Merry go round Celebrates National Lottery Boost for Volunteers

Glasgow charity and social enterprise Merry-go-round is celebrating after receiving £18,000 in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.

Article Source: Merry-go-round
Last Updated: 10 October 2025 9:04

The grant will support the charity’s volunteering programme, helping it grow and continue to provide vital opportunities for local people.

Based in Glasgow’s Southside, Merry-go-round supports families by offering affordable, sustainable essentials for babies and children. Alongside this, the charity runs a volunteering programme that helps people gain new skills, build confidence, and connect with their community.

The £18,000 boost, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, will enable Merry-go-round to recruit, train and support more volunteers, ensuring the programme continues to thrive. Volunteers play a key role in every part of the organisation – from welcoming families in the shop to sorting donations and helping at community events.

Merry-go-round also offers flexible volunteering that fits around people’s schedules, with a wide variety of roles available. Opportunities range from social media and photography to van driving, serving customers in the shop and sorting donations.. There is also room to create new roles based on individual skills and interests, from visual merchandising and window dressing to supporting community events, and much more.

General Manager Rajkiran said: “We’re absolutely delighted to receive this funding. Our volunteers are the heart of Merry-go-round – without them, we couldn’t provide the same level of support for families across Glasgow. Thanks to National Lottery players, we’ll be able to strengthen our volunteering programme, creating more opportunities for people to learn, grow, and be part of something that makes a real difference.”

Current volunteer Tom, one of the volunteer van drivers, added: “Volunteering at Merry-go-round has been such a positive experience for me. I’ve learned new skills, met great people, and the flexibility means I can fit it around my other commitments. It’s really rewarding to know I’m helping families while also building my own confidence.”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, It starts with community, which underpins its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030. Its four key missions are to: support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive, and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, in 2023/24 The National Lottery Community Fund awarded £686.3 million to over 13,700 community projects, turning inspiring ideas into reality.

Merry-go-round is now encouraging anyone interested in volunteering to get in touch to find – or even create – a role that suits them.

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