Backdrop of prevalent poverty, inequality, poor education, AIDS, and environmental degradation in South Africa
A growing number of NGOs and social enterprises established to respond to these needs
Organizations are often hindered from achieving sustainability, or fully reaching their desired impact, due to two major problems:
(1) lack of a sustainable funding base, or
(2) lack of organizational and managerial capacity
Solution
Developing innovative funding sources and providing organizational and managerial capacity building for NGOs and social enterprises
Heart’s work focuses on three elements: (1) building social enterprises, (2) creating social investment opportunities, and (3) raising awareness through social media
Incubates a unique portfolio of 12 distinct social enterprises, to address some of the most pressing social and environmental issues in South Africa
Impact depth
Heart benefited/reached approximately 400’000 people in 2008, through its 12 portfolio organizations
Within the next 3 years, Heart aims to be able to reach 1.7 million people. This increase should be achieved by scaling up existing projects as well as projects that are currently still in the development stage