Edition:  December / Review of the year 2025 

 Highlights from Hannah

 December, the impact of a busy 2025 and looking ahead!  

Dear Supporter,

Happy New Year! 

It’s a little hard to believe we’re at the start of another year! 2025 was a big year at Roundabout Canberra, which included expanding our premises and implementing a free delivery service to better support social services, and a significant increase in the need among Canberra families.

We finished the year having helped 5,401 children - a 16% increase on the need we saw in 2024, with cost-of-living pressures remaining a real impediment to many local families.

But it’s only thanks to the community's support that we were able to be there for those children! And I want to say a very big thank you to everyone who donated throughout the year, be it financially, in goods, or in time.

We saw so many of you dig deep during our appeal at tax time and, most recently, for our end-of-year appeal, but we appreciate every gift, regardless of when or how much was given. We also saw a growing number of businesses joining our community this year, and an increase in individuals choosing to support through regular giving, both of which provide Roundabout with greater stability and strengthen our ability to plan for the future.  

A continued stream of pre-loved goods meant that over 18,000 items were given new homes, saving 84 tonnes from going to landfill. Thank you to everyone who donated their cherished items and to every volunteer who gave time, effort and care to make sure they were checked, packed and sent off to the thousands of children and families who needed them. 

With the start of a new year and the back-to-school period almost upon us, we know we will see a lot of support required, and we’re now turning our focus to ensure we can deliver what’s required to meet those needs.

If you’re doing your own back-to-school shopping and have the capacity to buy an extra item or two, or have good quality pre-loved items in cupboards at home, we would be very grateful to receive them. 

Looking forward, our focus for 2026 is to continue meeting the growing need of our community with dignity, while strengthening the systems and the support that make all of our work possible.

In practice, this means supporting more children as needs grow, improving how goods move through our warehouse, ensuring services and volunteers are well supported, being clearer about the difference your generosity makes, and building a strong base of support for the years ahead.

As part of Roundabout Canberra’s commitment to strong leadership and long-term sustainability, I’ll be taking leave from now until mid-April as part of the Social Impact Leadership Australia program. During this time, our General Manager, Miranda Phillips, will be Acting CEO. Miranda is a highly capable and trusted leader, and Roundabout’s work will continue as usual over the coming months.

Thank you, as always, for being part of this work.

❤

CEO & Founder
Hannah Andrevski

Your impact across 2025!

How your support helped 5401 children last year!

These are not just numbers; every figure tells a story!

"We had a family who were new to Canberra after moving interstate, escaping DV and our service was their first contact since arriving in Canberra. Mum was feeling overwhelmed about trying to find support, while also having to set up a new home from scratch.

Within two days, Roundabout enabled us to provide her with nappies, clothes, toiletries, books, toys, and bedding. This eased her material worries, helped her provide a cosy new home for her children, and made her feel welcome in Canberra.

It also gave her the headspace to be able to focus on accessing other longer-term supports, and we were able to link her with multiple other services to assist her and her children to settle safely into their new location."

Messages from a Case Worker about just one of the 2437 families you helped support in 2025!

"Wow… just Wow!!  As always, Roundabout and the crew of amazing volunteers just rock!

We can't believe how quickly you were able to turn around our (not-so-small) orders AND DELIVER them, no less!! The time that it saved and the relief provided to our clients is immense, and we are so grateful.

This enabled us to also do an urgent call out to a client in crisis this morning, who we may not have been able to fit in if we had had to come collect the goods… so I can’t emphasise how important the delivery of goods was to us this week… please thank the delivery team… bless them it wasn’t a small delivery.

We appreciate you and all that you do for vulnerable people in our community. Having access to such valuable resources for our clients really helps us deliver for them in their time of need."

Messages from a Social Worker - Your support of how Roundabout works with our service partners is just as important to helping children in need. 

On-the-road support grew in 2025 and beyond!

We are incredibly proud of our new Roundabout Canberra van, made possible through the generous support of the Benmax Group. Having already supported our first van, they helped us purchase a second van after recognising the huge growth in demand we have seen, and to support our service delivery expansion.

This van, affectionately known as the white van, will be used for deliveries to our social service users. This is a free service that allows our service partners to direct their valuable time to working with families rather than driving to collect orders from us.

Launching this service in November of 2025 enabled us to deliver 193 orders to local services by the end of the year and helped 565 children receive the essential items they needed. We are thrilled to know we will be able to reach so many more children in 2026 because of this service. 

We want to take this opportunity to thank the team at Benmax for their kind and ongoing support. They are helping us drive real change for so many children across Canberra. 

$80,000 and so much Joy!

Thank you again to everyone who gave to our festive appeal. Our work simply would not be possible without your continued support.

Our Sparking Joy end-of-year appeal raised just over $80,000, and these funds played a vital role in the support we provided at the end of 2025, and have set us up really well to meet the needs leading into the beginning of 2026. 

We are always so humbled when our community continues to come together and support not only us, but every child who needs just a little help and a touch of joy. 

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing matching partners once again. We are blessed to have such wonderful organisations supporting our mission and the Canberra community. 

How to follow our journey this year?

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to stay up to date with our journey throughout the year.

As always, thank you for your continued support, which is vital to our ability to support the families who need our help in our community. 

Don't hesitate to reach out if you're interested in finding out more about anything we have shared today or simply have an enquiry about what we do.  

Roundabout Canberra acknowledges the Ngunnawal people, the First Peoples of Canberra where we live and work. We respect and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.