Why support Stripey Stork

As one of the leading baby banks in the UK, we provide essential items for babies and children (0-18 years) through a trusted referral network of 1,254 referral partners across Surrey and Croydon, including health visitors, social workers, schools and charities.

This means:

• The right support reaches the right families.
• Items are matched to each child’s needs.
• Help arrives when it’s needed most.

We take pre-loved and new items donated by the community and turn them into something powerful: support that restores dignity and eases pressure.

Our work is straightforward. We collect. We sort. We redistribute.

Across Surrey and Croydon, that simple model translates into:

• Thousands of volunteer hours (19,083 in 2025).
• Strong partnerships with frontline services.
• A fast, responsive system that professionals rely on.

It’s a model that works, and one that is increasingly in demand.

• 22,982 children in Surrey (9.8%) live in absolute low-income households.
• Trust for London shared that the overall child poverty rate in Croydon is 35%.

The reality behind the numbers

Every referral tells a story:

• A newborn sleeping in an Amazon box in Surrey.
• A parent in Croydon unable to provide school uniform that fits.
• A family trying to cope with rising costs and limited support.

We provide practical help at the point it’s needed.

That might mean:

• A bed that allows a child to sleep safely – meet Comfort and her family.
• A family no longer need to share a toothbrush Sharing a Toothbrush: A glimpse into hidden hardship – Stripey Stork.
• Kids feeling they can fit in with their peers at school Every child should have the same school life – Stripey Stork.

Small things. Big impact.

We are more than a distribution service. We are part of the local support system – working alongside statutory and voluntary services to ensure families receive the help they need.

Our support:

• Reduces pressure on stretched services.
• Enables health visitors, schools and social workers to act with practical support.
• Helps prevent situations from escalating.

We are often the practical solution behind a professional’s support plan.

Families shape what we do.

We listen, learn and adapt based on their experiences ensuring our support across Surrey and Croydon is relevant, practical and respectful.

We have signed the End Poverty Pledge, recognising the importance of involving people with lived experience in shaping solutions.

Our Advisory Panel helps guide our work, with four members who have personally received support from Stripey Stork. Their insight keeps us grounded and makes what we do better.

Our accounts show a turnover of over £2 million.

But that figure doesn’t tell the full story.

Much of this reflects the value of donated items we pass on to families – not cash in the bank. In the Financial Year 2024/25 the total value of items we distributed was £1,238,821.

What this means in practice:

• We operate with a relatively small cash income.
• We keep our running costs lean.
• We turn every pound into significantly more in value.

In simple terms: we are a small charity (with less that £1m of cash income) delivering large-scale impact across Surrey and Croydon.

Where the money goes. We are careful, deliberate and transparent with every pound:

• Around 95% is spent on delivering our charitable work.
• Around 5% is spent on fundraising.
• We receive no statutory funding, despite supporting families across Surrey and Croydon every day.

Our total income is £787,552 and comes from a variety of sources (see pie chart on the right). This mix reduces key dependencies, but it also means we rely on continued support to meet rising demand.

Stripey Stork is powered by amazing people. Meet some of the team.

A small, committed staff team. A large and dedicated volunteer community.

• Strong staff-to-volunteer ratio (1:14).
• Eight dedicated trustees with diverse backgrounds and skills.
• A strong corporate volunteering offering (35 companies provided 2,839 hours of time in 2025).
• Mutually beneficial volunteering opportunities for young people with additional needs.
• A strong Duke of Edinburgh volunteer programme (50 placements in 2025).
• Thousands of volunteer hours each year (19,083 in 2025).
• No member of staff earns more than £60,000.

We are careful with resources – but we also know that good people are essential to doing this work well.

“We will never know what we might have prevented for some families by offering support when their lives are in crisis.” 
– Volunteer –

Funders choose Stripey Stork because:

• We are trusted by frontline professionals across Surrey and Croydon.
• We deliver consistently and at scale.
• We offer strong social value for funds invested.
• We use funding efficiently and responsibly.
• We understand the communities we support.

We do what we say we will do and have been doing that consistently since 2013.

Demand across Surrey and Croydon continues to grow.

Funding helps us:

• Respond quickly to rising referrals – especially for safe places to sleep which are so essential.
• Meet essential core running costs (rent, utilities, staff costs).
• Purchase key items that must be new to keep waiting lists low e.g. mattresses, nappies, underwear, baby toiletries.
• Keep our electric van on the road delivering to the 24 hubs we support across Surrey and Croydon.
• Help young people get the most from their school days (school uniform, filled school bags, PE kit, shoes and trainers).
• Maintain a reliable, consistent service for partners.
• Expand into areas of greatest need across Surrey and Croydon.

Put simply: your support turns into practical help for children – quickly.

We are keen to work with funders who want to make a clear, practical difference to families across Surrey and Croydon.

If that’s you, we’d love to hear from you.