Many development agencies including NGOs are struggling for funding to support their programmes and projects. For South African development agencies to be able to provide sustainable programmes to help eradicate poverty, they require access to a consistent and sustainable source of funding.
NGOs have traditionally relied on donors and grants, but that involves a cap-in-hand model that can detract from the essential work they provide, necessitating much time having to be spent on sourcing funding. This dependency makes them vulnerable to how the economic factors affect their donors, not to mention their sponsors’ needs and aims, and the possible influence that may have.
Becoming a self-funding development agency is the ideal, ensuring financial stability through investments and partnerships. That is the path the Kagiso Trust chose in 1994, creating Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI), allowing the Trust to continue to fund and expand its programmes to break the cycle of poverty in South Africa.
“Being self-funding and financially stable, even in tough economic times such as the Covid-19 pandemic, gives us the capacity to continue with our projects and partnerships across South Africa to uplift the lives of the poorest of the poor,” said Mankone Ntsaba, Chairperson of Kagiso Trust. “Our investment arms have developed and evolved since the Trust decided on taking the direction to being self-sustainable rather than relying on funders, allowing us to continue our stated mission of building and delivering sustainable programmes to end poverty.”
Mankone Ntsaba, Kagiso Trust Chairperson
It was the late Robben Island veteran Eric Molobi, an early administrator of the Kagiso Trust, who co-founded Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI) in 1994. Since 1984, the Trust had been backed by the European Union, with Beyers Naudé and Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu as trustees, among others. In 1990, with the death knells of apartheid sounding, the NGOs that were previously funded by the EU had to find alternative funding.
To ensure that funding for their projects continued, Molobi became the first chairperson of KTI. The Trust saw the opportunity in Black Economic Empowerment deals to build a funding base from which it could produce dividends that would fund its programmes and reach their beneficiaries and stakeholders: the poorest of South Africa’s poor.
Indeed, KTI was a symbol of the original objectives of BEE — to spread the benefits of investments in the open market as widely as possible, benefiting the previously disadvantaged and changing lives. KTI is now Kagiso Tiso Holdings and has broadened the range of its investments, entrenching financial stability and enabling Kagiso Trust to continue its work in rural and disadvantaged communities.
Outgoing chairperson Reverend Frank Chikane pointed out last year that in 2001 KT had a net asset value of R26-million. Today, the Trust’s net asset value is around R5.8-billion.
“For us, financial self-sustainability allows us to target the projects we believe will do the most good and give the greatest return in terms of development and upliftment,” said Ntsaba. “We can partner with government and provincial organisations while staying true to our aims because of that position of financial strength. In 30 years we have been able to invest R2-billion in over 1 800 programmes. Building and maintaining significant, sustainable financial resources allows for real, tangible, sustainable empowerment for those who need it most — the poor.”
Like all of South Africa and the world, Kagiso Trust has had to deal with the adverse effects of Covid-19, but it is pleased to report that the business side of the organisation is stable. For the many, many South Africans who need the help and guidance of the Trust, that could make all the difference to their present and futures.
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