Members

CDT Foundation NPC

CDT Foundation (CDTF) is an ecumenical loan fund that provides loans at a low interest rate to Christian Churches and Organisations for property transactions within the borders of South Africa. The Foundation sees its role as supporting the ministry of its members, other Christian bodies and the like, with finance, and in providing help in other areas of its expertise.

Formerly known as Christian Development Trust (CDT) which was established in 1979, the Foundation was later registered as a Section 21 Company in 1999 and took over the functions of CDT. CDTF has assisted Churches and other Christian organisations for more than 30 years to build, complete or buy properties and had 70 active loans in the last financial year. CDTF was established during the Apartheid era when banks were reluctant to lend money to black churches.

The funding of CDT was primarily from the German Lutheran Church and its associates. The major funding resulted from addressing a couple of needs where CDT was able to assist the funders by facilitating transactions to the common benefit of all.

Today, in addition to providing finance, CDTF occasionally makes small direct grants to worthy causes. For a number of years until 30 November 2013, the Foundation managed the Small Project Fund of Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst e.V (EED) and later Bread for the World (BfDW) in South Africa. This allowed the body to make once off grants to NPOs and the like. Furthermore, CDTF is able to provide other organisational support – particularly in financial management and corporate governance – to Christian Churches and Organisations, but not restricted to Christian bodies.

Many churches are growing in attendance, but due to the state of the economy, without simultaneous growth in income. Through the assistance received from CDTF, churches have been able to grow and expand and thereby embark on new initiatives to make themselves more financially sustainable, such as to rent out property and pursue alternate income streams. It was noted in discussion with the CEO of CDTF, Louise Ballot, that CDTF is “the only organisation that focuses on lending money to churches for property transactions in South Africa”. “Every year is fantastic – CDTF has its mandate and continues its ordinary, but valuable work. It’s amazing to see what people can do with so little money.”

CDTF are passionate about assisting as many black churches as they can, to uplift and to empower, and possibly to start schools in the churches so more children can receive quality education.

 

Ditikeni is a broad-based Black Economic Empowerment investment holding company with a thirteen-year track record of acquiring investments and distributing the profits to our beneficiaries.

Ditikeni is a 100% broad-based investment holding company. With our broad-based credentials, we’ve become proud partners to 23 companies in the ten years since foundation in 1999.

  • Ditikeni’s 18 shareholders are all non-profit organisations.
  • Our shareholders work in over 200 poor, black communities nation-wide.
  • Over 2 million beneficiaries, located in every province.
  • Certified fully BEE-owned and -controlled, Ditikeni offers the maximum ownership points under the BEE Codes.

The Ditikeni group was formed in 1999 by a number of non-profit organisations seeking financial sustainability. They aimed to participate in Black Economic Empowerment in order to create a capital base to fund their community development and welfare work. By the way, “ditikeni” is tshiVenda for “something to lean on” signifying our aim of financial sustainability for NGOs.

Ditikeni has made 23 investments in the past ten years and retains seventeen. Our aim to build up a capital base has succeeded to the point that Ditikeni now pays an annual distribution to shareholders. Over R13 million has been distributed to shareholders to date.

The NGOs which make up Ditikeni originally contributed R2.8 million from their own resources to fund Ditikeni’s working capital. This was repaid in 2007. A share costing R1 originally is now worth over R48 at tangible Net Asset Value.

The Ditikeni group consists of:

  • Ditikeni Investment Company Limited, a public company, at the heart of the group
  • Ditikeni Trust, a parallel registered vesting trust which has undertaken certain transactions where a trust was required. Ditikeni Trust has the same beneficiaries and trustees as the shareholders and directors of Ditikeni Investment Company.

Ditikeni Empowerment Advisors, a division of the company, provides corporate advisory services to clients.

Ditikeni group is audited annually by Nolands and maintains high levels of corporate governance. See our annual reports for more information. Ditikeni has been certified by a registered ratings agency, Honeycomb Ratings.

Ditikeni’s empowerment profile is :

  • Black-owned 98%
  • Black woman owned 62%
  • New entrants 98%
  • Broad Based 94%

 

Labour Research Service – LRS

“Knowledge is too important to be left in the hands of the bosses”.

