Mitra Lends a Paw with Animal Charity’s Marketing


Pro Bone-o Marketing for this Dog Charity

Marketing for charities can be tough. Not-for-profit organisations often rely on government funding and donations from the public. In hard economic times, it can seem like an uphill struggle. Charities need all the help they can get.

Supporting a charity isn’t always about donating money, though. Giving time, skills and expertise can be even more valuable, and we try to do that whenever we can – especially when it’s a cause we’re passionate about.

Balkan Underdogs

We’re animal lovers (check out Bob, our office dog) so it seemed a natural choice to support the dog rescue charity, Balkan Underdogs (BU) as one of our charities. While working with BU we hope to help them rehome some of the unwanted dogs. The dedicated BU volunteers work tirelessly to ensure dogs are first kept safe in kennels and then find kind families to adopt or foster them. They’ve even started working with cats!

Sandra Stosic-Milne

Founder, Sandra Stosic-Milne spent most of her life in the Balkans. She was so appalled by the treatment of stray dogs across the region she decided to take matters in her own hands. She teamed up with Cheryl Reynolds and Balkan Underdogs was born.

Now with charitable status, BU can help even more stray and unwanted dogs in the Balkans. Sandra said: “It has been such a relief to have BU and all our hard work recognised. Each member of BU and all the volunteers dedicate so much of their time to finding the dogs and getting them to safety in the hope that they will be offered a forever home.”

Being a registered charity will give BU greater credibility in their promotional campaigns and help get their message out to a wider audience. We’re happy to help.

Volunteer fundraiser, Tracy added: “We are so pleased that we can now start to make an even bigger difference to those dogs with official fundraising and awareness campaigns. We truly thank all those who have supported us, from other organisations to individuals who have donated and shared – we all have one thing in common, it’s all about the dogs.”

Charity Grant Funding

As a registered charity, BU can apply for advertising grants. Mitra are assisting BU with their applications and have lots of experience; we aided Help for Heroes and have set up and managed Google Adwords Grants for many other charities. Please get in touch for more details.

How Mitra and our team have helped BU

Mitra team helping Balkan Underdogs

The Mitra team like to help BU wherever they can. Pictured left to right are Hannah, Zerina and Richard.

Adopting a dog is not always possible, but there are lots of other ways to give worthy causes like Balkan Underdogs a helping hand. Sponsoring a dog is a great way to help pay for kennel fees, food and veterinary costs. Mitra has jointly sponsored Peanut for a year, so he can get one step closer to finding his forever home.

Peanut - Balkan Underdogs

Peanut (left) is a small male lab cross type dog, of about 18 months old. He has a gentle temperament, and would make a great family pet. He is great with other dogs, and would truly make a really great family pet. He has been neutered, chipped and vaccinated and is ready to travel to his forever home.

Puppy Hana and Mum

Nora and Hana (right) are mum and pup, aged about 2 and a half years and about 6 months respectively. They get along very well with all other dogs, and children, and would make ideal family pets. If their funds run out, they will be in a dire situation with nowhere to go. As such, they are an urgent case and are both desperately looking for adoption or foster.

Members of our team are also supporting dogs out of their own pockets; Hannah is currently sponsoring a mum and her pup.

Hannah said: “I’m not able to adopt a dog at the moment, but I couldn’t resist sponsoring these two – especially when I saw that the puppy is called ‘Hana’! It must have been fate!”

Rosie - Balkan Underdogs

Zerina also dug deep to sponsor a puppy called Rosie. She said: “Rosie is such a cutie – as soon as I saw her picture I knew I had to help. At least I know she will be safe until she can be found a long-term home. She is so sweet and fluffy; I know that someone will fall in love with her.”

 

 

 

Charity promotional merchandise – BU Dog tags

Balkan Underdogs tags from The ID Band Company

Another great way to support BU is to purchase promotional merchandise, including a dog tag for your own pet. Our fantastic client The ID Band Company have created charity pet ID tags and awareness wrist bands for owners to raise funds for BU.

Charity Marketing for BU

As an agency we’ve helped BU with pro-bono marketing including:
• E-newsletters – with all the latest updates from the kennels and promotions to raise money
Blog posts – including happy-ending stories from adopters
Surveys – used to collect data for inspiring feature articles and infographics
And next we’re helping them apply for a Google Adwords Grant.

What’s it like adopting a rescue dog?

Our very own Heather has even adopted two dogs from BU – Lari and Lola. Heather said: “At first it was pretty tough until Lari and Lola settled down. They hadn’t known each other very long, having come from two different areas of the Balkans, and that actually helped their integration. They both had very different issues. Lola is terrified of vans and loud noises and Lari just barks at road signs and bin bags!

“It wasn’t long before they settled in completely and now it’s like they have always been part of the family.
“It’s lovely to see them so settled and happy. I would definitely recommend adopting a dog. Why buy a dog when there are so many out there that are desperate for loving homes?”

Lari - Balkan Underdogs

Lari

Lola - Balkan Underdogs    Lola's old home was a rubbish dump

Pictured above left is Lola and her makeshift ‘home’ before she was rescued.

Graham has a rescue dog too, although not from BU, he says “we rescued Travis 7 years ago when we’d just lost our Labrador and we were all grieving, looking back I’m not sure who rescued whom!”

Please help!

Princess - Balkan Underdogs

Sadly, Lari and Lola’s stories of being unwanted and homeless are all too common, although these two are among the lucky ones. There are still countless dogs out there that are desperate for a special forever home.

This includes the beautiful Princess (pictured below) who was found abandoned walking around a train station with her friend Grey, who was also rescued by the BU team – a real “lady and the tramp” story!

Could you save a life and care for one of these adorable animals? They are known as man’s best friend, and there’s no better feeling than knowing you’ve given a dog somewhere safe to live, play, and be happy.

 

Please look at the Balkan Underdogs Facebook page for the up to date list of dogs in need of a home and if you need help with charity marketing and PR contact Mitra today.


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