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Corporate Social Investment

Our goal is to make a real contribution to the social needs of our country by focusing on education-based initiatives in the hope that this will have a sustainable and long-lasting impact.

We believe in making a difference by:

  • Contributing to initiatives in a way that is meaningful to our staff, and which encourages their involvement
  • Choosing CSI partners for our long-term involvement and sustainability
  • Creating accountability, through clear measures, for both our social partners and our staff who are involved with these partners

True to the Lombard philosophy, we build strong and long lasting relationships with our CSI partners, with small partner teams headed by a champion dedicated to each CSI initiative.

These teams:

  • Continue to build strong relationships with each partner
  • Maintain accountability with each partner
  • Report back to the Lombard CSI committee around each partner

Bokamoso Education Trust

Providing a platform to fund children’s education

The Bokamoso Education Trust invests in the future of children in need. Its sole purpose is to offer each child hope, and a better tomorrow, through education. Bokamoso believes that a world-class education gives every child the opportunity to achieve their full potential and commits to helping them find the pathway to their future.

Bokamoso believes that anyone can make a significant difference to South Africa’s future and aims to provide an accountable platform for anyone, from individual monthly donors to large corporations, whose contributions are combined and mobilised towards the educational costs of its beneficiary children.

Their primary vision is to provide the necessary financial support for each child’s education (Grade 000 to 12). The Trust also facilitates the opportunity for donors to take an active and personal role in the beneficiary child’s development through mentorship, should they wish to do so.

Bethany House Trust

Building a nation through specialised child protection services and education

The Bethany House Trust was established in 1998 in response to the critical need of young people for shelter, access to primary health services and education.

Their mission is to develop and implement initiatives that will establish it as the leading non-governmental organisation in developmental issues affecting children and youth. The Trust initiates, implements, co-ordinates and manages projects critical to the children and youth of South Africa through national and provincial programmes.

Forgood

Connecting caring people with the organisations that need their help

Forgood is an online platform that connects passionate people with needy organisations. It is a social marketplace where skills, goods, services and information can easily be offered and asked for. It’s about matchmaking and change in your community – for good. Through the online networking platform, people can interact with NGOs, charities and other needy organisations to donate goods or services.

It takes the guesswork out of knowing where to start once someone decides they’d like to make a difference. By connecting online at Forgood, people can engage with their community and use their skills and interests to have a real world impact.

People that represent a cause can use this free online platform to explain their cause and its needs with the rest of the world.

Forgood can also be customised to run employee volunteer programmes, giving companies the ability to customise features relevant to its own community while demonstrating its volunteering and CSI activities to a broader market.

George Lombard Education Foundation

Bursaries for disadvantaged students studying business and science

George Lombard founded Lombard Insurance Company Limited in 1990, providing performance guarantees on behalf of contractors in the construction industry. Lombard Insurance has since diversified its specialist short-term commercial insurances and is today the largest insurance guarantor in South Africa.

Living up to the legacy of our founder, Lombard Insurance today boasts a large and thriving client base, from small emerging contractors to large engineering companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. By providing guarantees, George Lombard and his company has helped to grow companies and secure their success for over 25 years.

When George passed away in 2011, a foundation was established to continue his legacy. The George Lombard Education Foundation (GLEF) was registered at the end of 2011 and received Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) status from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in terms of the Income Tax Act (no. 58 of 1962).

The Foundation provides bursaries for undergraduate studies in business and science (currently only at the University of Witwatersrand), targeting students who are South African citizens from a disadvantaged background who show academic excellence.

Heartlines

Positive values for a positive nation

Heartlines uses the media, technology and partnerships with key institutions to shift social norms. By providing information resources that promote positive values, they challenge people to live out these positive values in a way that will build individuals, families, communities and the nation.

Heartlines believes that a bold and far-reaching interventions can achieve positive national transformation

Encouraging people of good will, to have the courage to do good Challenging people of all race, gender, age and religion to live out positive values to build a better nation

The Heartlines philosophy is that if enough people start living out good values, a social tipping point will be reached which will lead to positive transformation in South Africa.

