As a charity, we rely solely on the generosity and kindness of the public to enable us to go on caring for cats and kittens. Everything that you do to help us is greatly appreciated, and it means we can continue to give cats and kittens a better life.
 

Here are some of the ways that you can help us raise money:

Please save your used stamps!
	One of our new fund raising ventures is used stamp collecting – just the run of the mill, everyday stamps that we all get several times a week can be turned in to money.

Ideally stamps should be torn or cut from the envelope leaving AT LEAST half an inch of paper around the entire edge.  Anything closer and the stamp loses its value when we send it on.  Torn or disfigured stamps are of no use.
 
Any stamp has value, but the more unusual ones will earn extra for us. For example, the Post Office recently issued everyday stamps depicting Beatles albums covers. These didn’t cost any more than the face value of the postage, but they are more valuable to collectors, just like the Christmas versions that we see every year.  If you buy this type whenever possible, rather than the single colour plain stamps, it puts more unusual ones into circulation, and hopefully more of these will find their way back to us!  Foreign stamps are especially welcome.
 
When you have a reasonable amount collected, please hand them in to us at jumble sales, any of our fund raising events, or send them to this address:
 
Cats Protection Reading and District Branch
PO Box 7961
Reading
Berkshire
RG10 8WZ
 
So start collecting! If you have access to an office, think about getting some sort of collection going there. If you need any help preparing posters with Cats Protection logos etc. on then just let us know. We can either produce the poster or email you the relevant files to insert in your own design.

Unwanted gifts
 
We are always in need of new items for tombola prizes – we will get through over 1500 this year so please pass any unwanted Christmas and birthday presents to us. Unopened toiletries and soft toys in new clean condition are just two examples of ideal prizes.  Please have a look through your cupboards and drawers to see if you have anything suitable.  When you’re out shopping, look out for ‘buy one, get one free’ offers – even if you don’t want the extra item, we probably will!  If you have items to donate, please click here.

Second-hand books   In 2006 we began selling books over the Internet, on the Amazon website, and in the first year we raised almost £300. The best sellers have been cricketing books, autobiographies, travel guides and unusual non-fiction books. If you have any good quality books in these categories and would like to donate them, please click here.

Jumble and bric-a-brac
 
We welcome donations of other types of books too, as these will be sold at fund raising events and car boot sales. The same goes for records, CDs, videos, DVDs, clothes, toys, bric-a-brac – anything we can sell in other words! If you have items to donate, please click here.

Cat food   Not surprisingly, our cats get through a lot of cat food every year! We have three cat food collection points: Asda in Tilehurst (67 Honey End Lane) Pets at Home, Brunel Retail Park in Reading (Rose Kiln Lane) Petstop, Hare Hatch Nursery (London Road, Hare Hatch – just off the A4)

Last year, generous customers at Asda donated an amazing 1585 tins, 2720 sachets, and 148 kgs of dried food, which has been a tremendous help to us. The collection points at Pets at Home and Petstop opened in Spring 2007.  If you don’t shop at any of these stores you could still help by buying an extra tin or sachet of cat food for us each week. Several of our supporters do this already and it is a tremendous help. It really adds up over the course of a year meaning we can use the money we raise to pay for veterinary treatment and care for our foster cats instead of having to spend it on food. Perhaps your place of work might be prepared to have a cat food donation point for us at Christmas time? We are happy to collect, please click here when you have a box full.

Many thanks to Asda, Pets at Home and Petstop, B&B Shopfittings Ltd (for making the collection boxes), and to you for donating the food.

Collection Boxes
 
We have small cardboard collection boxes available that you can have at home in which to collect your loose change.  These are about the size of a notepad block that you keep by the phone, and we can mail them to you flat for quick self-assembly.  We’ve found that they fill fastest if you leave them on your desk at work, or in the place where you empty out your loose change at the end of the day. You can hand the box back in at any of our fund raising events.  If you would like us to send you a box, please click here.
 
We also have plastic collection boxes which are designed for public areas such as pubs, shop counters etc. These come with a chain so you can secure them against theft.  If you think you can arrange a location for a public collection box please click here. Unfortunately public collection boxes can only be displayed in areas covered by this Branch so please check our post code areas first before requesting this. 

Can you help us in other ways?

There are a number of other fund raising ideas that we’d like to get off the ground, but we really need someone to run them. For instance, there is money to be made from used toner cartridges and no longer loved mobile phones, but we need someone to take this project on.
 
Mums and dads of school children – does your child’s school hold an annual fete that they open up to outside stalls? Would you be willing to run this stall if we provided the goods?
 
Don’t forget us if you are running races, doing bungee jumps, parachute jumps etc. If you would like to nominate Cats Protection as your Charity of Choice, we can provide sponsor forms, online sponsorship pages if you wish, and a t-shirt for training and when ‘doing’ the event.
 
Are you good at organising social events, for example quiz nights, product parties (anything and everything from jewellery and toiletries to crafts and lingerie), golf tournaments etc? These types of events can be great fun and raise funds for Cats Protection at the same time.
 
Can you make good quality arts and crafts, which we can sell at our fund raising events?  Especially anything with a catty theme usually goes very well.
 
Our little white CP van is seen running around all over Reading. Would you be interested in sponsoring some of our running costs in return for some advertising on the van?
 
Does your company hold Casual Clothes Days where you can dress down in exchange for a small donation to a suggested charity? If so, please remember Cats Protection when the list of charities is being prepared.
 
If you can help with any of the above, or have some other ideas about how you can raise funds for us, please click here to let us know.
 
Thank you from all of us at the branch – especially the cats and kittens.