Grant funding
Overview of grant funding activities achieved in line with our values
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The oversight responsibility for NLC’s grant funding model goes through rigorous corporate governance processes. |
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We continued to enhance the experience of applicants and beneficiaries by improving the operational efficiencies throughout the grant funding process to make it easier and less burdensome to access grants. |
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Beneficiary-centricity was not limited to the operational indicators of the beneficiary experience, but also extended, to the respect and humanity with which the NLC engaged applicants, grant holding organisations and communities at large. |
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The review of the grant funding model was undertaken to determine how to streamline the funding process and eradicate unnecessary bureaucracy in the system. Notwithstanding legislative impediments to improvements, the identified changes were aligned to ensure efficiency. The new financial period will herald the implementation of the enhanced model. |
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The NLC values service excellence and is constantly innovating to provide the best possible grant-making solutions. During the year, the revised grant funding model was approved by the Board. |
The Grant Funding Department is responsible for ensuring that grants are administered efficiently and economically. Like many international development agencies, public sector organisations, and grant-making organisations across the globe, the NLC currently finds itself in a place where it is required to do more with less, as demand for funding outstrips what is available. In the context of the NLC, the organisation has noted a decline in revenue from the National Lottery operator. This required a much more systematic and considered approach to grant-making. Furthermore, the role of the NLC as a player in the development space demanded it to continuously ask the questions “are we making the right investments?” and “if we are, how will we know?”.
In answering these questions, the NLC undertook to revise the underpinning philosophy of its funding model. This revised philosophy and the strategic positioning of the organisation was based on the core concept of “Funding for Impact”. This marked a strategic shift in the NLC’s positioning in the development sector. It moved the NLC from merely focusing on distributing funds, to being more broadly and deeply involved and engaged in managing and understanding the impact that its funding has on funded communities and grant holders. It repositioned the NLC to become more purposeful in ensuring that it is indeed a catalyst for social upliftment, changing lives for the better and contributing to the development of the most impoverished and most marginalised communities. The NLC also enhanced beneficiaries’ experience by improving the operational efficiency of the NLC, making it easier and less burdensome to access grants. Beneficiary-centricity was not limited only to the operational indicators of the beneficiary experience, but also extended to the respect and humanity with which the NLC engaged applicants, grant holding organisations and communities at large.
Activities
The funding of grants to good causes is the second mandate of the NLC and includes:
Funding for impact
For some time, the revenue received from the operator has been stagnant while the number of NPOs has grown considerably since 2010. In response, we have revised the underpinning philosophy of our funding model to be based on funding for impact. This calls for a more systematic and deliberate approach to grant-making that enables the NLC to fund more effectively. It is the provision of funding to targeted projects and programmes that are catalytic in nature and lead to measurable, positive social change and community upliftment.
Pursuing beneficiary-centricity
Apart from developing a better understanding of local needs, the NLC is committed to optimising beneficiary support. To achieve impact in funding organisational capabilities such as a programmatic approach, as well as results-based management, are being developed. A programme approach recognises that development takes place through interconnected actions within a specified geographical location. It further recognises that there may be multiple needs that are often better addressed by numerous actors.
Development is not a linear occurrence but a cross-pollination of multivariate factors coalescing to produce the desired change. A programme approach is better positioned to impact various socioeconomic and political factors, which produce a “defective” social system in a specific environment. Adopting a programming approach goes some way in unearthing the underlying factors that enable the social conditions that grant funding aims to address.
The conceptual relationship between funding for impact and beneficiary-centricity is a causal one. Beneficiary centricity is one of the critical interventions that, if undertaken successfully, will enable more impactful funding in the context of the NLC. Therefore, beneficiary centricity is one of the strategic and operational capabilities that the NLC should develop to achieve impact in funding. The NLC’s vision is to be a catalyst for social upliftment with a brand promise of changing lives.
The broad societal impact that we aim to achieve extends beyond financially sustaining the organisations that we fund to changing the lives of the beneficiaries that benefit from our funding, as well as the communities in which they live.
Proactive funding
One of the strategies introduced to address the shortcomings in priority areas, in general, is the introduction of the funding model, which aims to respond to social problems and opportunities through a strategic and evidence-based mixed funding model. The amended legislation made provision for proactive funding (research-based funding), which can emanate from three sources: the Minister, the Board, or the Commission. The NLC has already successfully implemented several proactive funding projects.
Education and awareness
Education and awareness constitute a critical component in the NLC’s strategy to empower beneficiaries holistically. The programme’s primary aim is to develop informational measures to educate the public about lotteries and provisions of the Lotteries Amendment Act, No. 32 of 2013 and explain the process, requirements, and qualifications for grants.
Stakeholder engagements
The overall objectives of stakeholder engagement include:
- Understanding stakeholder realities and challenges to enable the NLC to improve the service delivery of its mandate.
- Educating the NLC’s stakeholders regarding its regulatory mandate and funding good causes aligned with the government priorities of poverty alleviation and job creation.
- Encouraging and ensuring beneficiaries’ sustainability by facilitating effective corporate governance, as well as the development and implementation of norms and standards for funding for the NLC’s beneficiaries.
- Ensuring beneficiaries uphold effective risk management and fraud prevention.
- Continuing to recognise beneficiaries complying with corporate governance through beneficiary awards.
Overview of the grant funding model
Grant funding
During the 2020/2021 financial year, we continued to enhance the experience of applicants and beneficiaries by improving the operational efficiencies throughout the grant funding with the aim of making it easier and less burdensome to access grants. Beneficiary-centricity was not limited only to the operational indicators of the beneficiary experience, but also extended to the respect and humanity with which the NLC engaged applicants, grant holding organisations and communities at large.
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