Deadline: 2 November 2018

The Mail & Guardian is currently seeking entries for its Investing in the Future Awards 2018. The awards are designed to heighten public, government and business awareness about meaningful social investment.

This year, the focus will be on South Africa’s needs for development: job creation programmes, involvement in enterprises, SMME and skills development, and of course, support for education-related development.

Categories

M&G Investing in the Future Awards will award projects in 8 categories.

• Investing in the Future Youth Development Award: South Africa’s young people are the future of national identity, but they need support and guidance. This award goes to programmes or projects that provide youth with life skills, leadership and extra-mural interventions that have a positive impact on their development.
• Investing in the Future Job Creation & Enterprise Development Award: This category rewards companies and organisations with innovative, integrated programmes that stimulate job creation and/or enterprise development. Awarded to projects, which demonstrate that, through their job creation and enterprise development programmes, employment opportunities are created
• Investing in the Future STEM Skills Development Award: Projects and initiatives that demonstrate a company or organisation’s commitment to addressing the huge educational challenges in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering and technology (STEM).
• Investing in the Future: Civil Society Award: Projects that best demonstrate how civil society can contribute to the well-being and development of society. Awarded to organisations that go beyond the conventional in uplifting destitute and vulnerable communities.
• Investing in the Future: Business Award: Projects that best demonstrate how a company can contribute to the advancement of society. Awarded to innovative companies whose core business strategies include corporate social responsibility programmes that can demonstrate the upliftment of society across all sectors, from education, to arts, health and social development.
• Investing in the Future: Government Award: This category can fall in one of two areas: Government policy setting (white papers, resolutions, programme formulation) or government implementation. Government or inter-governmental agencies, programmes, or initiatives that create new possibilities and develop new models for policy engagement in the national and regional policy spheres. Government entities may submit entries into both areas.
• Investing in the Future Health Award: This category recognises companies and organisations with innovative and integrated primary health care and wellness programmes. Awarded to initiatives aimed at enhancing and strengthening the country’s health care system.
• Investing in the Future Award For Best Corporate Employee Community Involvement Programme: This category showcases examples of how companies are actively encouraging and supporting their employees to play an active role in the community as part of their broader commitment to community upliftment and development. The volunteer programmes should ideally be aligned to the corporate values and CSI interventions of the company.

Eligibility Criteria

• Corporations with corporate social investment (CSI) programmes, or corporate foundations attached to a company, or where the grant-making programme is run by a self-governing foundation separate from the founding corporation;
• Independent foundations and trusts, community foundations, grant-making nongovernmental organisations and trusts, family foundations, grant-making trusts, private foundations and civil societies;
• Government or intergovernmental agencies, programmes or initiatives that create new possibilities and develop new models for policy engagement in the national and regional policy spheres. Ministries, government departments, parliaments, parliamentary forums and individuals are included.

How to Apply

Applicants must fill the entry form available on the given website.

For more information, please visit Investing in the Future Awards.