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Activities

During Employee Volunteer Week 2010 CAF Southern Africa invited South African companies to make a special commitment to supporting the volunteering efforts of their employees. As communities and the organisations supporting them face the ongoing impact of the recession, social responsibility by business has never been more important. In every community there are non-profits struggling to meet an unprecedented demand for their services in the face of dramatic decline in cash contributions. Volunteers can play an important role to assist through both conventional volunteering efforts and perhaps more importantly by contributing the best thinking of their people towards the sustainability of community organisations.

A Deloitte executive explains the company commitment to skills transfer and mentoring as follows: ‘Now more than ever, if conversations between corporate grant makers and non-profits are limited only to financial support, both parties will leave value on the table … companies who donate the prized commodity of workplace talent can help a non-profit budget go farther. Our experience has been that when able to function more efficiently and effectively, non-profits will reap considerably more value — and do far more good — for communities in need’.

CAF recommends that volunteering is carefully aligned with the real needs of beneficiary organisations. This can include volunteering by individual employees, or company-organised volunteering activities. CAF brokers volunteering opportunities within credible organisations from our database.

EVW 2010 Activities

Several corporates participated in CAF's EVW 2010 programme. This saw a number of NPOs benefiting from the time, skills and expertise of corporates. Below are some of the organisational activities that transpired during the EVW.

FirstRand Volunteers and learners plant trees and garden together

Fifty (50) Grade 7 learners from the Shumunaki Primary School in Tembisa were joined by 25 employees from First National Bank (FNB), Lenovo and IT reseller Techonology Corporate Management, on Thursday 18th March, to help plant 25 trees and implement a food garden at their school premises. The volunteers and learners were guided by the expertise of the staff from Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA,) South Africa’s national greening, climate change action and food gardening social enterprise. To read more of this story please click here

The Banking Association SA employees volunteer their time and make a difference

During CAF SA Employee Volunteer Week, The Banking Association staff readily volunteered their time to give administration support to the Reach For A Dream Foundation head office. For more on this story please click here

Investec Capital Markets staff grow a green community

Investec Capital Markets staff recently donated their time and muscle power to help plant over 800 trees in Kaalfontein Extension 22. The tree planting initiative arose from a new low-cost housing scheme funded by Investec Capital Markets, which uses alternative building technology to build prefabricated houses. Please click here for the story

Hollardites roll their sleeves in support of orphans and vulnerable children

During CAF Southern Africa Employee Volunteer Week Hollardites participated at two projects, Rena Le Lona and Tshepang Programme. Both of these organisations support orphans and vulnerable children. The support of OVCs being Hollard’s main CSI focus area. Click here to read more

Launch of ENGAGE Key Cities Programme

In partnership with Business in the Community (BITC) in the United Kingdom, www.ENGAGEyouremployees.org , CAF Southern Africa launched ENGAGE in South Africa during Employee Volunteer Week. ENGAGE is an international network of businesses and community organisations which collaborate to increase the quality and amount of employee involvement in their local communities.

CAF Southern Africa and BITC hosted a public ‘launch’ event at the start of Volunteer Week (See the Events page for more info).

CAF Southern Africa - Erasmus University Collaboration on Employee Volunteering

This year CAF Southern Africa partnered with Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Rotterdam to bring employee volunteers and NGOs the opportunity to participate in an international study on employee volunteering. We encourage volunteers and NGOs participating in Employee Volunteer Week to complete the questionnaire on the Erasmus website by clicking here.