Other Corporate Social Investment Initiatives

A lapdesk is an award winning, patented portable desk that was designed and is manufactured in South Africa. South Africa has a shortage of desks in schools, and unfortunately many schools are vandalised and desks and equipment destroyed. Lapdesks are portable desks that the learners own and can use both in classrooms and at home for study purposes. Our lapdesk project kicked off in July 2009 when we donated 8400 lapdesks to eight schools in Gauteng, including schools in Soweto, Daveyton, Tembisa and Bekkersdal. STANLIB staff members handed over these lapdesks and also spent time refurbishing and cleaning the schools in the STANLIB version of Extreme School Makeover.

During 2010 eight STANLIB departments are each adopting one of these schools.

During the year they will have regular contact with the school to do more handovers of lapdesks and to assist with further refurbishments.

The project has now also been extended to Limpopo, Eastern Cape and the Western Cape. Some 3100 lapdesks will be distributed by the end of 2010 to the new schools across the country whilst 2900 desks will be distributed to the eight Gauteng schools adopted in 2009.

We sponsor five learners from previously disadvantaged communities who have financial constraints to study at the top high schools throughout the country through our Schools Sponsorship Programme. Our Bursary scheme also sponsors 10 students to study at a recognised South African tertiary institutions. Depending on the needs of the students, the sponsorships include tuition, accommodation, book allowances and meal allowances. We also offer bursary recipients the opportunity to do vacation work at STANLIB over the school holidays to gain the relevant experience and offer them a better chance of succeeding in their studies.

One programme that we have set up is the STANLIB Investment Academy. This was originally launched in 2006 to fulfil the Financial Sector Charter consumer education requirement. The programme aims to educate students at 16 previously disadvantaged universities and colleges in South Africa on financial matters including how to manage their finances, budgeting, and savings and investment. The programme has grown since inception and today reaches over 2,000 students each year. The Investment Academy is a NQF level 3 accredited course.

STANLIB employees give of their time and skills to a number of community-building projects each year in their individual capacity. These contributions are making a difference to our country, and in recognition of this, we have an employee matching scheme that will match contributions raised (up to a certain limit) by staff members for a Corporate Social Investment initiative they are passionate about.

Our investors in the STANLIB Shari'ah Fund elect to donate their non-permissible income (NPI) to charity. STANLIB will be selecting various initiatives to donate money on our clients' behalf.