Strategic Objective: and , Programme 1 detailed here

, Programme 3 detailed on here

Performance:

• The knowledge hub was developed
• 182 stakeholder engagements conducted
• 81% of applications were adjudicated within the legislated 150 days
• Minimum of 5% grant funding allocated to each province achieved
• 2 333 monitoring and evaluation site visits conducted
• Conduct impact evaluation study in five provinces

Apart from developing a better understanding of local needs, the NLC is committed to the optimisation of beneficiary support. To achieve impact in funding organisational capabilities such as a programmatic approach as well as results based management are being developed. A programme approach recognises that development takes place through interconnected actions within a specified geographical location. It further recognises that there may be multiple needs that are often better addressed by multiple actors. Development is not a linear occurrence but a cross pollination of multivariate factors coalescing to produce desired change. A programme approach is better positioned to impact various socio economic and political factors which produce a “defective” social system in a specific environment. Adopting a programming approach goes someway in unearthing the underlying factors which produce the social conditions that grant funding aims to address. The conceptual relationship between funding for impact and beneficiary-centricity is a causal one. Beneficiary-centricity is one of the key interventions undertaken by the NLC to enable more impactful funding. Beneficiary-centricity is therefore one of the strategic and operational capabilities have been developed by the NLC to achieve impact in funding. The NLC’s vision is to be a catalyst for social upliftment with a brand promise of “changing lives.” The broad societal impact that we aim to Funding for Impact beyond financially sustaining the organisations that we fund but to change lives of our beneficiaries as well as the communities in which they live.

In the NLC’s quest to be beneficiary centric and optimise operational efficiencies, the Board approved the realignment of the executive structure for operational effectiveness. This resulted in the establishment of the Operations Division headed by the Chief Operations Officer. The division comprises of all nine (9) Provincial Offices, Grant Funding, and Business Development Department. The Operations Division serves as a strategic enabler for the smooth running of the organisations’ operations with the goal of ensuring that set organisational objectives are accomplished efficiently and economically.

Having noted the decline in revenues generated from the proceeds of the National Lottery, the NLC sharpened its focus in ensuring the highest return on investments by funding high-quality, high-impact and beneficiary-driven projects. This was achieved through the review and implementation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Assessment Tools, and Adjudication Matrix.

During the year under review, the unit ensured compliance with the amended Lotteries Act focussing mostly on compliance to legislated time-frames such as finalisation of adjudication within hundred and fifty (150) days from the date of receipt of application, notification of the applicants about the outcome of adjudication within thirty (30) days from the date of adjudication, payments of grants within sixty (60) days from the date of receipt of compliant Grant Agreement. Following the permanent appointment of Arts, Culture, Environment and National Heritage Distributing Agency in 2016/17 financial year, the Charities Distributing Agency was subsequently appointed within the year under review. The appointment of Sports and Recreation Distributing Agency is yet to be finalised by the dti. All the permanent and part-time Distributing Agency have been adequately integrated into the grant funding value chain. Significant progress was made in the roll-out of Education and Awareness programmes to empower both prospective and current beneficiaries. More than 2 300 Education and Awareness programmes were rolled-out across all provinces. These resulted in the improvement on the quality of applications and progress reports received. The pro-active funding model was adequately rolled-out within the current financial year focussing on funding of infrastructure projects such as Old-Age Homes, Sporting Facilities etc. in historically disadvantaged areas. In responding to the current challenges facing the tertiary education sector, the Board has approved an investment in the tertiary education sector. The investment will be rolled-out in the next financial year.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The NLC in its endeavour to monitor and measure the impact of funding, conducted 2 333 monitoring and evaluations site visits in all provinces. Over and above, impact evaluation studies were conducted in all provinces to determine the impact of NLDTF funding. From the projects visited, 14 414 jobs were created through NLDTF funding. Of the total jobs that were created 1 501 were for the youth. This interface with beneficiaries did not only focus on the appropriate utilisation of funds but also on the capacitation of beneficiaries assisting them to properly implement their projects. During the period under review, the M&E unit also extended its focus on the tracking of progress in the implementation of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Legacy Project. To holistically intervene, the ECDs were also funded for training and development of which 709 practitioners have since obtained qualifications ranging from NQF 1 to NQF 4. In terms of the secondary beneficiaries, a total of 743 091 people have been reported to have either been served or reached with various services offered by NLC beneficiaries during the year under review. These are beneficiaries that have directly benefited from NLC funded programs or projects. A clear statistical breakdown is shown on the tables below.

