What is the South African Corporate Program?

We are calling on companies across South Africa to sign up for our Corporate Volunteer Programme. The housing crisis is all of our problem and each one of us can make a difference. In a nutshell, corporations are asked to raise a minimum of R2,000 per employee to take part in one of our Building Days. These employees will then work with our construction team on site building homes for some of the poorest people in the
South Africa.

This program is specially designed to allow corporate participation either through individual departmental participation or as part of the company’s larger Corporate Social Investment (CSI) program.

What does participation entail?

Essentially all registered or signed-up corporations will be allowing their employees to participate in the physical construction of a home for the homeless under their company name. It is important that the corporate understands the reason for their participation, as this will inform the way in which they meet their objective. While the main reason would be to give back to the community and thereby ensure a more robust social and economical arena for business to grow, this program can also be used to achieve the following possible objectives

• Build acute awareness of the less fortunate thereby ensuring an appreciative workforce
• Facilitating a healthy and contributing team-building spirit
• As a tangible and measurable option for its Corporate Social Investment program

Once the reason for participation is determined and defined, it is important for the corporate to follow the below mentioned steps

1. Assign an employee or team to pioneer the project to ensure that corporate objectives are met

2. Read the rules of engagement

3. Pick a day on the build calendar

4. Contact Mandy Wallace on mandy@mellonhousing.co.za or tel: +2721 9050155 to ensure that both our team and yours are working towards your objective

5. Complete the relevant application form (available on-line of from our offices) and transfer the necessary funds

Click here for a corporate application.

Rules of Engagement

1. The price for participation in this program is R2000 per person per day. Some suggestions as to how this could be raised are as follows:

a. The company could pledge R1000 per person per day and then it is up to the individual employee in the company to raise the additional R1000. This could be approached as a partnership between the company and its individual employee or it could be seen as a team-building exercise in which departments stage “events” to raise the R1000 for each department’s participant

b. The company could pledge the full R2000 per person per day as part of its CSI program

2. You must complete the registration form and transfer 50% deposit into:

South African Bank Account Details:

Bank: Standard Bank
Account Name: Mellon Housing Initiative
Account Number: 07 240 702 6
Branch Number: 033012
Branch: Helderberg Branch

3. The balance to be deposited 2 days prior to the building date chosen.

4. The NMTT guarantees that all funds raised will go directly towards the cost of building the homes and will not be used towards the administration or operations of running the NMTT.

5. The building day starts at 08h30 and ends at 16h00 Monday to Thursday with the exception of public holidays.

6. The NMTT will supply each participant with his or her tasks and tools for the day. These tasks may include digging the trenches, laying the foundation etc, assisting tradesmen, painting, etc.

7. The NMTT reserves the right to cancel or withdraw any participants involvement and will supply the company with a written reason for this decision

8. Should weather not permit the building on a particular day chosen by the company, the NMTT will endeavor to secure the first Saturday following the chosen day as the next date for the company build.

9. The company may not use the Niall Mellon Township Trust name or its association with it for purposes other than to raise awareness of its CSI involvement or as a means to fundraise as part of its team-building objective.

10. The company will take responsibility of all its marketing, public relations or communication needs with regard to its involvement in this program however the NMTT will support these initiative wherever possible given due notice of the company’s needs.

11. As the main objective of this program is to provide homes for the homeless, the NMTT will not be engaging in a sponsorship program and the related return on investment as it pertains to marketing exposure or branding rights and options. There will therefore be no blanket rules applied to each company with regard to marketing exposure leaving the company to creatively tailor their marketing exposure according to their brand needs.

12. Given (10 & 11) above the NMTT will ensure that the house built by the company’s employees be branded by the company for one day should the company wish to avail of photo opportunities. Thereafter the keys of the home will be handed to the respective proud new homeowner and therefore all branding will be removed. Only companies that have employee participation of 50 employees or more will be allowed to avail of this option. In this regard, the company is to supply all its own branding materials.

13. Companies that have in excess of 100 employees participating on a building day will be entitled to be the only company on the site with the exception of the NMTT staff and building contractors.

14. With the exception of companies that have 100 or more employee participation for the building day, no South African company will be allowed to participate in the November building blitz as there has already been an oversubscription by international participation to this week-long blitz. For companies with 100 or more employees participating in this program, they may reserve 5 of these participants for participate in the November building blitz. The cost of which will remain the same.

15. The NMTT will arrange for meals and transportation (within Cape Town) for all company employees where participation by that company is in excess of 40 employees.

16. The NMTT will supply the company with a report detailing how it has contributed to housing the homeless in Cape Town at most one month after the company’s participation. This report can be used as part of the CSI reporting requirements in addition to ensuring that the company is fully aware of how its funds were utilized.

Click here for a corporate application.