KA-CHING! FOUNDATION TO BENEFIT FROM CAPE TOWN GIVING EXCHANGE SHOWCASE
"South Africa needs more successful entrepreneurs." So says Gregory Bunyard, Managing Trustee of the not-for-profit Ka-Ching! Foundation - the latest arm in the ever expanding Ka-Ching! Initiatives. The other arm, the 'for profit' Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course and Business Parenting Institute, has experienced tremendous growth since launching in 2005.
It's an opinion shared with academics, governments and organizations throughout the world…
"Learners must be taught the skills which will empower them to deal with the realities of life in the 'real world'," Bunyard continues. As Founder and Managing Trustee of the Ka-Ching! Foundation, he believes that two avenues have not been fully exploited; firstly, the introduction for children of an exciting, experiential hands-on approach to job creation, effective business management and financial awareness; and secondly, the involvement of parents in their Primary School education process.
The Ka-Ching! Foundation, for its part, is a Public Benefit Organisation that strives to produce innovative material and resources, provide ongoing support and add value to a previously disadvantaged child's education and development with the direct partnership, co-operation and involvement of schools, parents and caregivers. To achieve this, the Ka-Ching! Foundation lists the following two aims in its Mission Statement: firstly, to allocate donor funds to make the 'Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course' available to families who do not have the financial means to participate in the programme and secondly; to obtain donor funds to implement the 'Ka-Ching! Schools Intervention Initiative' into disadvantaged schools.
The Foundation lists the following as its primary aims:
- To allocate Donor Funds to previously disadvantaged schools to implement the Ka-Ching! Schools Intervention Initiative
- To allocate Donor funds to previously disadvantaged families who are interested to get involved with the Ka-Ching! Business parenting course but who are not able to afford it.
Best of all, welcome news for the Ka-Ching! Foundation as much as for its beneficiaries is that the Foundation has been invited to exhibit at the Cape Town Giving Exchange - an initiative of the Greater Good SA which showcases various not-for-profit initiatives to potential donors and the public at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront on 15 and 16 September. This will also serve as the official launch of the Foundation.
Hundreds of learners, their families and schools stand to benefit from the V&A Waterfront showcasing of the Ka-Ching! Foundation: the idea is that potential donors are signed up to support learners and schools in need such that they in turn pay a reduced amount to own their own copy of the course. "Qualifying families need to show an interest - and the course will not be free to these families," Bunyard emphatically asserts.
Of benefit to donors is the fact that they will be able to track the progress of each school and family by way of logging onto the Ka-Ching! website where, in turn, there will be a blog of each case study. Hence every donor can rest assured in the knowledge that the funds they have allocated are being accurately accounted for as they can track where these funds have gone. Donors can also, in turn, hear from each Ka-Ching! beneficiary family how the learner's skills are progressing.
What's all the fuss about anyway? The Ka-Ching! Foundation makes available at a significantly reduced cost the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course - a revolutionary parenting programme that is teaching children to run their own small businesses by making their pocket money go further. Backed by the Shuttleworth Foundation, the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course, which was launched onto the South African market in 2005, is not only empowering children with business skills - it's also helping strengthen the bond between parent and child. The course is already making waves in some families, where children are not only saving their pocket money, but putting it to good use. Ka-Ching! Business Parenting teaches children between the ages of 6 and 16 to budget, save and invest.
Citing one such example, Bunyard describes the case where "one young fellow of eight years" has already started a successful small palm tree business. "He now understands the importance of investing in an income-generating asset, rather than wasting his pocket money on consumables like sweets," he notes.
The Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course was created by Bunyard, an MBA graduate, together with Bishops Preparatory School Headmaster Midge Hilton-Green.
