Placing volunteers at the centre of our strategy

Cats Protection has a long history of volunteer involvement, since 1927 we have been a movement of people championing the welfare of cats. As we embark on our new ten-year organisational strategy, I’m stopping to reflect on the huge contribution volunteers have and will continue to have on the impact of this organisation. 

Our volunteers deliver approximately 60% of our direct cat welfare activity, in five years that’s over half a million cats – quite a staggering number of cats with improved welfare, new homes and millions of unwanted litters prevented.

Our new strategy challenges us to think about every cat not just those we impact directly through rehoming or neutering, and we must think about how we, as a movement of people, can rise to this challenge. That will mean building on our successes to date, our volunteers are knowledgeable, passionate, and a committed group of 9,600 people strong, and we want to harness this energy into our new strategy. It will mean developing new ways to help cats and people and I know our volunteers and supporters will rise to this challenge.

I am excited to be leading a volunteer experience change programme which will place our volunteers at the centre of our strategy. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to reflect deeply on how we want our organisation to be a true movement of people, to design the volunteer experience at the centre of our organisation’s success, to be truly inclusive of the gift of time, to explore how we can do things differently and meet some of the external challenges that are sure to come our way.

I will be asking our volunteers to be part of this journey, to guide us as an organisation and to be part of developing our direction for them and for future volunteers. We will make mistakes along the way, but I know that by harnessing the expertise, passion, and commitment within the organisation we will create something great for Cats Protection and society as a whole.

Julie Meredith
Head of Volunteering, Organisational Engagement and Inclusion, Cats Protection
29 September 2022