Research and Development

The Research and Development Unit was established during the period under review to support the organisation in evidence based decision making. As a foundation, the unit equipped itself with the appointment of a panel of researchers from various research institutions to assist with implementation of the research agenda and any other research requests as necessary. A knowledge audit was also completed toward the goal of creating a Knowledge Management Hub for the benefit of internal and external stakeholders.

Stakeholder Relations

Capacitating beneficiaries with the skills necessary to run their projects optimally has been a mainstay of NLC Indaba resolutions since 2013. A pilot project has since been launched to equip beneficiaries of funding with skills at an NQF Level 4 that would empower them in the areas of Governance, Financial management, Procurement, and Contract management. Provide by SETA-accredited service providers, the initial roll-out in North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape saw 159 beneficiaries emerge as graduates. Key stakeholders both at a national and provincial level were engaged throughout the year. The engagement at national level included amongst others the 2017 National Indaba which was held under the theme “Funding for Impact”.

The National Indaba is a forum where the leadership and decision-makers of the NLC interacted with beneficiaries and stakeholders from around the country at a central location, in line with the provisions of the Lotteries Act to educate the public about its mandate. The Indaba took place from the 20th to the 22nd September 2017 and it comprised workshops, exhibitions, awards ceremonies, a gala dinner and stakeholder engagement sessions where resolutions were drawn up and agreed upon. The National Indaba was followed by Post Indaba Stakeholder Engagement (PISE) at a provincial level. More than 1 000 stakeholders attended the National Indaba while 800 stakeholders attended the PISE.

Stakeholder engagement and Education and Awareness Conducted

Marketing and Communications

Tasked with building and protecting the brand of the NLC, positioning it as a regulator and a funder, this unit oversees the branding, marketing, and information needs of the NLC. The amendment of the Lotteries Act and related changes to NLC processes revealed a bouquet of issues to be addressed through the communication strategy and education and awareness programmes. Reports across various media revealed that there was limited understanding of the regulations to the amended Act. This led to collaboration between NLC and the dti to unpack and translate the regulations. In terms of Media monitoring during the year, a total of 1 046 items across print, online and broadcast media were monitored of which 71% carried a positive tone whilst 4.7% carried a negative tone. Over and above 24, 2 % also revealed an increase compared to previous years of news items that carried a neutral tone – an area of opportunity for the organisation to engage the media in particular as a stakeholder group and enhance education and awareness of NLC processes.

Most of news items were carried online, which is not geo-specific. 14% were related to national issues whilst 11% were directly related to the Western Cape Province. The Mpumalanga province had the least coverage at 1%. The majority of the issues covered in the media are summarised below:

Negative Coverage	Positive Coverage
Relating to Priority Funding Areas.	Funding for Impact Stories
Regulations 14 – Cooling-Off period – Discussed in detail in the Legal Division report here	Stakeholder Engagements including Indaba and Post Indaba Stakeholder Engagements
Part II, Regulation 10 relating to conduit applications – discussed in detail in the Legal Division report here
Section 2A of the Lotteries Act relating to Pro-Active Funding – discussed in detail in the Operations Division report here.

Grant Funding

The NLC Grant Funding model is designed to promote and support the NLC’s strategic mandate by responding to socio-economic problems and leverage on opportunities through strategic funding. The key principle of the NLC’s funding model is to utilise NLC capitals to create opportunities for communities to realise their potential. The funding model is driven by an overall objective to Fund for Impact to maximise return on limited resources. The Funding Model is underpinned by Strategic Planning and Research

The NLC’s funding model is made up of Application-based funding and Proactive Funding.

