Telesure spends millions every year on corporate social investment (CSI). There are set criteria which the CSI initiatives have to follow. They must be sustainable and measurable. Also, there must be employee involvement and it must be nonprofit.
Each company follows a different theme. Auto & General's theme is home as a place of safety, warmth and family. In the past, it has supported the Woodlands Sanctuary, Habitat for Humanity and MaAfrika Tikkun. Dial Direct, considered the techno-brand, has innovation and technology as its theme. It supports the Thandulwazi Maths & Science Academy. This academy has training and internship programmes that it runs at St Stithians in Randburg for teachers from previously disadvantaged schools and also offers Saturday morning classes to disadvantaged grade 11 and 12 pupils.
A helping hand - Auto & General builds for Habitat for Humanity
1st for Women places 1% of all premiums into a trust. It polls its clients as to which causes they would like it to support. Robyn Farrell, 1st for Women's MD and a trustee of the 1st for Women Insurance Trust, says that since its inception in 2005, the 1st for Women Insurance Trust has donated millions to women-related causes. These include the Mamelodi Thuthuzela Care Centre, the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women & Children campaign and the Ikhaya Lethemba charity.
This year the 1st for Women Insurance Trust supported People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) with R2,4m for the establishment of the first, Gauteng-based, second-stage housing facility - the 1st for Women Powa House. A second-stage housing facility enables a woman to set herself and her children up in a new life, free from her former abusive relationship.
There was also a R1,7m donation to the International Organisation for Migration to curb trafficking and R1,5m to the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust. Telesure employees were also strong supporters of 1st for Women and Jacaranda 94.2's Sisters with Blisters walk in high heels.
The trust also supports the Leigh Matthews Trust, which has set up stress and trauma centres in Soweto, Kensington B, Crosby and Windsor East.