Uplands Outreach

Developing innovative school leaders

At the heart of every high-functioning, innovative organisation is effective leadership. Our South African schools, now more than ever, require creative, agile and effective leadership to adapt to a vastly changed landscape, especially post-Covid-19. A skilled school leadership approach unleashes talents in our children, rather than further condemning them to impoverished lives. It is estimated that roughly 75% of children attend low-quality, under-performing schools in South Africa.¹ Lombard Insurance understands that innovative, entrepreneurial school leadership is the pathway out of this chronic situation.

Since 2007, Lombard Insurance has supported over 125 school leaders in four different cohorts in an innovative, high-impact professional development programme at Uplands Outreach. Hailing from the Insikazi School Circuit, participants work in senior positions in rural schools in the Ehlanzeni District in Mpumalanga. Upon successful completion of the programme, participants are awarded the ADE (Advanced Diploma in Education) in collaboration with the University of Johannesburg, the Department of Basic Education, and Uplands Outreach.

The Uplands Outreach programme strives to develop fundamental leadership skills, values and techniques, with the overall aim of contributing towards the improved delivery of education across the school system (in Insikazi, the circuit enrolls over 24,000 learners). This professional development programme also provides practical and psychological support to school leaders in the form of site visits, digital literacy, journal feedback, and individual attention to each participant’s unique needs. Over time, this multi-layered approach has lifted the performance of schools and an entire school circuit, with independently-quantifiable results. The circuit’s ranking has improved from 37th to 7th in the province, and the pass rate has moved from 56% to 88.9%. Lombard Insurance funds this programme in partnership with other donors, and plays a pivotal role by providing general operating support.

Kgwale Le Mollo Foundation

Educates the next generation of leaders in South Africa

The KLM Foundation identifies talented young students from economically disadvantaged, rural communities in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa and awards the students a five year scholarship to attend one of South Africa’s leading secondary schools, Uplands College. The KLM Foundation scholarship is a leadership development programme, founded on an ethic of scholarship and service: KLM Scholars are talented, motivated young people who wish to better themselves and their country through education. We want young people to want to change their world.

Maths Buddy

One Book One Learner Project

The South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) was formed in 2004 by the two professional societies for mathematics in South Africa, the SA Mathematical Society (SAMS) and the Association for Mathematics Educators in SA (AMESA). SAMF aims firstly, to advance the mathematical skills of South African learners through improved quality teaching and learning, and secondly, to improve and develop public awareness of the role mathematics plays in the broader society in which it functions.

The My Maths Buddy 1 Book 1 Learner Project is a key project of the Foundation in bringing rapid understanding of maths language to both teachers and learners across South Africa. This project focuses around the effective use of the My Maths Buddy maths dictionary and the correct understanding of maths terminology and has workshopped over 3,000 maths teachers and more than 24,000 learners to date. An audit of results achieved by the project has shown a 14% average increase in increase in maths results was achieved across all schools on the programme placing the project well above the average for school maths interventions.

The Link

Linking Community & Literacy & Numeracy

The Link is funded by The Link Trust, a non-profit organisation established to support the development of literacy and numeracy in children for whom English is a second language. The Link programme targets children in Grades 2 and 3 who generally come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who are struggling in the classroom.

There are currently 19 Link Centres operating in schools in the Johannesburg area. All the centres offer literacy whilst 7 offer numeracy, but hopefully in time, all the centres will do both.

Over 1 000 children benefit from the programme each week during their normal school term and most of the children have two lessons every week on a one-learner-to-one-volunteer or two-learners-to-one-volunteer basis. The children are assessed at the beginning of the year and then re-tested at the end of the year. These measurable outcomes ensure that the intervention is having the required impact.

Facebook is: https://www.facebook.com/TheLinkLiteracyProject/

Xpose

Empowering the youth through entrepreneurship

XPOSE Leadership Development Programme seeks to use entrepreneurship as a catalyst to expose underprivileged learners and unemployed youth from disadvantaged, low income households to knowledge and skills that will help develop their entrepreneurial intent, ultimately leading them to creating viable solutions that have socio-economic value to their households and communities.