does not have time to chase responses. As of 2024 the Coordinator is the only person who can initiate and respond to these emails. That person has a day job they need to maintain as well as their responsibilities to Toys for Tots. It is unfair to our volunteers and donors to ask for special treatment - if you're unwilling or unable to respond to communications regarding your request to us for assistance, it is likely that pattern will continue during the distribution process, and there is too much to accomplish in too short of a time frame to permit that.

Agencies should keep the following timelines in mind; we cannot supply gifts to most agencies until our colleection process is complete

Montgomery County Consolidation: Thursday Dec 11th - Sunday Dec 14th

Chester County Consolidation: Thursday Dec 11th - Sunday Dec 14th

Dec 15th - Dec 19th - Agency Distribution. We can only offer what we receive. Some age ranges may not have a second gift available. The gifts available will be dependent on collections, plus how many Agencies sign up for a Second Pass. 

Q: I have more than 50 families that we need to support

A: We understand, but we do not have the ability to offer more than what we have

Toys for Tots is dependent on the community to support your requests. We are fully run by volunteers. We only have the gifts and financial support from the community, with a baseline of support from the Toys for Tots Foundation that is meant to supplement, not replace, community support.

We don't have the community support. We don't have the toys. We don't have the volunteers. We don't have the time

You will need to make whatever judgement you can on which of your families you request support for, or seek support from other sources.

My alternative is to only work with three or four organizations per county and reject all other requests. We don't have enough support from the community to meet every legitimate request we receive

Q: Here is our application. It, completely by coincidence, has 300 children and maxes out several categories

A: Don't do this. I won't even reply to your request when we get to that phase of the process, I will just disapprove it. We need to work with partners who are going to work with us, not try to exploit the process to maximize their gains at everyone else's expense. We do not have the time to deal with bad actors. Applicants should not expect support if they do not put in a good faith effort to meet the requirements of the program

Q: I have specific reasons this won't work for my organization

A: You need to contact me NO LATER THAN OCT 15th to discuss. I will try to work with people who put in the effort to discuss the issue ahead of time. I will *not* be willing to do so if someone ignored the information above and can't comply at the last moment. We will have no choice but to disapprove your application in that case

I should note that the agency requesting an exception will be responsible for suggesting an alternate method of verifying the accuracy of their application and that the limits will still be in place. Bluntly, we don't have enough time to run a bespoke verification process for every applicant, and the expectation is that you're going to be providing some form of tangible assistance to the Toys for Tots program such as significant volunteer hours or hosting a remote distribution to justify the extra effort required to treat your campaign differently. 

If that is not feasible, and we understand it may not be, the standard process is going to need to be followed. Again, this process requires extra time and resource from a Toys for Tots perspective. It's not something we want to do. It is, unfortunately, what we need to do to ensure the resources available to us go to those most in need - but I can't ask some agencies to comply and give a pass to others. The implication there is that we offer trust to some of our applicants, but not others. That is not sustainable in the long term.

Q: Do you have an example of a sample application or the type of information we'll need to supple?

For your internal records, you can use something similar to this Toys for Tots Sample Paper Application

The above is for sample purposes only. You may modify it as you see fit. This is not an 'official' application, and Toys for Tots does not need (or want) to see copies of the above. You should use whatever method is best for you.

In the unlikely event you need to share information with Toys for Tots, we will be seeking information in this following format: Toys for Tots Sample Data Sharing Doc . Again, this is not required by default

Q: Do we need to request any documentation from our families?

A: No. If you determine there is a family need of support, that is sufficient to request it. We are not interested in being the 'toy police'. The limitations above are limitations based our the support available to our campaign, not because I relish the thought of more paperwork. 

That being said, Toys for Tots is designed to help children who might otherwise receive nothing. It's not designed so you can look good. If the people you're applying for don't actually require support, and you're just applying for gifts because you want to be nice, please consider leaving the Agency slot open for those who needs are more desperate.

Q: If I follow all the rules, can you guarantee my children will be supported?

A: No

We can only offer what we receive from the public. If we do not receive sufficient donations, I cannot offer them to you. This is why it is critical that you explain to the families you are seeking to support that there is no guarantee it will be provided 

We strive for two gifts per child. We often can only supply one. And the lack of donations for older children mean sometimes we can't even do that

I have reviewed all of the above. What are my next steps?

1 - Fill out the application on the appropriate Toys for Tots website no later than Saturday, Nov 1st

Enter one, and *only* one, child in the application. The application will not accept more

The age bracket does not matter, the 'cap' is coded as one child. We will gather your actual request below

2 - Fill out the Agency Intake survey:   2025 Agency Intake Questionnaire

Failure to do both of these things will prevent you from receiving support from Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots is organized by volunteers with limited time to dedicate to the program. We do not have time to chase the representative of your organizations. If you are seeking support from us, we are asking you to supply us with the information necessary to evaluate your request; if you are unable to do so we will regretfully disapprove your application. 

Additional notes:

The goal of Toys for Tots is to offer gifts to children who might otherwise receive nothing. Gifts donated by our community tend to be in the $10 -$20 range. No video games, clothing, gift cards, or items such as bikes will be offered. If you are seeking something other than what Toys for Tots can offer, please apply for assistance through a different organization - we can only offer what we receive. Toys for Tots will not spend donor funds to meet requests of Agencies for specific items. 

Some email providers such as Yahoo seem to send toysfortots.org emails to spam. It is recommended you apply from a different email provider. No matter what provider you use, if you do not receive a confirmation email within 24 hours of submitting your application, we do not have it, and you must reenter it. If it is in your spam folder, flag the message are Not Spam so you see the follow up messages you will need to respond to

• • You *must* have access to an email account to apply to our campaign. Important information will be sent at several times during the process, including information on your distribution appointment. If you do not check your email, you will not receive the information on where to pick up gifts

Our Toys for Tots campaign cannot deliver gifts to Agencies; you will be expected to come to the warehouse to pick them up. We are willing to make an exception for our Distribution Partners, as we need to drop off the family bags to your organization

Toys for Tots will have a different "warehouse" location every year - we are loaned space from different donors every year - and that location may not be convenient to your location. 

• • If your organization has 10-20,000 square feet to loan our campaign from Oct to December, let us know. We are only able to operate out of the spaces we are loaned, which are not necessarily located where is convenient for your organization