Volunteering

As a charity we are lucky to be support by and kindly remembered in the wills of approximately 1,000 supporters every year. These wonderful individuals leave a total of nearly £20 million to helping cats through these gifts. Our gifts in wills and legacy volunteers help raise both awareness and funds by promoting legacy giving. They also help promote our Cat Guardians service, as sadly it can be the case that owners pass away before their pets. Our Cat Guardian service provides owners with the peace of mind that their feline friends will be cared for by Cats Protection and found new loving homes in the tragic event of them passing away before their beloved pets.

Our publicity team leaders have the important role of supporting a wider team of publicity volunteers. As a team our publicity volunteers collectively keep members of the public informed of the vital and varied ways we help our feline friends in need. Raising awareness is crucial to us being able to help the thousands of cats and kittens each year that rely on us. A higher profile can help raise funds, raise awareness of adopting a cat, promote neutering and encourage as many people as possible to learn about feline welfare.

Across Cats Protection there are thousands of cats and kittens looking for new and loving homes at any one time. Our volunteer home visitors support a local volunteer group by helping find our feline friends happy, caring and suitable homes. They communicate with potential adopters, match cats and kittens with new homes and provide support to new cat owners. This is a rewarding role, as our volunteer home visitors play a vital part in helping cats and kittens find their perfect forever homes.

At Cats Protection we help thousands of cats each year and the majority of these success stories are thanks to the dedication and effort of our passionate volunteers. Our induction support volunteers help volunteer groups and teams by providing support to new team members. They make sure new volunteers are happy and confident in their various roles and are in turn able to effectively help cats and kittens in need.

Across the UK many of our feline friends are cared for by volunteer fosterers who provide a stable, safe and loving environment in their homes or in purpose built pens in their gardens. They provide vital hands on care and accommodation to stray, abandoned cats or cats whose owners could sadly no longer keep them, and are part of a dedicated team of volunteers committed to finding new homes for cats in need. Most of our fosterers care for one or two cats at a time and enjoy providing lots of TLC to those cats which have been pre-loved or have had a difficult start in life. Some of our fosterers look after new mums and kittens and provide round the clock care to new-borns with tummies to fill and lots to learn. No matter what type of cats they have in care our fosterers provide the best start to the next stage of their lives.

Across the UK, we have volunteers helping to hand-rear kittens who have either lost their mother, been abandoned, or their mum is just too sick to look after them. This is a very hands-on role providing every aspect of care a kitten needs; including hand-feeding approx. every two hours day and night, medicating, socialising, toileting and weaning on to solid food. You will be providing excellent care and a great start in life for kittens who will then go on to be re-homed by our adoption centre. We will be with you every step of the way providing training, information, equipment and support. So if you have experience in handling kittens or have a veterinary nursing or animal welfare background then this extremely rewarding role may be for you!

Unfortunately thousands of cats each year are abandoned or have strayed and rely on charities like Cats Protection for help. Becoming a TNR volunteer is one way you can make a real difference to cats in your local area. Our TNR volunteers help reduce the number of feral cats by raising awareness of our TNR programmes, setting humane traps to safely capture cats, taking them to local vets to be neutered, and hopefully returning them back to their territory. Local TNR programmes are crucial, as feral and abandoned cats present a huge challenge for communities across the UK.

As a charity we are only able to help thousands of cats and kittens each year thanks to the donations we receive from generous members of the public. Our online fundraisers help our volunteer groups raise vital funds by organising online sales of goods, using social media to encourage donations and any other innovative ways to raise funds they can think of! Making a difference can mean as little as raising 18p, which is enough to feed one cat in our care for a day.