The establishment of the LRS was in response to the growing demand from trade unions for research and consulting services. On the 1st May 1986 the LRS was launched as an independent organisation. The LRS remains a trade union controlled institution and maintains its independence by providing services nationally to all progressive trade unions, across federations, political affiliations, provincial boundaries and artificial racial barriers. From its inception, the LRS focused largely on providing empirical research for trade unions to facilitate their struggle to win concrete achievements. Directly, the organisation supports 15 member unions that serve over 2 million working men and women. The LRS’s broad aim is to enhance the participation of the working population in political and socioeconomic activities in South Africa.

Over the years, four themes have ensured the LRS vision. They are: providing accessible and relevant information to the labour movement; developing education interventions; creating a culture of reading and building a dedicated stable of publications to disseminate this information. The LRS’s approach is to promote the general and specific interests of the labour movement and to encourage inter-union solidarity and alliances between unions, NGOs, social movements and campaign groups.

The work of the LRS is organised into five core programmes, each with their own dedicated outputs but also an increasing level of programme integration. They are: Collective Bargaining Support, Gender (including HIV and AIDS), Trade Union Library and Archive, Transforming Corporate Governance, Worker Education and Advocacy. These programmes serve to promote the objectives of the organisation which include, among others, contributions towards an informed trade union constituency, the development of a skilled union leadership and the strengthening of trade union bargaining capacity so as to improve the living conditions of workers and their families.

Noted successes of the organisation include those of beneficiaries who participated in the Gender and HIV/Aids programme. 90% of the individuals reached in the programme are women. Through the Gender and HIV/Aids programme women have been able to share their experiences of being in the workplace. These women have been empowered to engage actively in their union’s strategies and to take ownership of their lives as workers. In this way, the Gender programme facilitates the development of an active and productive female leadership for unions and society.

The environment in which the LRS works is highly pressurised and all funding assists the organisation in reaching the goals it has sets. The relationship with Ditikeni, however, goes a distance further by ensuring the sustainability of the organisation. Funding challenges that are a result of the financial crisis illuminate the need for non-profit organisations to increase efforts to become sustainable. In this way, the LRS is able to have a long term view of its development.

 

Social Change Assistance Trust – SCAT

SCAT is a non-profit organisation that serves as a grant-maker, a capacity builder and mentoring organisation in direct service to smaller community based organisations. With its beginnings at the height of apartheid, SCAT provided support for advice offices in African communities that were in jeopardy of closing. Today, this Cape Town based organisation still maintains its original mandate and provides grants to organisations working in rural communities in the Free State, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape. SCAT currently has beneficiary organisations working in HIV & Aids, local economic development, human rights and the empowerment of women and people vulnerable to discrimination.

SCAT’s primary programme is to provide funding support to local development agencies (LDAs) and community based organisations (CBOs). These funds are dispersed through 3 main channels:

  1. Core Support – small grants used to cover the beneficiaries’ administrative costs.
  2. Development Fund for Training – grants provided to beneficiaries for training employees and volunteers in order to build organisational capacity
  • Fundraising Incentive Scheme – an incentive scheme for beneficiaries when they conduct their own fundraising activities in the community. SCAT matches any profit made at the ratio of 1:5 (within a set limit).

In addition to the funding, SCAT also provides services for field support & capacity building; advocacy and brokering partnerships between civil society organisations, business, government and the community. These services provide skills (that assist in LDA or CBO operations) and relationships for the LDAs and CBOs that increase the life span of the organisation and support their work within their geographical setting. SCAT is the recipient of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Inaugural SA Premier Business Award for 2012/2013 in the Rural Development category. SCAT has also provided capacity for 10 CBOs in the Eastern Cape that work with migrants and refugees. Through this intervention, the CBOs were able to provide protection to victims of xenophobic attacks. The CBOs, with SCAT’s continued support, continue to work in their communities to address xenophobic attitudes.

Being a Ditikeni shareholder means that SCAT is able to signal to its funders that the organisation is ‘solid’ and is concerned about its own sustainability. This adds significant weight when seeking funding to continue operations. The name “Ditikeni” is quiet well known in the NGO sector and being affiliated with such a well know entity enables doors, which would otherwise have been close, to open.