AGENCY FAQs
We can’t wait to celebrate your amazing kiddos and young adults!
See below to answer (hopefully) most of the questions you may have about our program :)
GENERAL
-
We’re in a lot of places! Check out our Chapter List to see all the states and counties we’re open in, and going to open in as well - yours might be next! If you’d like your city to be considered, submit for consideration.
-
We partner with fellow registered 501c3 nonprofits that have been in existence for longer than 5 years.
Those 501c3 partner nonprofits will qualify as:
• Foster care agencies
• Family or youth homeless or alternative-care shelters
• Domestic violence shelters
• LGBTQIA+ shelters
As well as agencies serving:
• Critically/terminally ill children
• Human/sex trafficked youth
• Youth with incarcerated parents
These agencies should serve children and young adults, generally ages 1-27 years old.
We are always open to different types of agencies, so if you don’t see your type of agency listed here but you serve youth facing adversity, please fill out our form and we’ll get in contact with you! -
Yep 100% free! The volunteers cover the costs of the cake and their transportation. We cover the operational costs of running the organization connecting communities nationwide. The cakes are valued at $40/cake, and we have saved our nonprofit partner agencies more than $1,000,000 in celebration costs! Love, joy, community, and smiles, though, is pretty priceless ;)
-
Not to worry! Please be sure to check in with the Chapter Leader about this and we’ll arrange a pickup with you at a specific location that’s close to your office. We do ask to make sure that you input that drop-off location in the Agency Sign-Up form so there’s no confusion – be sure to tell your agency staff where the pickup location is on cake-delivery day!
-
To avoid confusion for our volunteer bakers, we deliver cakes to your commercial office location or the agreed-upon drop-off location if your address is confidential. Exceptions would be group homes that are staffed, parks/venues for special events, etc.
-
We totally understand! Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for updates. Reach out and send in this application form whenever you’re ready for a fun afternoon of good feels.
-
We adhered to the CDC’s guideline for Covid-19, meaning between March 2020 and January 2023, our volunteers were masked up during baking, decorating, and delivery of the cakes. However, we have revised our policy and do not require our volunteers to mask up or wear gloves during baking, decorating, or delivery of cakes.
We do, however, have a very strict food safety policy which has been in place since our establishment in 2016.
OUR VOLUNTEERS
-
Our registered volunteer baker must be at least 18 years old and in good standing with us. They may have their child or teen (lovingly known as Lil’ Sprinklers 🥰) help bake the actual cake as well, but there is mandated parental supervision for that. They are from ALL skill levels – newbie home bakers to professional cake decorators, seeing the creativity is half the fun! (Eating it is the second half…).
All cakes are baked at the volunteer’s home. -
Our volunteers are trained on food safety, confidentiality, how to use social media when posting about their cakes (see below), and that they won’t meet the recipient of the cake. If your agency wants the child or young adult to meet the volunteer baker, that is 100% at your agency’s discretion, and For Goodness Cakes’ bakers understand that is very rare.
-
Our mandatory volunteer online orientation includes a food safety course that covers everything from proper hygiene and food handling, to cleanliness standards, to a very descriptive list of different types of bacteria that can exist in food – and our volunteers must get a 90% or higher to pass. They have a total of two attempts, and if they don’t pass within those two attempts, they can take the National ServSafe course and qualify to bake for us.
-
Of course!
If your agency wants to share photos of the cakes and/or the recipients on a public Instagram or Facebook page, we’re more than happy to re-share it and we know our volunteers love seeing their cakes being eaten! (But of course, we 100% do not expect the agency to share photos, that’s always just the cherry on top :) ).
Please tag us in any related posts for the following social media platforms:Facebook: facebook.com/forgoodnesscakesinc/
Instagram: instagram.com/forgoodnesscakeshq
Twitter (honestly, though, we’re not really active on Twitter): twitter.com/fgc_orgIf you’d like to tag your particular chapter, check out if they have an Instagram of their own on our Find a Chapter page!
-
Yes!
(1) Our volunteers are told to not give away the name of the agency and only the first name/age of the recipient is okay to show on social media.
