The Spirit Foundation and the Big Issue partnership

Our collaborative success is built at the intersection of the market and civil society, amplifying the strength of each for the benefit of others and meets, literally, where the rubber meets the road. The Big Issue vendors sell our magazine around the metros of Cape Town, wearing a Spirit-sponsored Big Issue bib adorned with Spirit’s asset investment brands providing high visibility for thousands of commuters. We contribute to improving the homes of economically vulnerable families by marrying private sector funding with an NGO which has deep knowledge of the life conditions of their beneficiaries resulting in a tightly managed system of sustainable home improvement. This results in 100% home subsidy compliance and a success outcome of 100% – all in a poor impoverished township environment.

The Big Issue NGO is responsible for accounting for the funds from Spirit for the ring-fenced purpose of upgrading three vendor shacks every month, and managing the implementation of every completed shack improvement itself. Highlighting the plight of nature under human threat is another of the big social issues The Big Issue magazine covers editorially. One of Spirit’s three philanthropic mandates, Wildlife Conservation, is therefore a natural source of journalism to focus on and improve the lives of animals in the wild. Our aim is to give those projects a national voice to encourage more active participation from the private sector – another example of a For-Profit company partnering with a Non-Profit organisation to solve a social problem.

We allocate a percentage of Spirit’s advertising spend in The Big Issue magazine to our FREE Private School for our vendors’ matric students. This innovative model allows us to provide private school level tuition in mathematics completely free to our learners. Every Saturday morning, two highly experienced mathematics teachers offer Pure Mathematics and Mathematics Literacy as subjects. Learners also receive free transport, breakfast, lunch, learning materials and instruments. The teacher/learner ratio? 1: 6 (2 teachers to 12 students). One could say we offer Luxury Mathematics, a level up on private school metrics. Job creation through social and private enterprise collaboration, community upliftment through home improvement and education for breaking a family’s repetitive cycle of poverty – a demonstration of what can be achieved when For-Profits and Non-profits are aligned for the good of social causes.