From trauma to triumph: How our team heals heartbroken children
Since 1958, Girls & Boys Town South Africa (GBTSA) has been a sanctuary for healing heartbroken children, guiding them towards a brighter future. Our mission focuses on mending the invisible wounds of children who have faced unimaginable challenges, offering them a nurturing environment where...
Turning Crises into Opportunities: Explore the 2024 IPASA Annual Review
“To tackle the interconnected challenges of our time, philanthropy must act boldly and collaboratively to create systemic change." -- Yogavelli Nambiar, social change strategist and editor of the 2024 IPASA Annual Review of South African Philanthropy.
Philanthropy has the unique power to addres...
Please pay it forward!
In the nonprofit world, knowledge and experience are some of the most valuable assets we can share. The concept of “paying it forward”—freely passing on what we know to others—strengthens the sector, especially as many organizations grapple with limited resources and increasing demands.
When I f...
Gender-based violence in South Africa: How reliable is the data?
By Dr M. Weideman (Independent Consultant) and Ms. L. Cawood (Director, Childline Gauteng)
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a potential or actual threat that all women face. South Africa (SA) is frequently cited as one of the most dangerous countries (not at war) for women, and GBV is described ...
The Wrong Reasons to Start a Non-profit Organisation
While most NPOs are established for the right, sound and moral reasons (such as a person or a group of people being so moved, so outraged or so hurt about people or animals suffering or environmental degradation, that they ‘do something about it’), not all organisations are established in respons...
How to avoid "Groundhog Day" at your nonprofit organisation
The "Groundhog Day phenomenon" refers to the 1993 film where Bill Murray's character is caught in a time loop, re-living the same day over and over again. At nonprofits, this painful re-living happens not through any magical forces, but due to poor organisational practices around documenting inst...
Beyond belief, beyond borders: Do funders overlook faith-based organisations?
It’s no secret that social-good causes run by faith-based non-profit organisations play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges. However, navigating the complexities of fundraising within this sector often comes with its own set of challenges, as with any organisation.
With over a decad...
Fostering Peace and Equality Through Education
The theme for this year's International Day of Education "Learning for Lasting Peace," highlights the link between education and the promotion of sustainable peace. To achieve lasting peace, education must go beyond the transmission of knowledge and embrace values such as empathy, respect for hum...
Profits Beyond Profit: The Returns on Investment in Nonprofit Support
Return on Investment. I remember clearly the moment I heard that term for the first time within the NPO space. I was sitting opposite a funding committee and while looking at our operational budget, one of the committee members explained the importance of return on investment in their decision-ma...
IPASA Announces the Release of the 2023 Annual Review of South African Philanthropy
The Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa (IPASA) is proud to unveil its fifth edition of the Annual Review of South African Philanthropy.
In the Annual Review, IPASA showcases prominent philanthropic organisations and their efforts towards addressing the pressing challenges...
Basic Education Employment Initiative is scoring points on youth employment – don’t pull the funding plug
With just under half of young South Africans between the ages of 15 and 34 without any learning or earning opportunities, interventions addressing this crisis are often caught between expanding reach and achieving real impact.
The Basic Education Employment Initiative (B...
Your country needs you: Civil society offers challenging career paths for job seekers
The civil society sector provides space for individuals to work with others and become active citizens. People come together, not necessarily to benefit themselves and make money, but to achieve change in society.
We live in a rapidly changing society and the days of starting at the bo...
Six learnings for successful collaboration in philanthropy
On 16 May 2023, the same day that the shocking PIRLS literacy results were released, IPASA kicked off its Collaboration in Philanthropy series with the aim of facilitating multi-stakeholder collaboration to effectively drive dramatic change to the current reality we face.
The recently announced ...
Reading crisis unveiled: 81% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa struggle with reading for comprehension
The South African education system is characterised by copious challenges and inadequacies that perpetuate the ongoing education crisis. The results of the 2021 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) confirmed that learning losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are se...
Analysis: Are NGOs doing the work of the state, and should they?
People in South Africa are used to reports of organisations like Gift of the Givers stepping in during humanitarian emergencies or service delivery NGOs assisting with HIV or tuberculosis programmes.
Take, for example, Touws River – a town in the Central Karoo in the Western Cape, with a high ra...
Drop in giving has ramifications for all kinds of South African entities that rely on donor grants to survive
Recently Nedbank Private Wealth brought out the fifth edition of The Giving Report (2022) which provides the results of a 2021 survey on the giving practices of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in South Africa. To qualify as a HNWI, participants required earnings in excess of R1.5-mil...
Does your nonprofit suffer from “Bright, shiny object syndrome”?
