Join the Baby Bank Alliance

Benefits of joining

Access funding and goods

  • Discounts and free goods for your baby bank
  • Tap into our Development Fund and help us shape the grant process
  • Support with fundraising

Raise your profile and give families a voice

  • National media stories
  • Media training
  • National and local advocacy campaigns

Strengthen your organisation

  • Policy and templates library
  • Mentoring programme
  • Free training and expert support
  • Sharing and learning sessions

Track the collective impact of baby banks

  • Collating data from across the baby bank community at a local, regional and national level to use in funding bids and advocacy
  • Tools to help you demonstrate the change you’re making to your community.

Interested in joining?

Prepare

First off, read our charter

Make sure that you have the authority to sign up your baby bank to membership of the Baby Bank Alliance

Make sure you have information about how many families and/or children you support and your policies to hand if you have them. Note: if you don’t have these yet, this isn’t a barrier to signing up – we can support you to put them in place.

Complete the membership form

Please fill in the Baby Bank Alliance membership form with as much detail as you are able to gather

We know that we might have asked for this information previously – thank you for completing it again as it will allow us to have an accurate database of information about your baby bank

We will contact you to confirm membership

We will send you a welcome email with details on how to access the members area and find out about new member offers and events

Frequently asked questions

Can only baby banks become members of the Alliance?

Yes – we are designed to be a support network by and for baby banks exclusively. However, we know that many people and organisations are interested in and support the work of baby banks, and we would love to hear from you to see how we could work together.

Who from my baby bank should sign up for membership?

It doesn’t matter who from your baby bank completes the membership form, as long as they have the authority to sign up on behalf of their organisation. Note we only need one person from each baby bank to complete the form.

Do I need to pay for membership of the Alliance?

No – all our support is free to members.

Why do I need to sign the Baby Bank Alliance Charter?

We believe that these principles will help us to work together in the most effective way possible, and we will be consulting with members over the next few months to make sure that they are right and appropriate for the community.

Why do I need to confirm that I have (or will soon have) safeguarding, health and safety and volunteer policies?

One of the aims of the Alliance is to support all baby banks to run effective and safe services for our families, and we believe that these policies are the foundation of running a safe service. Don’t worry if you don’t have these in place – we can provide example policies and advice about creating policies that are tailored to your needs.

We also ask that you have a constitution in place even if you are not registered as a charity or CIC – this will help you to secure funding and explain what you are trying to achieve to your families, funders and other stakeholders.

Why do you ask us to share data about the families we support and the goods we provide?

We know that high quality data is one of the most important and influential tools we have to persuade funders, volunteers, media and the public of the vital work of baby banks.  It demonstrates the scale of families’ need, and highlights what baby banks are already providing. We want to collate this data from across the Alliance members to use in stats and graphs for everyone to use in their own fundraising and profile raising activities. We will also give you the ability to create graphs and stats from your own data using our tailored data tool.

If you don’t currently collect this data we can help you to create simple and effective ways to measure your work – this is not a barrier to becoming a member. Our Community Leads and other specialists will be able to advise you once you join; all we ask is that you commit to the process.