South Africa is different from Canada. For one thing, its unemployment rate is almost ten times higher. This means there is less “surplus wealth” to give away in SA, whereas in Canada people are generally better off. For this contextual reason, nonprofits like C4L are encouraged by government and donors to use “social enterprise” to generate one income stream. This can keep a baseline of revenue coming in, between the relatively large – but occasional – envelopes of grant funding.
In a way, C4L’s core business of training does that. It earns our keep, while we keep focus on our mission (capacity building). But most of our learners are “poor and unemployed youth” who cannot pay for their upskilling. C4L has to find sponsors and from time to time we can and do have busy surges of trainings. But this year, in a sluggish economy, it has been difficult to tap much funding for training youth.
The TOY JOY Project
So, we are starting a “sideline” – assembling toys. They will be made in South Africa, where 99% of all toys are imported from China. Our made-in-South-Africa brand is called “InTRICKate TOYS”. The best word to describe this new initiative is BLENDING:
- Buy one, give one—half of the toys will be commercialized, half will be distributed to the poor.
- Business and charity—as we often do in training projects, C4L (a nonprofit) will joint venture with a company. Conveniently, the for-profit belongs to a family that lives on the C4L campus.
- Donations and loans—It is unlawful in SA for banks to make loans to nonprofits. Donations and grants are not regarded as “income”. So, the company can borrow, but C4L must fundraise.
- Canada and South Africa—Churches in Canada are contributing skills and resources, combining with local leadership and inputs, brought to you by C4L (Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership).
- Mass manufacturing and labour—intensive solutions – we are creating some new and sustainable jobs for some youth alumni, while keeping at the forefront of industrial methods.
- Import and export—Some toy designs and tech are coming from Canada, while the project wants to export toys from SA, all over Africa and beyond.
Opening the Bottleneck
Some of the components to assemble these toys are made with templates, jigs, dyes and molds. These create toy-components at a much more competitive price. These are blended with some artisanal work at the Studio on the C4L campus – beading, welding, boxing, etc. The project is administered in the C4L office on campus. C4L is the “project lead” in the internal institutional arrangements.
Especially the molds for injection-molded components are very expensive. For this, we are appealing to friends of C4L far and wide to make a “social investment”. C4L’s tax-deductibility status only works in South Africa. In Canada, gifts can be gathered for C4L by St Paul’s church and paid over to C4L. These gifts are always captured in C4L’s audited financial statements as donations.
Alternately, other registered charities in Canada may collect donations and become a project partner with C4L.
This is an exciting new project, once again with significant Canadian content, although owned and operated by a nonprofit registered in South Africa.
