How BSI’s Marketing Team Turned Skills into Lifesaving Support for Animals

Every summer, we brace ourselves. Kitten season is coming.

For five or six months, our phones ring almost daily with calls about tiny, abandoned kittens, pregnant cats left behind, and vulnerable animals who need urgent help.

We say yes to as many as we can – because how could we not? – but each “yes” comes at a cost. Approximately £8 a day to feed, treat, and keep one animal safe doesn’t sound like much… until you’re caring for dozens at a time.

It’s the season that stretches our hearts and our resources to the limit.

So when the BSI Marketing team got in touch to say they wanted to volunteer, we thought, brilliant – an extra set of hands could help so much right now.

But here’s the twist: we didn’t have the space to host a large team, and our animals are scattered across foster homes. Manual labour just wasn’t going to work.

And that’s when something wonderful happened.

A Different Kind of Volunteering

During a chat with Jess from BSI, we realised their team’s greatest gift wasn’t their ability to paint a fence or move boxes. It was their professional expertise.

We didn’t need wheelbarrows – we needed a strategy. A way to reach more people, inspire them to help, and make sure our message didn’t get lost in the noise.

Jess and her team had exactly the skills to make that happen.

The Day That Changed Our Campaign

Two of our volunteers travelled to BSI’s Milton Keynes office, where they were welcomed like old friends – coffee, biscuits, and big smiles included.

Over the course of the day, the BSI team listened, asked questions, and truly got what we were about. They understood the urgency of kitten season, the emotional pull of each rescue story, and the sheer pressure of keeping our work going.

Then they worked their magic.

They created "Paws for Purpose" – a campaign designed to boost donations of both money and pet food exactly when we need them most.

And they made sure it was something we could run ourselves, without expensive software or complicated tools. In fact, they even made live updates to our website before the day was over.

Going the Extra Mile

The kindness didn’t stop there. The BSI team also visited some of the animals in foster care, bringing along pet food and supplies collected from their wider office. They personally dropped everything off at our New Bradwell hub, making sure nothing went to waste.

By the end of the day, we weren’t just leaving with a marketing plan – we were leaving with renewed hope, fresh energy, and the feeling that we weren’t alone in this fight.

What This Means for You

If your company has ever thought about volunteering, here’s the truth: You don’t need to be able to hammer nails or plant trees to make a difference.

Your skills – whether in marketing, finance, design, IT, or anything else – might be exactly what a small charity needs to reach more people, raise more funds, and change more lives.

BSI’s team didn’t just volunteer. They used their expertise to create something that will keep helping animals long after the day itself.

And that’s a gift beyond measure.

If you’d like to know more about how your workplace can partner with us, get in touch. You might just be the missing piece in a story that ends with a life saved.