(2) If you ever see recipients being posted from our social media accounts, that is because we coordinated with them beforehand to share photos, like in our Phoenix Rising Football Club deliveries. Lots of fun talks BEFORE and waivers all around!
CAKES
-
Our name is For Goodness Cakes, but we can fulfill most requests for a dessert the youth or young adult wants! The majority of requests, though, are for:
(1) 8”/9” Layered Round or 9”x13” Single Layer Cake (serves ~ 12), for birthdays or graduations.
(2) Two Dozen Cupcakes (serves ~12), for birthday or graduations.(Would they prefer pie, mousse, or cookies? We can do that, too!)
You can request individualized cakes with special themes and flavors for a specific child, or a “nondescript” cake for an event where you may not know who will show up having a birthday, but you want to make sure they’re celebrated!
See the image below for examples.
-
(1) We do not do baby shower cakes, adoption cakes, or wedding cakes
(2) Individual Chapters may choose to do Back-to-School, holiday, or “Trunk or Treat” goodies, but that’s wholly up to the discretion of the Chapter Leader and the availability of volunteers. The more volunteers we have, the more likely we can take on the request! (Feel free to tell your friends about us 🥳)
-
For allergens (dairy/nuts/soy/etc) or gluten-free, no - unfortunately not. Since our wonderful and amazing Sprinkle Squad bakers are baking from their home kitchens, there is no way to guarantee that their kitchens are 100% allergen-safe. You can request a vegan cake and hopefully one of our vegan bakers will pick that up, but we cannot guarantee that will be the case. We also cannot guarantee they’ll be the “same” kind of vegan!
-
An email confirmation will be immediately emailed to you after you submit your request - please check your spam folder if you do not see it and triple check the details you requested. Any updates? Corrections? Reach out to your Chapter Leader.
While you will not receive an email notification that a volunteer has signed up to bake your request, you can rest assured that once you submit your request, it will be delivered on the date you provided 🥳🎂 (and if not - your Chapter Leader will let you know). -
That’s a very hard maybe! If you need a cake sooner than 10 days, please reach out directly to your Chapter Leader. We will do our best; our volunteers want to make sure every child gets celebrated.
However, you may be asked to push out the date — sometimes there just aren’t enough kitchens!
-
When you request 4 dozen it will be split up into 2 tasks, so you’ll have more than one volunteer baking and delivering the cupcakes.
And if literally only one showed up…let your Chapter Leader know!
-
We ask that you do not request cakes for the staff. We are 100% amazed and grateful for all of hard and never-ending work our partner agencies put into helping our disadvantaged youth! Our Chapters, at their discretion, have a period of Agency Appreciation where they will deliver treats as a thank you.
-
Sure do! If you want to have a family or youth fill out the form for themselves and hand it to your point-of-contact, we have a cake request form for that. Please do not give the request link out to anyone.
We have both English and Spanish forms available - please reach out to your chapter leader so they can send them to you.
Then, have the recipient/their family fill it out, return it to the caseworker or program manager (point-of-contact), and have the point-of-contact enter in the request through our online cake request form. Easy pease! -
Yes! Please tell your reception or staff to expect a cake delivery that day. Sometimes agencies have volunteer receptionists that rotate daily, are completely new, or the desk is unattended for a large portion of the day. We have a flyer that introduces our organization and what we do, just ask your Chapter Leader for the flyer.
-
The volunteer will have your contact information that you gave on the request. If you’re having a different type of problem, please get in touch with your Chapter Leader contact. We advise agency staff to give phone numbers to people who will pick up the phone for delivery day – not to a reception desk which may be unattended during your delivery time (see above).
-
That is completely up to you! We have had agencies order all of the cakes on the first day of the month to celebrate all birthdays that day and have no other deliveries the rest of the month, and we have agencies that order for each specific recipient’s date-of-honor and receive cakes all month long. It just depends on how your program is run and staffed. Either way, please make sure to submit all your cake requests at least 10 days in advance!
-
Amazing! Please send them this link and let them know to fill out the form, and the Chapter Leader will get in touch. We want to serve all agencies in your area as much as possible, so please let your colleagues and networks know that we’re here!