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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Micro-giving by a group of Peers



The Melanie School Bursary is a micro-giving project by a group of young professionals who were friends when they were at university and now want to leave a legacy as associates.

Melanie is a 12 year old girl from Rocklands in Mitchells Plain. Both of her parents are first-level nurses, working shifts, at a state hospital. Melanie has an older brother and a younger brother and the family also have extended family from the Northern Cape living with them in their small house. Basic nursing salaries are very low and do not stretch very far.

Over her junior school years Melanie’s late grandmother assisted her parents by providing family support to Melanie and they sent her to the primary school in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. As a result Melanie excelled at school and got a very good Grade 7 pass, with most of her subjects in the 80 – 96% mark. Because of her excellent marks Melanie was accepted by a very good High School in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. She set her heart on attending this high school. The school also offers sporting, arts and music offerings. Melanie’s parents however, do not earn enough to cover the expense of the school’s fees and the uniform, text books and stationery requirements.

The alternative is a school in Rocklands, where Melanie will have none of the support previously afforded to her, nor most of the options she wishes to pursue.

One of Step-Up 4 Life’s trustees organised a micro-philanthropy appeal to raise money for Melanie’s schooling. It was explained that the parents could afford the first few hundred rands per month and that we needed to raise the rest. In other words, Melanie and her parents needed a step-up. It was also explained that we were asking a basket of people to donate micro amounts per month over five years. All contributors would receive financial statements from a dedicated account twice a year and they would receive a progress report for Melanie and she would keep in contact with them. The appeal closed with a radio broadcast on Cape Talk with Soli Philander, where we introduced the ‘Step-up 4 Life’ micro-philanthropy concept of young professionals taking a life-long philanthropy initiative – Stepping up to the plate (over their entre life), to give others a step up in their lives.

Pledges for 5 years topped R115 000, and was made up of micro-amounts contributed by a small group of young professionals. A dedicated Melanie School Fund account was opened at the bank into which all contributions, even that of the parents, are deposited. The amounts ranged from R50 to R300 per month.

Philanthropy is not just something that can be done by the wealthy. In fact, research shows that ordinary people with modest incomes do the most giving in South Africa. Response to this appeal proved this to be true.

Four of the young professionals who make up the core group of givers in this case are peers who attended university together before going into the workplace. Some of them came from low-income families and now wanted to ‘pay something forward’ and do their bit to ensure that another young person may get a quality education. They wanted to leave a legacy of their friendship and commitment to social advancement in their community. These peers have also offered Melanie tuition support by volunteering time, taken her on outings and provided informal counselling. This is the Step-Up 4 Life model in action. It is an innovative ‘New Philanthropy’ approach in South Africa pioneered by ‘Step-Up 4 Life’.

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