Specific projects, campaigns and aspects of the Ka-Ching! Foundation which will be showcased at the 2006 Giving Exchange are listed as follows:
The Ka-Ching! School's Intervention Initiative. In this case, the Ka-Ching! Foundation aims to channel donor funds to deserving schools by implementing the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course' into their school:
- The lengthy proposal explaining the 'Ka-Ching! School's Intervention Initiative' aims to explain how donor funds will be used to accomplish the goals
- The donor will enter into a sponsorship agreement with the Ka-Ching! Foundation who will in turn ensure the goals are met
- Within the identified schools, this intervention aims to impact on financial awareness, entrepreneurship, investing, wealth creation and life-skills learning to children between the ages of 6 and 16
- The outcome of the intervention is to equip the learners involved with the necessary skills that will ensure they are adequately able to cope with the harsh realities of life outside of school
The second option is to channel donor funds for sponsoring deserving families with the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course across South Africa. Interested families will be required to register for sponsorship of the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course:
- These registered families will be posted on the website requesting sponsorship
- Prospective donors can decide which families they wish to sponsor
- Each registered or interested family will be awarded their own online Ka-Ching! Diary which can be reviewed by prospective donor at any given time
- The donor's funds will be allocated to sponsoring the course to the family or families of their choosing
- The donor can track the progress of their sponsored family as they learn the vital skills taught in the course
"Our ethos at the Ka-Ching! Foundation slots in nicely with the Cape Town Giving Exchange theme 'Giving is not just about money'," says Bunyard. "First off, donors will be satisfied knowing that their funds will be directly allocated to deserving schools, learners and families to develop the vital skills our youth will need in facing the harsh realities of life after school." "Donors will also," he continues, "be able to track the progress of their sponsored families or schools by way of an online diary administered by the Ka-Ching! Foundation - plus they can request a copy of the Trust Deed explaining the transparency of the allocation of their funds," he notes. "All in all, the donor stands to be wholly satisfied, safe in the knowledge that their donation is being well-spent." Bunyard adds that donors can request to promote a Trustee of their choice to the Ka-Ching! Foundation's Board of Trustees.
The Ka-Ching! Foundation Cape Town Giving Exchange Wish List rates as follows:
- Donor funds to be allocated to the Ka-Ching! Foundation Trust account earmarked for deserving families and schools for sponsoring the Ka-Ching Business Parenting course;
- Donor funds allocated to update the website to include the request for funds and online diary pages
Adding to his Wish List, Bunyard adds that the Ka-Ching! Foundation is always on the prowl for volunteers to assist in making presentations to schools and parents explaining the two approaches available to them for registration.
The Ka-Ching! Foundation will make two presentations to two different schools on the Cape Town Giving Exchange "Do It Day", outlining how their school could benefit by getting involved with the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course through the Ka-Ching! Schools Intervention Initiative.
Bunyard asserts that there exists in South Africa a situation such that the country has vast numbers of unemployed people, many of whom are too poorly educated and too lacking in skills to gain worthwhile employment. School leavers are forging their certificates in order to have a better chance of finding employment. A sad fact, but when one looks at the statistics, one can understand why. Moreover, under 40% of graduates and less than 10% of school leavers are likely to find employment in the formal sector.
The Department of Education has introduced a new curriculum to better prepare candidates for tertiary education as much as for the realities of the working world. Many in the profession have not positively received the new curriculum. While each year 20,000 teachers resign or retire from the profession only 6,000 are graduating. Clearly more help is needed to reverse this situation. Education Minister Ms. Naledi Pandor herself has said that her Department could do with all the help they can obtain from the private sector.
The Business Parenting Institute, in turn, has spent four years researching and developing a course that attempts to educate the youth of South Africa in the fields of Financial Awareness, Entrepreneurship, Investment and Life-Skills. The Shuttleworth Foundation fortunately shared their vision and has been the sole sponsor enabling the foundation to complete and test the course.
Anyhow, who can contest the words of two of South Africa's legendary entrepreneurs - Pam Golding and Raymond Ackerman? Golding is quoted as saying, "It is essential to teach children life skills and financial management, as these are imperative to becoming an entrepreneur, and especially in South Africa today with our high unemployment rate." "Ka-Ching! Business Parenting," Ackerman notes, "is an interesting concept which could be very beneficial to both parents and children alike".
For further information, contact Gregory Bunyard, on 0860-639-929. Visit the website http://www.ka-ching.co.za or e-mail info@ka-ching.co.za. Alternatively, fax 088-021-671-3052 (Telkom online fax). For more information on the Greater Good SA's Giving Exchange click on this link:
http://www.greatergoodsa.co.za/ourcampaigns/givingexchange/detail.jsp?ge_id=1000031952
