The Topsy Foundation empowers families and communities to improve the care and protection of all children made vulnerable by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. It is one of the charities that has been a beneficiary of Strate Charity Shares (SCS), a non-profit company that allows investors to donations of small or large amounts of their odd-lot shares to charity.
A number of years back, when clients’ portfolios were unbundled, they were consequently left with little holdings of shares that they couldn’t sell, as the cost was too high to do so. Also, company share registers are filled with these odd-lot share holdings that are costly for issuers to maintain. To trade these shares, the paper securities also needed to be dematerialised by the investors, who seldom chose to convert their shares into electronic form and would rather store the paper certificate at their homes.
A solution is for clients to give their shares to charity by contacting Strate Charity Shares, either directly, or through their broker, to donate their shares. They can also receive a tax benefit for doing so. In terms of Section 18(A) of the Income Tax Act, when investors donate their shares to Strate Charity Shares, they are issued a receipt that can be claimed against their taxation liability.
The total amount that Strate Charity Shares has distributed since its inception in 2002 is over R3 million, and charities that have historically been included as the recipients of these donations are African Children’s’ Feeding Scheme; Salesian Life Choices; The Bethany House Trust; Child Welfare Tshwane; Topsy Foundation and Cotlands.
Charity Spotlight: The Topsy Foundation SCS helps the Topsy Foundation achieve its goals, enabling it to build capacity in community-based projects by empowering families to improve the care and protection of all children made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The Foundation provides food parcels, school uniforms and other essential items to those in need on a monthly basis. Individual and community vegetable gardens are also established. Academic monitoring and assistance is provided for pre-schools, primary schools and high schools and it strengthens the economy of families through beadwork and sewing skills training.
It offers paediatric support groups, adult support groups and individual counselling sessions, while its trained professional nurse and community health care workers assist with home-based care services. The medical officer and other trained medical staff also assist with x-rays, sonars, growth monitoring and HIV counselling and testing. In addition, the organisation provides medical male circumcision services and cervical cancer screening services.
SCS is a convenient way to support charities, such as The Topsy Foundation, to carry out the wonderful work within the community. If you wish to donate your shares to SCS, please call the Strate Charity Shares toll-free helpline on 0800 202 363 or +27 (0)11 870 8207 if you are phoning outside South Africa.
Alternatively, you can email charityshares@computershare.co.za.
