Chester / Central Montco - Family Distribution Partners

This page is designed to offer information for people who 

will be acting as Family Distribution Partners

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. 

Background

Each Toys for Tots campaign is responsible for determining how to distribute gifts to those we are assisting. Our campaign works with families directly and nonprofits who request assistance. 

For the families, the application tells us the name, age, and gender for the children in the families, and often offers some suggestions on the types of gifts they like. Volunteers package those gifts into bags for each family, and they are prepared for pickup

On the day of the event, we will set out a canopy with some volunteers with a list of those families signed up for that specific distribution. 

A family will come up to the volunteers and give their name. The volunteer will go to the back, find the relevant bag, bring it to the applicant and verify it is the correct one, and boom, done

Easy, right?

Except we helped almost 1000 families directly last year, and we try to keep Distributions to 50-75 families per timeslot

This is where we're requesting help. 

How this works

The general process is as follows:

• An organization agrees to offer their location for one or more Family Distributions, during a specific date and time

• That option is added to the Family Distribution Selection, as seen here: https://forms.gle/Sqv1QFvkjJzS5pKq7 

• The first 50-75 families that selected a slot are added to it in our system

• Packing sheets are printed, two per family - one for outside the bag, one for inside if the one inside gets damaged or lost

• Orders are packed in our warehouse by Toys for Tots volunteers

• The family bags are transported to where the distribution will happen, along with an "Oopsie Box" - a small selection of gifts available to swap if there was an issue with what was packed for a family

• Location details are sent to the relevant families, and only those families. We're not going to have gifts onhand to help anyone who wasn't assigned to the distribution

• On the day of the distribution, either Toys for Tots volunteers will distribute the gifts to the families

  • These can be volunteers from our team, or members of your organization, whichever is preferred. We can send a 'distribution lead' to help for the first part if an organization wants to let their own team run the event but would like some initial pointers from someone experienced

• When the time is complete, we close up and are done. Any gifts that were not picked up are logged and either offered to the sponsoring agency or returned to Toys for Tots. 

  • Families that told us ahead of time they won't be able to make it would have been pulled out prior to the distribution. Families that do not show up are unfortunately unable to be served.

  • We do not offer to deliver gifts - it has been demonstrated that doing so sets the expectation that we will do so for all families, and the number of no shows skyrockets. We don't have the ability to deliver for 1000 families

Sounds great. How do we help?

We are seeking sites that are:

• Within our coverage area

• Have a space where gift bags can be stored prior to the  event. This can be fairly compact, as we can pile bags on top of each other

• Have a space where gift bags can be laid out during the distribution - we alphabetize the bags and lay them out, which can take up more real estate. See the picture above to understand what I'm referring to

• Have an easily accessible and describable location where applicants can approach our volunteers. We can send banners, canopies, and tables to help with this, but every year we have people who struggle to find the distributions they have been assigned to

  • Parking must be available as well, as applicants must come to the volunteer table. We cannot 'stack up' cars, as it may take 3-5 minutes to find a bag

• Have a location where our distribution will not disturb your operations or the operations of anyone else. Toys for Tots only works with the support of our community. Having negative social media posts regarding a distribution event negatively impacts our ability to gather gifts for this and future years.

Important notes about publicity

We are happy to acknowledge the assistance of family distribution partners, but a partner should be aware of the following if they want to publicize their participation in one of these events:

• While pictures can be taken and published of our volunteers, the general layout, and anything else related to the setup, under no circumstances can pictures be taken of our applicants. These families are requesting assistance and deserve privacy

• We deliberately do not publish information about our distributions except to those participating to avoid walkups - families that have not applied, do not understand our process, and go to a location believing they can receive gifts. We therefore suggest that any social media posts regarding participation are structured in a way to minimize any confusion on gift availability - i.e.: no specific location details, adding that this was a one off and won't happen again this year, etc.

Thank you for considering helping us -and our applicants - this way