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Toybank is a non-profit organisation that was started to provide toys for children belonging to weaker socio economic backgrounds. ToyBank started with a simple idea: given the social inequalities within the sub-strata of children on the Indian sub-continent, it might be a good idea to get the discarded toys of rich kids to the poorer members of society. The success of that initial, simple idea gave birth to ToyBank and, within six years, it grew to organising 75 events in four different cities and has distributed over 9,000 toys to date.

The NGO had new ideas and plans: tapping the rural market; liaising with self-help groups to make toys that would be helpful to different age groups (particularly board games that were educational); she wanted to make ToyBank self-sustaining (without the need for the corporate donations that had become so much a part of  its survival); and, most of all, she wanted to see if all of the above could be married together to reach the one new goal she had set for herself: children’s growth through learning via the joy-filled medium of play (a factor that was sadly lacking in rural children's lives). 

ToolBox worked with Toybank on the following workstreams:

1. Initiation and implementation of the rural project of Toybank
2. Developing the Financial plans to make the rural project sustainable
3. Impact assessment to study the impact of play on behavior

Impact of ToolBox Intervention 

• Incubation and implementation of the rural project allowing for magnification of social welfare targets for the NGO
• Project Management for the rural outreach of the NGO - Strategic plan for sustainability of the rural project
• Strategic plan for the NGO in both rural and urban areas 

Experiences of ToolBox Volunteers and NGO Staff

"ToolBox has been one of those organisations that Toybank would hope to have forever. ToolBox is an amazing concept and NGOs like us really value the support and inputs we receive from them."

- Ms. Shweta Gopalachari, Founder CEO, Toybank

"ToolBox has been an amazing two-way street - enabling me to share my expertise with NGOs and see my contribution making a difference while also learning, understanding and appreciating how the social sector works."

- Mr. Ajay Mathrani, Volunteer – Toybank Project

"The experience of thinking out of the box, coming up with new (and yet workable) ways to move the company forward or the NGO we worked for. I can honestly say that leveraging off each person’s strength in such ToolBox fixing works. And how!"

- Ms. Shirin Mehta, Volunteer – Toybank Project