Thinking about Volunteering?

The Centre depends on a lot of us giving our time and energy freely. If you come along to the Centre and want to get more involved, let us know if you’d like to join us.

We need people to join in with cleaning, making events go smoothly, and sometimes to take on specific skilled tasks. It’s a chance to be at the heart of things, make friends and know that our actions make a difference to hundreds of people every week. 

We welcome people with different levels of experience, whether you can commit to regular slots or just help out now and then. Support is provided, and training when appropriate.

There’s a contact on each of these areas where we’d like some help. Sorry if it takes a while to get back to you – we are mostly volunteers ourselves! Questions about volunteering, or not sure where to start? Contact Vishangka on vishangka@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

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Cleaning the Centre
  • Every Tuesday, from 11:15 am-12:45 pm and the first Saturday of each month from 1:30 – 3 pm
  • Join Cia and the cleaning team. No need to let us know beforehand, just turn up!
  • No experience needed, this is a great way to start to get involved here
Bookshop Organiser
  • Organising the layout and presentation of the new books section within the Buddhist Centre shop
  • Keeping the shelves stocked and looking tidy, presenting the books in an attractive and appealing way and keeping track of when books need to be reordered
  • The role can be done flexibly at whatever time suits and doesn’t need to be when the shop is open
  • Working with the bookshop manager, the role will initially require a commitment of about three hours a month

Contact: shop@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Communications and Publicity
  • Adding to and maintaining content on the Buddhist Centre website
  • Maintaining our social media presence, creating posters and organising publicity emails
  • There’s room for flexibility – from one or two to many hours a week
  • Suitable for someone with a bit of experience of our community

Contact: comms@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Maintenance and DIY
  • Painting, decorating, repairs and maintenance of the Centre
  • Plumbing, electrical and other knowledge very welcome!

Contact: maintenance@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Health and Safety Admin
  • Checking fire extinguishers, fire doors, light bulbs and emergency lights to make sure they’re all in good repair
  • Keeping records of these up to date
  • This will take place once or twice a month

Contact: maintenance@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Zoom Tech Support
  • Setting up the Zoom tech – laptop, mics, cameras, screens – in the shrine room
  • Being the in-person host during hybrid events

Contact: louise@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Tech Support
  • Technical support for our website, fixing bugs, improving accessibility and user experience
  • Also supporting our IT systems, making any fixes that might be needed and making improvements to current systems

Contact: comms@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

woman and two men in painty clothes

Supporting the Centre

Supporting the Buddhist Centre

As a charity (registration no. 514937), we rely on the generosity of everyone who values the Centre to keep our doors and activities open to as many people as possible. We can all give in many different ways.

Donation bowls

When we’re open, we welcome cash donations in the Centre’s donation bowls. Or you can make a card donation by telephone or at reception.

Monthly donations

Regular monthly donations are particularly helpful as they enable us to budget effectively. No amount is too big or too small and if you are a UK tax payer you can gift aid your donation, whether online or off. You can set payments up online through our PayPal regular giving page, or use a standing order form – print a copy here or get one at the Centre, and please pass the completed form direct to us, not your bank.

You can also arrange it direct through your bank – please mail finance@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk for our details.


One-off online giving

We’re also grateful for one-off donations through our PayPal donation page. Please gift aid your donation if you can.

Free ways to help

Set up a free account with Give as you Live and each time you shop online, a donation goes directly to the Centre at no cost to you or us.

Leaving a gift in your will

If you are thinking about making a will, please consider including a bequest to the Centre. Satyadasa offers a will-writing service, Greengate Wills, for UK members and friends of the Triratna Buddhist Community, and his website has useful information on why and how to make a will. (Sorry, there are temporary problems with Greengate Wills’ website. In the meantime please contact Satyadasa on greengatewills@gmail.com)

Give things as well as money

We always need fair-trade tea bags, soya milk, loo rolls, heavy duty bin bags and so on. Helps keep our bills down, and drinks freely available to visitors.

We raise useful funds from the ground floor second hand books shelves, and love the books you no longer need, any subject. Also Dharma books for the library, especially from the Triratna Buddhist tradition. Hand-made crafts and shrine goods are also very welcome for our regular pop-up stalls.

Fundraising events

A great group of walkers raised over £5,000 in a Yorkshire Three Peaks fundraiser, and the crafters work through the year for December’s stall, bringing in hundreds of pounds. November’s skills auctions are back too, raising thousands from the generous givers and buyers of skilled time. Get in touch if you are ready to organise another sociable event. Or you could copy one of our friends who raised £200 by asking for donations to the Centre for her birthday!
Thank You!

Our Centre was built on Generosity

Through our own Efforts

In the 1990s a committed group of men and women, mostly working for free, transformed a run down Victorian warehouse into a beautiful jewel. Since then, hundreds more have given time, skills and money to help the Centre communicate Buddhist teachings and meditation to thousands of people. Manchester Buddhist Centre is a registered charity with no outside funding or wealthy benefactors.

Continuing Generosity

We get some income from courses, events, room hire and rents from others in the building, but these don’t cover all our costs. We rely on the generosity of our Sangha, visitors and supporters to join us in keeping the Centre and its activities alive and growing.

Working on the Centre
One step on Buddhism’s eightfold path is right or skilful action, which encourages us to develop and express compassion and kindness for the welfare of all living beings and for our world

Cleaning Buddha Statue

Generosity in the Wider World

Compassion, generosity and the importance of connections between us are central to the practice of Buddhism and many of our community give time and money to international causes, such as Karuna or work with local charities or in chaplaincy.

About our Finances

Our income and spending

In 2022 our income was £271,424 and our expenditure £280,216, showing a loss of £8,792.

Our full audited accounts are available in our Charity Commission returns – our registration number is 514937

Chart showing income of £271,424; Expenditure £280,216; Loss £8,792

Stan Kukalowicz Retreat Bursary Fund

Stan Kukalowicz

Stan was a much-loved member of our Sangha who sadly died in 2014.

Stan had always wanted to help those in need. He had been keen to set up a fund to help Sangha members in financial difficulty to get on retreat and also wanted to encourage our practice of generosity. Stan touched the lives of many people so a bursary fund in his name seemed a fitting tribute. The fantastic generosity of Stan’s friends and family after his death enabled us to do this and the fund is already helping the Sangha just as Stan hoped.

About the Retreat Fund

The fund currently helps people who couldn’t normally afford it to go on Manchester Buddhist Centre’s three annual Sangha retreats. If you’d like to give to the fund, you can do so via PayPal or by contacting reception.

Applying to the Fund

Who can apply?

  • Anyone who is booking on to one of our annual Sangha retreats and needs financial support to pay for it
  • Maximum is £200 per person per year

How to apply

Contact one of our Mitra Convenors: vishangka@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk or suryaka@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk

Photo of Stan Kukalowicz
In a sense, giving is the basic Buddhist virtue without which you can hardly call yourself a Buddhist. It consists not so much in the act of giving as in the feeling of wanting to give, of wanting to share what you have with other people. This feeling of wanting to give or share is often the first manifestation of the spiritual life.
Sangharakshita

Founder of Triratna


Opening Times:

• Tuesday - Thursday 11am - 3pm
• Saturday 10.30am - 2.30pm
Sundays 2nd, 9th, 16th December 10.30am - 2.30pm
Closed 24th December - 1st January inclusive
Bodywise opening
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