First-ever SA Fundraising Awards names winners

CEO of the Children's Hospital Trust, Louise Driver was named as Southern Africa Fundraiser of the Year. The CHT, which was set up in 1994 to generate funds for Cape Town's Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital and Paediatric Healthcare in the Western Cape, raised R101.5 million during their 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, under Louise's leadership.

Kathryn Torres was named as the Volunteer of the Year in recognition of her dedicated efforts to generate over R2.5 million for The Shine Centre, enabling the volunteer-driven organisation to set up and run numerous literacy centres in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, resulting in hundreds of young children learning to read.

The Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa's (CHOC)herd of 400 cycling 'cows' won the Innovative Fundraising Campaign award in recognition of their high profile, energetic and engaging campaign, which generated R3.45 million during the 94.7 Momentum Cycle Tour in 2012.

The winner of the SAFA Big Idea, Small Budget award was presented to the Kafue Gospel and Community Development Project in Zambia, a small organisation, which during the height of the economic downturn, mobilised poor communities to form five neighbourhood self-help groups to help orphaned children. Collectively they raised US$8000 (about R80,000) to provide educational support to 150 orphans, thereby preventing these children from dropping out of school.

The Social Enterprise of the Year award went to Cape Town's Oasis Association, which has been hugely successful in turning waste into work for 450 intellectually disadvantaged adults, whilst simultaneously generating 47.3% of the organisation's annual income from the sale of second hand goods, and converting thousands of Capetonians into recycling champions.

A total of 33 finalists were selected by the SAFA organising committee from over 150 online nominations, which were received from a wide range of non-profit organisations in South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania.

The winners were chosen by an independent, 13-person jury, comprising of leading authorities in the field of business, fundraising, philanthropy and social enterprise, including Inyathelo CEO Shelagh Glastrow, Sandra Ngwenya of the DG Murray Trust and seasoned community fundraiser, Tina Thiart. The winners from each category (excepting the Social Enterprise, which is Southern Africa specific), will now compete for international recognition at the 2013 Resource Alliance Global Awards for Fundraising, which takes place in the Netherlands in mid-October.

In presenting the awards, SAIF's President, Annemarie Barnard paid tribute to the winners and said she believed their achievements would help inspire other fundraisers and encourage them to find new, innovative ways to raise funds and thereby enable their non-profit organisation to thrive and contribute positively to the development of Southern Africa.

"It wasn't easy for our judges to select a clear winner in each category, which just demonstrates that each of the 33 finalists deserve recognition for their innovative, creative, dedicated efforts, which have resulted in millions of Rands being generated for social good", she said.

CEO of the Resource Alliance, Neelam Makhijani said that they were thrilled to be able to welcome the winners of the Southern African Fundraising Award to compete against fundraisers from around the world in the Global Awards for Fundraising. "We are delighted to have such a wide range of entrants from Southern Africa competing for the Global Awards, which are so enriched through the diversity of the organisations and regions that participate. We hope this will inspire more organisations in Southern Africa to work with their local communities in raising resources" said Ms Makhijani."

The awards were made possible thanks to sponsorship from GivenGain; BizCommunity, GIBS University of Pretoria; DevMan; Greater Good; Del Stat; Get Smarter, ASEN, Inida Design, Digital4Good and Sarah Scarth & Associates.

Full details of the finalists, their entries, the jury and the winners are available on the SAIF website - www.saifundraising.org.za