Bright shiny object syndrome: when people focus their attention on an idea that is new and in vogue, but drop this as soon as something new takes its place. This lack-of-focus can cause nonprofits to stray from their core mission, chasing the next philanthropic trend or cause-du-jour.
For a vari...
Let's start the year off right... for Human Rights!
It's 2023, another year filled with overwhelming feelings of hope (and in some instances dread) and the push and pull to be a better version of yourself.
I don't know about you, but I have a love/hate relationship with New Year and New Year's Resolutions. On the one hand, I feel like there is a ...
The false economy of means-tested and conditional income support
Battle lines separate the demand for a universal basic income (UBI) from the hold-out view that the support should be rationed and restricted to those who most “deserve” it. Ranged on one side are civil society organizations, trade unions, academic researchers and sections of the ANC; o...
Philanthropic investments in education are among our most urgent priorities
South Africa has a wealth of organisations that are involved in the education space and philanthropy recognises that until we fix education, most progress is hindered.
It is a well-known fact that corporate social investment and private philanthropy in South Africa are heavily invested in educ...
Funding crisis in North West as Social Development department fails to pay subsidies
One organisation has already had to close three offices
Many non-profit organisations say they are battling to keep their doors open, and some have been forced to close due to non-payment by the North West Department of Social Development.
This is affecting the livelihoods of staff and the se...
Good governance, transparency and accountability are thin on the ground in South Africa – civil society must lead the way
Once an organisation receives public benefit status and does not pay tax on its income, how transparent should the public expect it to be? Contrary to the US, in South Africa people prefer to undertake their philanthropy under the radar.
There is currently a major debate about philanthropic acco...
The impact of the Ukraine War on South Africa's food system
Wars, even wars that are far away, will always affect those who are most vulnerable. In this piece, Tamsin Faragher explains how a distant conflict could lead to a food security crisis at home.
When I was 14 - I started attending the End Conscription Campaign meetings. Being a girl, there was ze...
Half of non-profit organisations are failing to comply with the law
Department of Social Development claims it is deregistering non-compliant organisations.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) says only half the more than 250,000 registered non-profit organisations are compliant with legal requirements.
In a statement, the Department said there had ...
NPOs must be part of rebuilding SA
Nonprofit organisations have a crucial role to play in service delivery, given the lack of government capacity
Despite still being in the thick of the pandemic and its social impact, many will undoubtedly agree that our efforts should be forward looking and focused on exploring ways to help pick...
Marginalised, desperate and angry: The poor are now beyond breaking point
People all over the world are feeling physically and/or mentally exhausted, while others are depressed, fearful and anxious because of the hardship they have had to endure as the ubiquitous pandemic and its seismic after-effects continue to cause havoc across all sectors of our global society.
S...
Kolisis call for fresh thinking after “a time of mayhem”
“We need to listen to what people dealing with challenging circumstances really need,” says Rachel Kolisi, co-founder of the Kolisi Foundation. This and other fresh new thinking is being championed by young philanthropists such as Kolisi and her husband Siya as key ways in which to meet the count...
NPO sector needs rebranding badly to increase its impact
The nonprofit sector is the only one with a name starting with a negative, communicating what it is against, not what it is for.
Shakespeare once wrote: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. This is true for many things in life - freshly baked bread, popcorn at the movies, and t...
How to stop the degradation of our museums and cultural infrastructure
We are witnessing the collapse or near-collapse of key museums and heritage institutions in South Africa. How do we remedy this?
This year is the African Union year for Arts, Culture and Heritage. This week the African Experts’ virtual meeting on Sites of Memory and World Heritage Convention in ...
Philanthropy and dubious donors: Should non-profit organisations take the money and run?
The world has become increasingly transparent with the advent of the internet and social media. We can, after all, see child labour and slavery, carbon emissions, river pollution, the impact of plastics and the disappearance of forests through logging and farming. We have access to more informati...
People with nothing, have nothing to lose
The looting, criminality, lawlessness, and unnecessary deaths that we witnessed in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng recently should be a warning that poverty, inequality, and food insecurity affect all of us – not only the poor. In April 2020, FoodForward SA released a joint media statement with the Ins...
As hardship continues, empathy drives our social agenda
In the space of only 11 months, we all find ourselves living in a very different world.
The impact of Covid-19 has been hard on everyone, in very different ways. Many have lost loved ones; their jobs or had their income reduced. Many are experiencing severe hardship and struggling to cope.
Many...
Money-metric poverty: Most South Africans can't afford basic foods
Rising food prices are a clear indication that access to basic foods is worsening for those with limited or no income – what is also referred to as money-metric poverty.
While inflation seems to be steadily increasing, the sharp April rise to 4.4% from 3.2% in March has largely been driven by tr...
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