By Graham Moore | Executive Director: Sustainability
The first report to the TSIBA Founders' Gift Campaign indicated funding raised to commence with the building renovation and refurbishment. Funds raised, mostly through GlobalGiving enabled the project to commence. We are very pleased and excited to announce that renovation and refurbishment work have been completed, and the second semester of the 2023 academic year is scheduled to commence at TSIBA Ndabeni - our new campus.
This is a massive milestone for this institution. In our almost twenty years of existence we have never owned our own premises, but have leased from Landlords in order to provide the physical spaced required of an academic environment. We are also pleased to share that the word Ndabeni in the South African isiXhosa means 'Place of Debate". It is this fitting that our new campus is located in the area of Ndebeni in South Africa's Western Cape, and that the origins of this word aligns to a 'contested' learning space. In an academic environment it is the 'contesting' of thoughts, ideas and perspectives that move thinking and learning forward.
In regards to funding derived from the this campaign. TSIBA was fortunate to have sufficient reserves in place to fund the full cost of the project which ultimately exceeded ZAR 50 million (or USD 250 000), with a portion funded from capital raised through the Founders Gift Campaign as indicated above. Subsequent to sharing the first report TSIBA has run fundraising events in London, and have plans to run additional two (similiar) events on campus at TSIBA Ndabeni between July 2023 and November 2023. Gia Whitehead, our Chief Executive has also visited the United Kingdom (London) and Switzerlans where the new campus and the Founders' Gift Capital Campaign was presented and financial support requsted.
To date, and notwithstanding interest from various potential funders, there has been limted funds committed against our project objective. The emphasis of the campaign has thus shifted towards a 'Matched-Funding' campaign in which we indicate that TSIBA has itself invested ZAR 50 million into the project, and have extended an invitation to funders to match, and to invest at whichever level they prefer and which is affordable. Each level of investment into the campaign is also specified, and in manner which fully dignifies the level of support given.
The emphasis has thus shifted to the TSIBA Invest in Education, Make a Difference, leave a Legacy fundrarsing which is indicated and updated in the Founders' Gift narrative provided on this platform. Significant effort has also gone into making personal and direct requests to Funders who are familiar with TSIBA, either to fund themselves, or to refer to associates who may wish to partner in this type of project.
We remain hopeful that over time the campaign target will be achieved, and are perhaps aware that ambitious funding goals as we have set for ourselves can take time. The journey has started, progressed and we will contine to pursue the goals of TSIBA Founders' Gift.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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