Programme overview.
Social innovation programmes.
We define social innovation simply as business solutions to social problems. We support social innovation because we believe that innovation is critical in solving our many social challenges at scale and in a cost-effective way.
As with our approach to supporting entrepreneurship, the SAB Foundation aims to build a critical mass of social innovation through our work at universities. The most dedicated social entrepreneurs or innovators are selected and we work with them over an extended period of time.
Our flagship Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards and Social Innovation Fund bring about scale, job creation and real sustainable social change.
The SAB Foundation looks for innovative products, services, business models and processes that directly address the challenges faced by low income women, youth, persons with disabilities, or people living in rural areas.
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Pipeline
SAB Foundation partners with the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education Entrepreneurship Intervarsity compassion. This identifies top student entrepreneurs at South African public universities and affords them an opportunity to pitch their innovative business ideas. In the process, universities are provided a platform to showcase their entrepreneurial talent and demonstrate the ways in which they support and grow the next generation of business leaders.
Since 2015, we have also partnered with the Gordon Institute of Business Science in hosting an annual competitions, catching and training event for social entrepreneurs called the Festival of Ideas.
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Start up
The Social Innovation Awards programme is focused on supporting businesses in the idea and start-up phase. It is aimed at entrepreneurs, institutions and social enterprises with prototypes or early-stage businesses that can solve social problems. Winners are awarded with grant funding, as well as business development support and tailored mentoring to assist with the growth of their businesses.
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Accelerate
The Social Innovation and Investment Readiness Accelerator Fund is open to all previous winners of our Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards. It offers entrepreneurs the skills, knowledge, documentation and funding required for immediate success, but also positions them for future rounds of funding from other investors.
Disability empowerment programmes.
According to the United Nations, the unemployment rate of persons with disabilities is estimated to be close to 91%4. Persons with disabilities are frequently not considered as potential members of the workforce, with perception, fear, myth and prejudice continuing to limit understanding and acceptance of disability in workplaces everywhere. Myths abound, including that persons with disabilities are unable to work and that accommodating persons with disabilities in the workplace is expensive.
With this in mind, the our Disability Empowerment Programme is aimed at innovators, social entrepreneurs, institutions and social enterprises whose innovations focus on providing solutions for persons with disabilities.
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Pipeline | Start up | Accelerate
The Disability Empowerment Awards programme is an extension of the Social Innovation Awards. The programme awards social enterprises that have come up with innovative solutions that improve access to the economy for persons with disabilities, while generating enough revenue to become sustainable over time.
Entrepreneurship programmes.
We believe that in order to ultimately grow high value businesses that create jobs, we need to create a critical mass of entrepreneurial activity. The most dedicated entrepreneurs are selected and the foundation works closely with them over an extended period of time to bring about scale and ultimately job creation.
The SAB Foundation executes this strategy through rapid start-up courses targeting the unemployed in partnership with SocioNext and through its flagship Tholoana Enterprise Programme and the Tholoana Alumni Fund.
While the SAB Foundation selects businesses from urban centres, we focus much of our efforts in working with businesses outside the major metropolitan areas. The major reasons for this are to support rural entrepreneurs in line with the foundation’s mandate and to take advantage of the gap in support that exists for businesses outside the major cities.
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Start up
The Tholoana Enterprise Programme is a structured, 18-month business support programme that provides entrepreneurs with extensive entrepreneurial skills development mentorship and access to tools and templates. In addition, connection to a strong peer network as well as access to markets and finance, help small business owners achieve exceptional results and become sustainable.
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Accelerate
The Tholoana Enterprise Programme Alumni Fund allows selected alumni to access further support in the form of grants and interest-free loans. The fund was created to assist previous participants to further increase their turnover and create as many new jobs as possible. The aim of this growth fund is to help SMEs fulfil a new contract or invest in capital for a growing business.
Alumni programmes.
We have identified that access to finance is one the greatest barriers for entrepreneurs. A well-developed financial infrastructure that is able to meet the diverse financing needs of early-stage business owners is essential to support their competitiveness and continuous growth.
As such, the SAB Foundation continues to support beneficiaries of our programmes along their entrepreneurial journey and provides ongoing programmes for alumni to participate in. This assists them to continue to scale their businesses and ultimately create jobs in their communities.
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Accelerate
The SAB Foundation, in partnership with Lead Impact Capital and the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund, has created the Financing for Impact Programme for its alumni entrepreneurs. The purpose of the fund is to unlock affordable financing for qualifying alumni of its programmes. Eligible candidates are graduates from the SAB Foundation Tholoana Enterprise Fund, the Tholoana Enterprise Programme, the Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards, and the Social Innovation Fund looking to grow their businesses and create jobs.
Farming and agro processing programmes.
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Pipeline | Start up | Accelerate
The Rural Catalyst Programme looks at innovative ways to create jobs through entrepreneurship in rural areas with the intention of finding business models which could successfully expand or be replicated into other areas. In conjunction with SaveAct, we create rural logistics channels for social innovation products through entrepreneurship in hard to reach rural areas.