What is meant by a ‘shop window’?

The DAR raises funds for 23 priority projects which have been identified through an institution-wide consultation, verification, and selection process with faculties. These projects are displayed in what we call our shop window, which is split into four thematic areas. All the initiatives are aligned with Stellenbosch University’s strategic needs and mapped against the three strategic pillars of teaching and learning, research for impact, and social impact. To advance service in society, our initiatives embody the SU Vision 2040 and a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These initiatives contribute towards increasing access to quality education, eliminating hunger, reducing inequalities, supporting climate action, enabling industry innovation and infrastructure, increasing access to clean water and sanitation, and establishing partnerships for goals.

Our shop window involves the following four thematic fundraising areas:

• Student opportunity. Student access and success is encouraged through bursary and wraparound fundraising support, which is achieved through donations for top-up fees, graduation debt, sports bursaries, food allowances, and more. Awareness of these initiatives is raised through our Annual Fund, #BridgeTheGap.
• Social impact and justice. Fundraising projects aim to address critical socio‑economic issues affecting our communities and country, among others, to alleviate social inequalities through policy reform by the Centre for Social Justice; to enable legal representation and protection of human rights of marginalised communities through the Law Clinic; and to enhance socio‑economic upliftment through capacity building for small‑scale and emerging farmers, promote entrepreneurial opportunities, and address food insecurity through the SU Water Institute.
• Research for impact. Our global and societal challenges are complex and need to be considered carefully when attempting to find meaningful solutions. This thematic area highlights the critical role of inter- and trans-disciplinary research as interventions to overcome the hurdles of our multifaceted challenges and requires the collaboration and expertise of various disciplines. Critical research challenges include addressing the negative impact of climate change and its effects on disease and health, food security, energy, poverty, and community sustainability.
• Building our future. This fundraising area focuses on high-value capital projects and infrastructure.

Why a shop window?

We like to put our projects in the shop window and take care to align to our institutional strategy and the philanthropic environment. This means we carefully evaluate potential projects to determine their relevance to our environment and to ensure that they are well positioned to realise our goals. Subsequently we can be confident that our projects are meaningful and effective, have a strong fundraising focus, and aid in improved planning and execution of supporting fundraising activities.

What are some of the focus projects?

Although our strategic thematic areas involve 23 priority projects, we also focus on other areas according to specific institutional needs. Student success and access is of particular importance and some 40% of our donations are channeled to this critical institutional challenge.

Another focus area that strengthens our competitive advantage involves the School for Climate Studies and the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at SU. With the ongoing complexities around climate change and the global integration of technology and data into our daily lives and industries, the work of these two schools cuts across several disciplines and facilitates inter- and transdisciplinary research projects. The extent of the overlap in functions, means that various faculties can be involved in a single project, all four thematic areas can be covered, and a more significant impact can be achieved.

How do we select priorities?

We prioritise projects by using a grading tool that covers metrics from 1 to 5. Although each metric carries a single score, various variables need to be considered before allocating scores. The simplified breakdown of the metrics involves the following:

1. Is the project aligned with the institution’s strategic intent?
2. Is there a philanthropic appetite?
3. How long is the fundraising life cycle?
4. Does the project carry the dean’s approval, and is there a project team that can effectively execute the project and respond to donor reports?
5. Does the project involve a reasonable risk for the University, which mainly refers to due diligence, i.e. are there any adverse operational, financial, or reputational risks involved in the project, and to what extent can they be mitigated?

Projects that achieve a 5/5 or 4/5 score, subject to the weighting of other variables, qualify to be in our shop window.

How do we go about addressing institutional needs?

We prioritise projects according to institutional needs and philanthropic appetite, among other things through our annual dean’s meetings. Here we engage with faculty leaders to identify and establish needs that could be prioritised for fundraising. Student opportunities get top priority as a critical fundraising challenge.

We also engage with project leaders and share information on philanthropic funding trends to establish whether their projects match market needs. When an opportunity arises, we are able further to assist with donor identification, screening, and proposal development to ensure that proposals are well positioned and packaged for potential funding. We also share grant opportunities when we identify calls for proposals with existing or new donors while providing the required support.

Lastly, our Donor Prospect Research team plays an active role in identifying and screening potential donors, whether they are individuals or organisations. We make every effort to ensure that our project proposals and concepts align with the donors’ interests while enabling fundraisers to establish long-term relationships for future donations.

Chimango Banda (cbanda@sun.ac.za)