Funding Focus

The Cadiz Foundation will actively select to support those organisations which are considered to be, or have the potential to be, “centres of excellence” and leaders in their respective fields.

The Foundation will commit its resources to fewer projects in order to ensure that it can make a sufficient impact but will always follow its business principle to leverage the returns of these relatively modest investments by encouraging clients and competitors to join forces where the need demands and where competition falls aside in order to ensure the “greater good”.

Three main focus areas have been identified and the Foundation will channel the majority of its available resources as follows:

Secondary Education

Unacceptably high levels of poverty that result from a fundamental lack of education are at the core of South Africa’s social development struggle. South Africa needs to narrow the gap in the proportion of its children successfully completing secondary schooling in order to ensure that they can become meaningful contributors to the building of our nation.

It is widely believed that economic growth depends on abstract thinking and analytic competencies that are acquired beyond primary education and that can be provided through access to secondary schooling. This is most particularly relevant given the knowledge-based, and technologically driven world we currently live in .

The Cadiz Foundation is committed to providing support to those initiatives that build secondary schooling opportunities and resources to ensure that more learners can benefit from accessing quality secondary school education.

Environmental Initiatives

Environmental issues impact on health, sanitation, water, education and broader economic growth; a healthy planet provides the life-support systems and natural resources which we depend on to survive. Development at the cost of the environment is not sustainable so action is needed now, beyond legislation, to preserve animal species, the water supply and plant life.

Innovative projects are needed to address poverty, while paying heed to environmental concerns. Such projects can promote job creation and raise awareness of the limited resources in South Africa, while conserving the environment.

Within this focus area, the Cadiz Foundation will support those initiatives raise awareness of environmental issues and conservation practices as well as those that empower communities to generate livelihoods through viable projects in community-based conservation efforts.

Responsible Investment Advocacy

Cadiz is a firm believer that responsible investing practices can help to address the need for infrastructural development and social backlogs while making good financial returns. Through its own activities, the company is actively involved in both practising responsible investment and advocating to the broader investment community.

In support of these efforts, the Cadiz Foundation will look to fund initiatives that raise awareness about, and advance the concept, practice and growth of responsible investment in South Africa.