We don't put our money where our mouth is. We put our people and their passion where the need is.

At Standard Bank, we take our commitment to the communities we work in very seriously. In fact, one of our core values is to ensure that the work we do is relevant to the societies we work in. Our graduates choose projects to invest in each year so, once you join a graduate programme, you'll soon get a taste for projects like these

Our Employee Community Involvement (ECI) programme in South Africa gives our people the chance to work with communities and help to create positive change in the lives of the people they serve. The programme allows for team building events and a staff matching facility, which means individual donations up to R5,000 and group donations up to R100,000 are matched by the bank, rand for rand.

Our people choose to get involved in a variety of projects, including:

  • Health including HIV/Aids, cancer, epilepsy, orphaned and vulnerable children and those living with disability, the elderly and feeding schemes within communities.
  • Community development including building houses for people in need.
  • Animal shelters.
  • Community entrepreneurial programmes, including teaching entrepreneurial skills to communities.
  • Humanitarian initiatives including the rehabilitation of persons under social stress.

Projects supported by the ECI include the Niall Mellon Housing Initiative, where 850 Standard Bank volunteers helped to build 20 houses in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Other fundraising initiatives, such as Cycle for Kids and the CANSA Shavathon, have become flagship projects for the bank

We promote ECI through conferences and internal and community newsletters. In 2010, we also held a competition for our Personal & Business Banking employees in South Africa, in which four employees won R50,000 each to donate to registered charities of their choice. The donations went to a variety of South African charities involved in education, optical health, children's healthcare, care for the elderly and house building.

Standard Bank people around the world also contributed towards aid for Haiti after the massive earthquake there in 2010. The bank matched their contributions bringing the total donation to R1 million. Of this amount, R800 000 was donated to the Red Cross and R200 000 to Unicef.

Activities in South Africa

Inkululeko Yesizwe Primary School

Our CIB graduates supported this school in Vlakfontein, an informal settlement south of Johannesburg. As the only school in this impoverished area, Inkululeko Yesizwe caters for a wide range of pupils. When the graduate team first visited, the school had no permanent structures – just prefab buildings – and 90% of the 680 pupils were on the government feeding scheme. For most, the two pieces of bread and jam they got at school was their only meal of the day.

The CIB graduates really threw themselves into raising funds to support the school and managed to raise over R100,000. The result? The first permanent structure on the school's grounds – a kitchen – is being built with the funds the graduates raised, which will be well stocked to give the pupils the nutritious meals they need every day.

Winter warmers – Salvation Army

Another of the CIB graduate fund-raising initiatives was a collection of winter clothes and blankets throughout our Johannesburg offices. The graduate team put decorated boxes in the staff kitchens in two office buildings to collect items, and organised a marketing campaign to encourage people on all floors to fill them with donations as many times as they could.

As well as clothing and blankets, the campaign also received donations of money which were used to buy more blankets. In the end, ten large boxes of clothes and blankets were donated to the Salvation Army, including R1,540 ($224) of new blankets that were bought with cash donations.

Daveyton Education Programme

In February 2010, our PBB Leadership Development Programme (LDP) graduates worked with this programme to provide additional lessons for 90 school children in the township of Daveyton. The children are from all around the Daveyton area and are transported each weekend to the St Andrews School for Girls for lessons from pupils at the school and people from different community groups.

The LDP graduates identified a number of areas where they could add value to the programme, including arts and culture, environmental awareness, reading and writing skills, soccer, cricket and swimming. In February 2010 over two consecutive weekends, they put their plans into practice, running a number of activities that really energised the children. The whole programme not only helped the graduates to develop leadership and teamwork skills, but also gave them a valuable insight into how we as a bank go out of our way to give something back to the communities we work in.

eThembeni Orphanage – Salvation Army

PBB LDP graduates raised over R86,000 in 2009 alone for this AIDS orphanage in Doornfontein. eThembeni Orphanage cares for HIV infected and affected children, as well as abandoned and abused children. The graduates visited the orphanage on a number of occasions and donated their time to this worthy cause. And as well as raising funds, they also installed a network at the orphanage and took some of the children to the zoo. The relationship between the orphanage and the PBB LDP program has grown from strength to strength and has become a regular feature of the training and development programme.

Sports and arts sponsorships

We're a big sponsor of African soccer, including the African Cup of Nations, as well as the South African cricket team and the Pro20 Series in South Africa. In the arts, the Standard Bank Gallery in downtown Johannesburg is a world-class facility that features shows by leading local and international artists. We also sponsor a number of major jazz events, such as the Johannesburg International Jazz Festival and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

Activities outside South Africa

Argentina

Our Art in Schools programme was selected by UNESCO as a leading case in art teaching. This innovative educational experience is aimed at high school students and 13 educational institutions are currently carrying out this experience, reaching more than 8000 students and training 1000 teachers.

Botswana

Fourteen Standard Bank employees in Botswana participated in the annual Makgadikgadi walk to raise money for the Y Care Foundation for disadvantaged children.

Ghana

70 employees from Stanbic Bank Ghana donated drinks, biscuits, household items and a cheque for GH30 million (R16,000) to Street Girls Aid in Katamanto, Accra. They then donned work clothes and painted the premises giving it a fresh and bright look. Street Girls Aid is a Ghanaian non-governmental organisation set up in 1994 to help girls who live and work on the streets.

Lesotho

Standard Lesotho Bank employees worked with Habitat for Humanity, an organisation that builds and renovates houses for disadvantaged people. The Fobane project aimed to build a house for orphans in the Leribe district. The four bedroom house can accommodate eight children and their caretaker.

Namibia

Standard Bank Namibia donated N$125,000 to the Youth Entrepreneurship Seminars Trust, which aims to empower youth through business literacy to prepare them for employment or entrepreneurship. This is the second year that the bank has engaged with the Running Business Today simulation for the Financial Literacy Project and the sponsorship will be used to educate around 170 to 200 learners from the Okavango and Caprivi areas.

UK

Whether it's empowering children and young people, running skills workshops for teenagers or inspiring confidence in others, our people in the UK work with our charity partner Community Links in a number of ways. As a graduate you'll be encouraged to get involved in the bank's CSR agenda from day one. Whether it's organising Dragon boat races to support the NSPCC or Secret Santa gift appeals for local school children, there are so many different initiatives to support.

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