The team at Little Things for Tiny Tots are clear about their goal; they want to make sure that every baby can thrive. Their purpose is to help families that need a helping hand, to care for their newborns by supplying essential items.
It started in 2015, with the three co-founders, all young mums, collecting baby items from friends and family, packing these into kits in their lounge rooms, and distributing them through two agencies in Perth.
Eight years on, the Little Things for Tiny Tots charity has grown beyond recognition. It now distributes over 50 types of baby items and kits, works with 50 agencies, involves hundreds of volunteers, has one paid staff, strong corporate partnerships, and multiple fundraising activities. And there is still plenty of potential to grow. It’s an exciting time for the organisation.
Kiren Bigwood, Co Founder of Little Things for Tiny Tots spoke to Jane Mason, Member Services Manager, at Volunteering WA:
A member of Volunteering WA since 2019 and a regular host to corporate teams of volunteers facilitated by Volunteering WA, Kiren Bigwood one of three co-founders shares their journey to date, her deep respect and appreciation for volunteers, what she has learned along the way and how being a member of Volunteering WA has helped the charity to grow.
Kiren, tell us more about Little Things for Tiny Tots (LTFTT) and impact
"We work with volunteers to collect donations from the community of new and used baby items, and to sort and repackage them into curated kits. Then we distribute the kits to the community through a network of 50-60 agencies across WA. These include Department of Child Protection Services, hospitals, women’s refuges, and foster care agencies.
When we started it was just three friends. We collected baby items from our family and friends, and we gave the first four boxes to a women's domestic violence refuge and Pregnancy Assistance in Perth. Now we send out over 700 boxes a year. We helped 2,100 families last financial year. We have several 100 volunteers and have donated over $200,000 worth of goods into the community in the last year.
There's so much need in our community. A lot of agencies haven't heard about us yet. WA is a big state. There's so much potential for us to grow. It's an exciting time."
How do you involve volunteers?
"Until last year we were 100% volunteer run.
We have a leadership committee that guides the charity.
We host two community sessions and three to four corporate sessions a month to sort through the items delivered to us. Quality control is very important.
For the community sessions people just sign up on the website, come in on the day, sign in, no pre training, help with whatever is needed on the day and then off they go. If people enjoy it, they come back and if they don't have more time to commit, that's fine.
The corporate sessions are similar, they are run through Volunteering WA.
We have an operational team who work behind the scenes, with a raft of different skills that we need, like HR, communications, marketing, partnerships, and grants. They do a few hours a week, working remotely."
What do you do well?
"We've always been very inclusive with our volunteers. We're one of the few organisations in WA that allows people to bring their children to the sessions. Mums come in with their babies. They can come and go depending on nap times! There’s a lot of women working part time or not working. They have young kids and time to give, but they need to take their kids with them. I think that makes us unique.
"Parents say they love the fact that they can get their kids involved at a young age and teach them about volunteering."
We also have students, couples, and retirees - the whole age range! There's always a job for someone to do. If you're not comfortable lifting and carrying stuff, then you can sit and sort through clothes or hand write cards.
We've always made our volunteer sessions friendly and really engage with our volunteers. We have learnt over the years volunteers that you form a real connection with tend to stick around longer. They know what they’re doing which makes it easier and they also develop a strong relationship with the charity.
It's a feel-good kind of space for volunteers.
We tell our volunteers what impact they've made and show our appreciation for them. We sometimes tell them stories about the families receiving the boxes and we have a volunteer newsletter. So, they know that the time they've given to us has made a difference. I think it’s important because our time is so precious."
What’s your biggest challenge now?
"Filling the long-term roles is our biggest challenge right now - to get someone to commit to one or two hours every week, for six months to a year.
We normally advertise those roles and interview. We find people who have already volunteered for us at a community session are more engaged and likely to fulfil one of those roles, other people come to us from personal connections and word of mouth.
We're fortunate to work all online. We set everyone up with their own email, and they can access all our documents and so we can work remotely.
When we decided that we needed a paid staff member, one of our volunteers put her hand up. She started out as a community session volunteer, then moved to the operational team. We interviewed others, but she ended up getting the role because she had great experience, knowledge of the organisation and was clearly committed and passionate about our cause."