• The NLC application based funding operates on an open call for applications. Guidelines and criteria on focus areas for the year are reviewed annually and published in media publications and found on the NLC’s website as well as NLC offices. Compliant applications are assessed against strategically formulated criteria and guidelines, which constitute the key point of reference for success and impact. The application process is illustrated below:

• Proactive funding is a model wherein the broad project idea originates from the Commission, the Minister and the Board based on research
• All NLC funded projects are subject to monitoring and evaluation to maximise impact of funding granted for good causes

The NLC proactively funded 20 projects amounting to R284 872 798. The majority of projects funded under pro-active funding were in the Charities Sector at 57% followed by Sports at 27%, Arts and Miscellaneous at 14% and 2% respectively. Most of the funding under the Charities Sector was for the construction of Old Age Homes and a Drug Rehabilitation Center while most of the funding for the Sports Sector related to the construction of Multisport Facilities. Majority of funding for Arts Sector was for the construction of Library, Museum and Cultural Village while Miscellaneous funding was for the drilling of boreholes in areas affected by drought. The above charts further indicate that Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West collectively received 54% of the pro-active funding budget followed by Mpumalanga at 10%, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal at 9% each. The above charts shows the NLC commitment of funding high-impact projects with the limited funding at hand. From the total allocated budget for pro-active funding, 93% was spent on infrastructure project.

 

 

 

Funding for Impact

The NLC has revised the underpinning philosophy of its funding model based on “Funding for Impact”. This calls for a much more systematic and deliberate approach to grant making that enables the NLC to do more with less. It is the provision of funding to targeted projects and programmes that are catalytic in nature that lead to measurable, positive social change and community upliftment.

The Lotteries Act, as amended, stipulates that funds shall be held in the NLDTF for distribution by the Commission. The distribution of the allocated sum shall be fairly and equitably made amongst all persons who meet the prescribed requirements. A list of all NLDTF funded project is available on the NLC website:

 

Funds allocated to the respective sectors are allocated by the regulated Distributing Agencies. Members of Distributing Agencies are appointed by the Minister for a period of five years to serve on a full-time basis as members of the distributing agency and staff members of the Commission responsible for adjudication of applications for grants or recommendations of funding of worthy good causes received from the Commission.

Distributing Agency members are responsible for considering, evaluating and adjudicating applications for grants or recommendations of funding of worthy good causes received from the Commission and preparing reports on grants already awarded and on the performance of its functions to the board on a quarterly basis or as and when requested by the board.

The Minister determines the number of the distributing agency members in each category in consultation with the board, in line with the size of the funds in such category: The number of Distributing Agency members shall not exceed nine in each category.

Members of the distributing agency are appointed for a period of five years, which may be renewed only once, to serve on a full-time basis as members of the distributing agency and staff members of the Commission responsible for adjudication of applications for grants or recommendations of funding of worthy good causes received from the Commission.

During the period under review Distributing Agencies considered and approved allocation per sector as follows:

Environmental projects

Total number funded to date: 465 organisations

Total amount distributed to date: R590 025 280.00 (Source data from 2008 to date)

The above graph illustrates a percentage of each project type under the 465 environment sub sector projects funded to date.

The majority of the organisations that were funded for organic gardens were schools of which 80% of them were also either funded for a Jojo Tank (Water harvesting tank) or an irrigation system. The boreholes would fall under the “Water purification” projects.

A total of 14414 jobs were created/retained through NLC funding

A total of 743 091 people has been reported to have either been served or reached with various services offered by NLC beneficiaries during the quarter under review

Sector	Total	Male	Female
Charities	138 918	61 416	77 502
Arts and culture	205 414	90 036	108 095
Sports and recreation	398 759	190 100	192 310
Total	743 091	341 552	377 907

The NLC has provincial offices which provide the following services

• Face-to-face enquiries
• Assistance with Grant Funding and Society Lotteries applications
• Delivery of completed applications
• Follow-up on the progress of applications
• General Support with Grant Agreements
• Workshops for general awareness and education
• Monitoring and advice on projects that require oversight

Address details: www.nlcsa.org.za/contactus