Tamzin Ractliffe, founder of Greater Good South Africa, believes the same principles governing financial investments should be brought to bear on social investments. After all, as the shareholder of a JSE-listed company, you have access to a plethora of information about the company’s balance sheets, earnings and future potential. Why shouldn’t the recipient of a charitable donation be held to similarly high standards?
Although she now works in the philanthropy arena, Ractliffe has been strongly influenced by her investment banking experience, as she admits when I talk to her on the phone. She speaks confidently and quickly, and I struggle to take notes fast enough.
Many corporate executives will privately admit to dreaming of throwing it all in one day to follow their hearts — whether it be to start an organic farm, cycle around the world or work for charity. Ractliffe has managed to do just that. Brought up in South Africa, she worked for Rothschild in London as a venture capital analyst. But on her return to South Africa 10 years ago, she found herself starting a venture of a very different kind, this time in the social development arena.
“We bonded our house and worked night and day,” she recalls, mentioning projects director Carol Tappenden, who worked alongside her in setting up Greater Good. Today, she describes the organisation as a sustainable business with a social focus.
Ractliffe’s mission is to improve the accountability of non-profit organisations. “There are lots of programmes where you give, give, give and you don’t know what that donation did. When people have a sense of what is achieved, they are more likely to give again.”
Then there’s the negative terminology. “When you think of non-profit, you think it’s no-value. When I was at school, there were lots of non-white signs around. I had a teacher who got so angry with that. She used to say, how can you be a non-person?” Ractliffe suggests the term “social profit” instead, because these organisations can and should deliver significant value to society.
Greater Good’s website (www.greatergoodsa.co.za) was designed with the aim of bringing potential donors or volunteers in touch with organisations they would like to support. It’s like wandering through a supermarket where the goods on sale are all of the charitable kind: philanthropy with a consumerist edge. The Giving Exchange, held once a year in September in Johannesburg and Cape Town, is the physical manifestation of this.
People are encouraged to donate time, skills, second-hand goods and money. There’s a Do It Day where volunteers can sign up for specific projects, a Teacher’s Dream campaign, a book donation programme and The Good Shop, which offers goods made by charitable organisations or products where the retailer donates a percentage towards charity.
The organisation tries to make it easier for people to give. She says many people want to do something, but they don’t how, or who to support. And non-profit organisations, which are often rural-based, found it difficult to access funding. Through the internet and the South African Social Investment Campaign (Sasix), however, they can access the capital markets of Cape Town and Johannesburg.
She uses venture capital principles to ensure the sustainability of Greater Good’s work. Like Sasix, for example, which aims to stimulate what Ractliffe calls the “social capital” market. Launched in June with 15 organisations, Sasix now has 26 organisations and could be fully funded by the end of the year, she says. So far, R1,3-million has been raised. Information about the organisations is available from the Sasix website, at www.sasix.co.za.
“Social shares” in the organisations cost R50 each, and investors can choose to support just one cause, or a portfolio of organisations. Once an organisation is fully funded, the project is closed to funders and the work implemented. Sasix sends out quarterly prospectuses and project performance reports for investors. Just as publicly listed companies are held to high standards of transparency, accountability and governance, so too should the organisations listed on Sasix.
“People tend to support what they know best, which typically means the better known ‘charity’ brands, even though there are many other non-profit organisations doing great work that are extremely worthy of support,” Ractliffe explains in a press release.
Sasix is just the second initiative of its kind in the world, after Brazil’s Social Stock Exchange. Ractliffe says there has been intense international interest and that they are in talks to form a global exchange. “So an individual in the United Kingdom, for example, would be able to choose between Brazil, South Africa and so on,” she explains.
It’s an attempt to address an all-too-common phenomenon, where funders are prepared to support a project, but not an organisation’s running costs, such as water, electricity and salaries. “You can’t have strong projects without strong organisations,” she points out.
Greater Good’s work includes an evaluative component. Ractliffe compares it to an empowerment rating, where aspects such as capacity, management performance and sustainability are assessed. “People build capacity over time,” she says, explaining that a lack of capacity shouldn’t be seen as a negative.
Two weeks ago, a Sasix strengthening programme was launched to showcase good organisations that need, for example, equipment or better buildings, or even staff. She also wants to encourage social entrepreneurs — people like her who want to start up non-profit causes — by offering training and support.
Since its launch two years ago, Greater Good has raised R6-million for good causes. But the organisation’s real legacy may lie in the processes it institutes, rather than the funds raised.