Why did you choose to distribute your goods through agencies
"As a new mum I had a lot of baby items I didn’t need any more, I could have given them to the Salvos or Good Sammy's, but I wanted to give them to a baby and a family that needed them right then. But how to determine need? We were clear from the beginning that that would never be the charity’s purpose. We collect the goods, and distribute them, but we are never going to decide who gets them and who doesn't. We wanted to partner with organisations that already work with vulnerable families and children, who already have those networks and that understanding.
Secondly, we were operating out of our homes, and we didn't want a lot of people coming to our homes, so it made more sense to have an agency that could collect a big quantity of goods and then distribute them to their networks.
It’s one of our core principles, not to duplicate what's already out there. We did our research, and we couldn't find another organisation at the time that was doing what we did. We called a lot of agencies to ask if the service would be of use."
How did you get into this role?
"When I had my own child, I remember thinking this tiny baby is so vulnerable, is 100% reliant on me to provide everything it needs. As a new mother there's so much emotion. It made me think about all those families where the baby isn't getting what it needs for whatever reason. I was fortunate; I had a family that supported me; financial stability, emotional, mental support. But I thought what about for those families who didn't know where their next pay check was coming from? I wanted to do something with all the surplus baby things I had.
I had this idea of starting a charity. I asked a girlfriend who also had young child about it, and she thought it was a great idea, and we asked another friend who also thought it was amazing and wanted to join us.
We are all from professional backgrounds. We had good understanding of the business world, but we had never started a charity. I'm a process driven person. I like to do my due diligence. So, we started to research. We found other organisations in other states - St Kilda's Mums in Victoria, Dandelion Support Network in NSW – but there was a gap in the market in WA. Seeing the success of other ‘sister’ organisations was an inspiration. We thought if they can do it, why can't we?
So, we decided to do it, but we wanted to do it properly. We knew we wanted to create an enduring charity. And that's what we're always working towards. We helped 2,100 families last year and we’re only servicing approximately 10% of the children living in poverty in WA, according to recent Anglicare reports."
When did you decide to get a paid staff member?
"The charity was growing. At one point, on top of my part time paid work, I was volunteering 15-20 hours a week on the charity, and it wasn't sustainable. I and other volunteers on the committee didn’t want to burn out and then step away from the charity and see it collapse.
At the same time, we'd been doing a lot of fundraising, building up our bank balance and then we won a significant grant from the St George Foundation, which covered so many other programs and costs. It gave us the confidence to put some of our money towards a paid staff member. We thought a dedicated resource would free up more hours so we can do more fundraising. Our Operations Manager started last May, and we've been able to do so much more in the past 12 months."
What have you've learned about volunteers?
"I just have so much respect for volunteers because they are giving up their time. I've learnt that there are so many generous and kind people in our community, and I'm in awe of all these people who have so much going on in their lives, but they're still willing to just show up and give their time. I think that volunteers are so special to our community. I've learned that volunteers are essential to the well-being and functioning of society. And I've learned that they're amazing. I love getting to know our volunteers and hearing their stories, they come from all walks of life. I say you're never too young or too old to volunteer. I wish more people would do it because it can be so fulfilling. I can't sing the praises of volunteers enough."
Finally, you’ve been a member of Volunteering WA since 2019. How has this helped you?
"The charity has benefited immensely from becoming a member of Volunteering WA. We didn't join early on. Money was very precious in those days. As we were growing, we thought we’d tap into the corporate volunteering that VWA offers and see what they could do for us.
The corporate sessions have been amazing. We started out doing one session every couple of months and we're now doing three or four sessions a month.
The corporate teams are so efficient. We've got so much product now coming in and so much more product going out, so being able to do the corporate sessions is now critical to our operations.
"By tapping into the Volunteering WA corporate volunteering sessions we have been able to grow."
Not only that we've built relationships with a lot of those corporate organisations, to the point where we've been able to apply for grants with some of them and we've had financial donations from them. Some attended our quiz night last year. So, we've been able to generate new relationships introduced by Volunteering WA (VWA).
The VIKTOR platform has also been fantastic for online recruitment. For a small charity like ours, every dollar is precious. Using this platform to advertise on Seek Volunteering and Volunteering WA reduces costs for us and reaches a whole new pool of volunteers.
One of the other benefits is the advice and the information that VWA can provide. There's a lot of training sessions and workshops, and we can send a question through anytime. They have a wealth of knowledge.
We really enjoy working with Volunteering WA. As small grassroots growing organisation it's just such a valuable partnership for us to have."
More about Little Things for Tiny Tots