Vital charity now accepting cash donations in bid to help South Ayrshire kids at Christmas

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Christmas toy bank charity has made the switch to cash-only donations in a bid to curb costs.South Ayrshire Christmas Toy Bank have helped over 6,000 kids in need since starting in 2019 and this year will see many more smiles on faces as youngsters across the region wake up on Christmas Day with gifts to open.The charity, who operate via a formal referral system, have streamlined their services to accept cash only donations via PayPal or bank transfer.

The group will no longer be accepting toy donations. Aileen Quigley, from SACTB, said refining the charity in this way allows them to help more children across South Ayrshire.She said: “We’re collecting cash for a lot of different reasons; mainly so we’re not spending on storage, expenses, fuel, insurances- all these costs which suddenly creep in when you start doing something good.“We’re trying to make sure that we can maximise the amount of money that is going to the kids rather than at the petrol tanks, and companies who store things for us.“We think in our second and third years we took in around 70,000 items, so you can imagine having to sort all those items, get them out to schools etc; the sheer money and resources that goes into that is incredible.“Plus there’s the environmental consciousness, of not driving around pumping fumes into the environment.”Aileen said adding cash donations only was “new territory” and the charity weren’t sure how people would respond, but has found that this modernised way of working is “suiting the way that people shop.”She said: “We were worried about how it would work out because people love to buy toys, but we’re finding that people are enjoying doing this because it’s dead easy.“They just scan the QR code and they can donate