Donate to child life
Donations to child life help make the hospital more comfortable (and fun!) for kids
We are grateful for the continued support that our patients and families receive through donations to the child life team. While the importance, comfort and simple joys provided by these items remain, we ask that you continue to support our kids by donating items directly from our wish lists or funds directly to our child life department. This will enable care teams to find the most supportive toy or comfort item for children admitted to the hospital.
Ways to donate to child life
- Online - Select Child Life in the Gift Designation field.
- Mail checks - Write CHILD LIFE in the memo section and send to: Children's Hospital Foundation, Box 980693, Richmond, VA 23298-0693.
- Online wish list for direct shipping - Shop our Amazon wish lists linked below and ship items directly to our team.
- Deliver wish list items in person - Shop using our wish list below and deliver items in person.
- At this time, donors are not able to visit patient care areas or hand deliver donations to patients.
Child life donation FAQs
We accept the following:
- Brand new toys in their original packaging
- Clothing
- Stuffed animals
- Books
- Handmade pillowcases/blankets
All donated items must be newly purchased and in their original packaging. We cannot accept used items of any kind. If you are donating handmade items, your items must be individually bagged per hospital storage requirements. As far as toy brands, we love anything from Fisher Price, Melissa and Doug, Little People, Playskool and Oball. Visit our wish list for more information on our current needs.
We appreciate our corporate and small business donors, however we are unable to share business cards or contact information that solicits business when providing donations to our patients and families.
Gift cards can be very helpful for our child life team to maintain popular supplies and are a nice gift for our teen patients.
We have very specific gift card guidelines that must be followed:
- Gift cards for patients/families
- Max value $10
- We only accept cards for movie theaters, Walmart, Target, iTunes and Google Play
- Gift cards for child life team supply purchasing
- Any value
- We only accept cards for Walmart, Target and Amazon
- Gift cards for food/gas for families
- Max value $20 (distributed based on social determinant of health needs)
- Gas stations and restaurants
We cannot accept the following:
- Used items of any kind
- Stress balls and other fidget toys containing water beads
- Toys from dollar-style stores
- Ride-on toys (including bikes/scooters) for any age
- Religious items (including bibles, journals and picture books)
- Holiday-themed items (including books, blankets and stuffed animals)
- Handmade hats or handmade stuffed animals
- Toy weapons (including play swords and nerf guns)
- Collectibles of any kind (including Beanie Babies and baseball cards)
- Large shared items (i.e., doll houses),
- DVDs (we have no way for patients to watch them!)
We do not currently have a significant need for the following commonly donated items:
- Holiday-themed items (including books, stuffed animals and blankets) for any holiday, including Christmas, Halloween and Easter
- As of April 2023 — we are no longer accepting donations of DVDs
- Let's Go Fishin' game
- Mega Bloks
Wish lists
Shop and ship to child life via Amazon and Walmart
Items purchased from this wish list are shipped directly to CHoR and managed by our child life team to support children in many areas of the hospital.
Shop our Amazon wish list Shop our Walmart wish list
Recreation Therapy wish list for Brook Road Pavilion
Items purchased from this wish list are managed by our recreation therapy team and support children in our long-term care unit and other children at our Brook Road Pavilion.
Shop our Amazon wish list Shop our Walmart wish list
Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC)
Items purchased from this wish list are managed by our mental health services team and support children at VTCC.
Wish lists for in-person donations
Arts and crafts
- Elmer's Glue slime kits
- Play-doh and Kinetic Sand (single servings, not kits)
- Crayola crayons/markers/colored pencils (small packages are preferred)
- Adult coloring books
- Word searches
- Model magic
- Window markers
Sensory toys
- Stress balls (regular and slow-rise)
- Squishies
- Pop-its
- Pull tubes
Teens
- Soft blankets (not white/holiday)
- iPhone/Android/Samsung accessories
- Bluetooth speakers
- Nail polish
- Journals
- Room string lights
- Advanced Lego and art kits
- Movie theater gift cards
Toys
- Light up and musical toys
- Pretend play food or doctor kits
- Legos (Lego brand only, less than 150 pieces)
- Barbies (especially Black Barbies)
- Baby dolls (especially African American)
- Marvel action figures
- Fisher-Price crib soothers
- Little People play sets
- Small to medium sized stuffed animals
- Squishmallow stuffed animals (any size)
Games
- Uno cards/Uno Splash
- Regular playing cards
- Puzzles (less than 500 pieces)
- Board games (we prefer classic games like Sorry, Monopoly, Candyland, Trouble, Connect 4, etc.)
Books
- Infant/toddler board books
- Popular children's books in non-English languages
- Children's books with diverse characters
- See our wish list of books and coloring books here.
Infant/Toddler Items
- Board books
- Fisher-Price crib soothers
- Small battery powered sound machines
- Loveys
- Teethers
- Small light up/music making toys
Contact child life
Our phone number 804-828-3415 is voicemail only. For the fastest response regarding a donation, please contact CHoRChildLife@vcuhealth.org