September 2007

Theme of the Month
The power of volunteers

Give your time and skills
Sign up for Do It Day

Good Lifestyle Choices
Jewellery creating jobs

Experience the Gift
You made Christmas matter

Upcoming events...

Sign up for Do It Day

Do It Day takes place on Friday 19 October 2007. All bona fide social profit organisations are invited to register with GreaterGood SA and submit a proposal for a development project that can be carried out in one day by volunteers. This may be a skilled project like redesigning a website, or it may involve "sweat equity" like planting a garden. Submit your proposal online at www.doitday.co.za or contact us by phone on 021 794 0580 or email at info@ggsa.co.za

Do It Day

What are you good for?
There are many ways to give. No one way is better than another. The new GreaterGood SA website has grouped different types of giving to help you identify more specifically what you are good for. Whether it is your time, your professional skills and expertise, your secondhand or surplus goods, a gift in kind or a financial donation, everyone is good for something. Visit the site to post your offering or respond to a request that matches your way of giving today.

Last chance to Donate-A-Book

Our annual Donate-A-Book campaign closes on 8 September with World Literacy Day. Take this opportunity now to make a donation online through our secure credit card payment system, or through electronic transfer or direct deposit, helping to purchase books for this year's campaign beneficiaries and spread the joy of reading. In the spirit of this newsletter, we also invite you to donate second-hand or surplus books which we will redistribute to causes that need reading material. Visit www.donateabook.co.za for more information, or contact us by email at info@ggsa.co.za or by phone on (021) 794-0580.

Teacher's dream looking for a dreammaker

This Teachers Dream is 89% funded and with a little extra help from you, the Grade 4 learners of Rippon Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal will be able to visit a working dairy farm and see where their milk comes from! [read more...]

Moves afoot at GreaterGood SA
GreaterGood are sad to announce that Ricolette Booysen is leaving the organisation at the end of August and wish her well in her new venture. Allewisen Witbooi has stepped into the challenge of being our SASIX administrator, and Belinda Claassen has taken on the management of GGSA 2.0 as a whole, supported by Princess Kanogoiwa.

Register with GGSA
When you register with GreaterGoodSA we are able to provide you with a more seamless service. All your information will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Click Here to Register

Contact us
Greater Good South Africa
Postnet Suite 293
Private Bag X16
Constantia, 7848
South Africa
t. +27 (0)21 794 0580
f. +27 (0)21 794 2239
e. info@ggsa.co.za

Greetings!
21 September is World Gratitude Day. We at GreaterGood South Africa would like to express our gratitude to you as a member of the South African giving community - both online and offline. In less than three years, your generous support has raised over R9 million for the various non profit organizations registered with us. We have learnt a great deal over this time and are delighted to this month formally launch our new look "Version 2.0" website which takes account of the wishes and conversations between givers and receivers, givers and givers, and between receivers with each other.

Dubbed "the Facebook of Giving", the GreaterGood SA V2.0 site makes it really easy for you to connect with other people and causes who have similar interests, concerns and wishes as you do. It is also much simpler to find out more about organizations and match their needs with your unique ways of giving. The site gives givers and receivers full control over the information they upload and facilitates a more direct conversation with you as a user. It also lets you give more direct feedback about your experience of giving. It is indeed the "Facebook" of giving for South African social profit organisations.

Please logon to www.GreaterGoodSA.co.za to view the new features available to you. Whilst you are there, please take a minute to create your own giver's profile by registering with us. You can bookmark causes of interest to you that you may wish to monitor, post any offers you might be willing to make or view the range of call-outs from causes who are looking for something. It is really that simple. And if you do have any problems, simply email us at info@ggsa.co.za and we will assist you. We hope you enjoy this new service.

Theme of the Month
The power of volunteers
Read about the different forms of volunteering in South Africa - from community HIV/AIDS carers struggling to survive, to employed people giving a bit of their time on a weekly basis to a worthy cause.

Volunteering with social profit organisations has many faces in South Africa. On the one hand, people without regular employment and with limited options volunteer on an ongoing basis with community-based organisations, sometimes progressing to receiving a stipend but most often not.

At the other end of the scale are people with full-time jobs and a bit of spare time, who spend a limited period each week or month with an organisation in their own or another community. Young people often volunteer for a while to get experience, and move on when their confidence has been built and a paid job opportunity presents itself.

All forms of volunteering are critically important to social giving in South Africa. The articles below explore two of these kinds of volunteering:

This Month's Feature Articles

  • "Ten tips on volunteering wisely" gives advice on finding a regular slot where you can make a meaningful contribution [read more...]
  • "Upgrading the status of volunteer home-based carers" explains why many community volunteers caring for HIV/AIDS patients struggle to survive and how the situation can be improved. [read more...]

Good Lifestyle Choices
Jewellery creating jobs
Buy beautiful beaded jewellery online from our Good Shop and support Guguletu widow and entrepreneur, Nokuzola Matolengwe, who wants to expand her business and create more jobs in her community.

Nokuzola Matolengwe is a widow and mother of two children. She lives in Tambo Village - on the border between Gugulethu and Manenberg in Cape Town. Nokuzola used to work for a jewellery making business where she learnt her many skills. She has a good ability to pick up techniques quickly, an eye for quality and a creative gift that allows her to design products too. She went out on her own a couple of years ago and established her own business called Sinethemba, which means "We have hope" in Xhosa. She has started employing other women and her dream is for her business to grow so that she can provide more employment in her community. Her biggest challenge now is to find a consistent market for her products.

Have a look at some of Nokuzola's beautiful jewellery which you can purchase online through the Good Shop. The items are made upon request so please allow for production of two working days as well as postage time. Email: hello@dial-a-surprize.co.za to place an order. The prices quoted exclude VAT.

Experience the Gift
You made Christmas matter
In this month when we strive to reduce illiteracy, it is heartening to see the support that GreaterGood SA donors have provided to further various literacy programmes.

Thanks to all of you who made Christmas matter through your generous purchases of Christmas gifts to brighten the lives of others in 2006. The 2006 Make Christmas Matter campaign was a phenomenal success, raising a total of R718,100. Most of the projects have now been completed and here is your chance to see the impact that your support has had on the amazing work of the six beneficiaries of last year's campaign. Visit www.MakeChristmasMatter.co.za to read more.

Your gifts help us combat illiteracy
Literacy is a vital part of Iziko lo Lwazi's work, and crafters attend weekly English lessons. They sometimes struggle to find the meanings of words, however, and desperately needed dictionaries. Thanks to Jan and GreaterGood SA each crafter now has her own. [read more...]

Thank You to Leisure Books and Real Simple for the wonderful books donations to Kids Haven - the kids and staff were so excited to receive these. [read more...]

ITEC would like to thank Johnson Controls for your generous donation of books to our community library outreach programme. We hugely appreciate your support of our literacy work in rural areas in the Eastern Cape. [read more...]

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