With the celebration of its 10th anniversary this year, the Vodacom Foundation has matured into a widely respected vehicle of philanthropic outreach. Its vision is to give life to Vodacom’s commitment to share its successes with the communities that have helped achieve them.
To this end, the Vodacom Foundation has invested some R500 million since 1999 to uplift and improve communities.
Vodacom Foundation’s CEO, Mthobi Tyamzashe, says the Foundation has moved through three distinct phases, and is now poised to enter a fourth phase which will further cement its credibility in South Africa’s Corporate Social Investment landscape.
‘The first phase, from 1995 to 1999, was an informal one, in which activities were mainly decentralised and our response to CSI requests was somewhat reactive. No formal governance structures and funding policy were in place. During this period, we realised that we needed a more formalised approach if our CSI outreach was to make a meaningful impact,” he says.
In 1999, the Vodacom Foundation was formalised, with an internal Board to guide its decisions. A more proactive approach was adopted, and three main focus areas were identified, in the form of Education, Health and Safety and Security.
In addition, but to a lesser extent, other areas of focus were Arts and Culture, Community Sport and the Environment. The main thrust of the CSI programme remained that of complementing government community upliftment efforts, through helping communities to help themselves.
In 1999, the Vodacom Foundation also embarked on its first flagship project with the building of a secondary school, clinic and crèche at Bizana in the Eastern Cape.
The Cangci Comprehensive Technical High School at Bizana in the Eastern Cape was Vodacom’s response to an appeal by former President Nelson Mandela for the corporate sector to transform the lives of rural South Africans.
The 3-roomed structure with no water, electricity or sanitation, was transformed into a modern, fully equipped school accommodating 500 learners.
Vodacom has continued to invest in the Cangci School through an integrated teacher and student support programme that saw a dramatic improvement in the matric pass rate from a lowly 19% in the first year to 85% in just four years.
‘From 2005, the Vodacom Foundation moved into its third phase, characterised by the appointment of both internal and external trustees to the Board.
Partnerships were formed with highly credible NGOs to ensure that the available funding was utilised optimally, to ensure maximum impact. Corporate Social Investment was increasingly seen in the broader context of sustainable development,” says Tyamzashe.
During this period, the Vodacom Staff Volunteer programme, Yebo Heroes, was introduced as a practical demdemonstration that there were living individuals behind the cheques that are donated to deserving causes, while enabling staff to express their inherent desire to assist those that are less fortunate than them through a company-supported platform.
Flagship projects during this period included three schools, one being the Thuto Lesedi school in the Free State and two in the North West Province, the Kamogelo Primary School and the Freedom Park Secondary School, as a result of partnerships between the Free State and North West Departments of Education and the Vodacom Foundation. With these projects, the communities were provided with three fully equipped schools.
The fourth phase, which began in 2009, will be characterised by an holistic approach that harnesses Vodacom’s core business as a leading telecom munications provider to utilise telecoms technology to help solve social problems and thereby ‘make connections that change lives”.
According to Tyamzashe, Vodacom’s CSI interventions will be based on a number of principles. These include a focus on providing social solutions rather than on how much cash is requested, and becoming a ‘mobiliser” of funds from other sources, as distinct from being the ‘donor” of funds.
About 80% of available funding will be used towards the following:
- Selected ICT-based projects that are high-profile, multi-year, proactively-sourced, and Vodacom-driven; and
- NGO-driven projects with which Vodacom wishes to associate for a limited period
Only 20% of the budget will be available for ad hoc requests from community organisations. This funding will be allocated on a discretionary and reactive basis. Projects that cover the full spectrum of giving to include in-kind support, time and skills sharing, in addition to cash contributions, will be preferred.
Tyamzashe says: ‘With this fourth phase, we are confident of taking our Corporate Social Investment programme to a new level, building on the success of the last ten years. In this way, we aim to continue to thank the communities that have helped make us successful, by investing in their long-term sustainability and development”.