Realstart

About Us

We believe that the ethos of an organisation is what determines who they are, how they act and what they will become. Ethos denotes the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterise a community, a nation or an ideology. RealStart is an unequivocally Christian, faith-based, organisation. There is strong evidence to support the positive impact the Gospel of Jesus Christ has on the life of individuals, their families, and their communities. However, whilst we firmly believe in the life-changing consequences of an authentic walk with God and reserve the right to proclaim this truth to all participants, we support their right to choose what path they take. 
Thus, the decision to follow Christ and His example remains the exclusive choice of individuals and RealStart supports this ‘freedom of choice’ wholeheartedly. The essence that will underpin all that we do is captured in the following two ethos statements

‘To love God and love others’ and ‘To be and see authentic pursuers of Christ’

...about us...

Love God

this remains the central essence of life, the solution for all humanity and the very reason for man’s existence. When this value is foremost in the life of any human being what follows is truthful living, morality, liberty, care for others, and the erosion of human conflict.

Love others

this is the inevitable byproduct of ‘loving God’, and a crucial element of truly following God. We strongly believe in caring for others with no strings attached or hidden agendas, and caring for others not as a project or mission but because we genuinely care. Loving others also incorporates caring for the environment and working towards sustainable living and responsible ecological behaviour.

Authentic

we believe in an honest expression of Christianity, where people speak truthfully to one another, where there are no hidden agendas, where there is no manipulation, no autocratic rulership, and where people are lovingly encouraged to be true to themselves and God.

Pursuers

we believe that a meaningful walk with God is something that involves active and intentional pursuit. We distance ourselves from the notion that following God only involves a once-off event involving mental assent to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Be and see

we believe the above values start with the staff of RealStart and we are stand opposed to all forms of hypocrisy.

Of Christ

we believe in all that Jesus Christ stood for and strongly believe that when we live in relationship with Him and hold fast to His teachings the world becomes a better place for all. RealStart passionately cares about the future of disadvantaged school-leavers and makes use of the best possible means to change their lives, set their vocational course and enable them to become positive role-models and change-agents within South Africa. For more info Email

About Us

We believe that the ethos of an organisation is what determines who they are, how they act and what they will become. Ethos denotes the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterise a community, a nation or an ideology. RealStart is an unequivocally Christian, faith-based, organisation. There is strong evidence to support the positive impact the Gospel of Jesus Christ has on the life of individuals, their families, and their communities. However, whilst we firmly believe in the life-changing consequences of an authentic walk with God and reserve the right to proclaim this truth to all participants, we support their right to choose what path they take. 
Thus, the decision to follow Christ and His example remains the exclusive choice of individuals and RealStart supports this ‘freedom of choice’ wholeheartedly. The essence that will underpin all that we do is captured in the following two ethos statements

‘To love God and love others’ and ‘To be and see authentic pursuers of Christ’

...about us...

Love God

this remains the central essence of life, the solution for all humanity and the very reason for man’s existence. When this value is foremost in the life of any human being what follows is truthful living, morality, liberty, care for others, and the erosion of human conflict.

Love others

this is the inevitable byproduct of ‘loving God’, and a crucial element of truly following God. We strongly believe in caring for others with no strings attached or hidden agendas, and caring for others not as a project or mission but because we genuinely care. Loving others also incorporates caring for the environment and working towards sustainable living and responsible ecological behaviour.

Authentic

we believe in an honest expression of Christianity, where people speak truthfully to one another, where there are no hidden agendas, where there is no manipulation, no autocratic rulership, and where people are lovingly encouraged to be true to themselves and God.

Pursuers

we believe that a meaningful walk with God is something that involves active and intentional pursuit. We distance ourselves from the notion that following God only involves a once-off event involving mental assent to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Be and see

we believe the above values start with the staff of RealStart and we are stand opposed to all forms of hypocrisy.

Of Christ

we believe in all that Jesus Christ stood for and strongly believe that when we live in relationship with Him and hold fast to His teachings the world becomes a better place for all. RealStart passionately cares about the future of disadvantaged school-leavers and makes use of the best possible means to change their lives, set their vocational course and enable them to become positive role-models and change-agents within South Africa. For more info Email

What we do and why we do it

Within South Africa a destructive post-matriculant void exists for the majority of disadvantaged young people from our full racial spectrum. It is a void composed of almost inaccessible tertiary education and massive unemployment. The tragic consequences of this void are that these young people who have such wonderful potential, are sucked into the hopeless spiral of unemployment, poverty and hopelessness. 
There are currently 7 million young people (18-26) in this void and the number is growing by roughly 1 million a year. This is not a statistic – It’s a crisis that threatens the very future of South Africa.

Our passion is to work with disadvantaged young people who have a deep desire to make something of their lives and the determination to make it a reality. 
Through our one year programme we seek to counsel their hurts, challenge their world-view, build into their lives, embolden their dreams, release their potential, and provide a personalised as well as practical ‘next-step’ for their vocation.

Make a Donation

The truth is, none of our work would be possible without you and your desire to make a difference in the lives of young people in South Africa.

Choose between monthly or a once off donation and influence the future of these wonderful young people.   more>>

Click here to find out how we use your money and how serious we are about our fiduciary responsibility.

Join the Club

Are you passionate about the future of South Africa’s youth? 
Do you believe that every ‘diamond in the rough’ should get the opportunity to pursue their dreams?

Become a member of the RealStart club today and join us in shaping South Africa’s future!   more>>

Sponsor a Student

a Give a Wonderful Young Person the Opportunity to Make a Real Start in Life:

Sponsoring a student is one of the best ways to support them, it also gives you an opportunity to make a real connection with the young person you support. From as little as R100 per month you can make an impact that lasts a lifetime.   more>>

Other Ways to Give

We know you care about the future of South Africa and it’s young people here are a number of practical ways you can help the needs of our programme and students.

Click here to find out more.

Provide an Apprenticeship

Become an Apprenticeship Partner:

Would you be willing to give a quality young person the opportunity to prove they have what it takes to succeed in your business? Whether butcher, or banker, if there is scope for an apprenticeship then we would welcome the opportunity to talk further with you.

Click here to leave your details and we will follow up with you shortly.

Provide a Bursary

Our academically gifted participants will be encouraged and helped to further their studies, every one of these students will need full scholarships to achieve their dreams and realise their potential. Help them to help themselves by providing for their education through specific donations, scholarships or even just the contact details of bursary originators.

Click here to leave your details and we will follow up with you shortly.

Business Mentorship

Give a young entrepreneur the opportunity to learn from your experiences!
We believe that job creation is the most sustainable strategy for poverty alleviation in South Africa, why not give a bit of your time to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. Don’t worry, we won’t throw you in the deep end, there is a process we have that is easy to follow and it’s not time consuming either.

Leave us your details and we will send you some more information on how the process works.

Bright Spark Ideas

Do You Have a Bright Spark Idea?
We are always on the lookout for new ideas that can help our young people make a success of their lives and make a difference in South Africa. Suggestions, ideas, innovation, constructive feedback, we welcome them all!

Click here to tell us all about it

Open a RealStart branch

Open a RealStart branch and impact the lives of the youth in your area. Click here>>

Downloads

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...responsible financial use...

Responsible and Effective Use of Your Donations

Responsible Financial UseIn order for you to have complete peace of mind, here’s how we ensure effective, transparent and correct use of every donation we receive:

Transparency

1. Weekly and monthly bookeeping by an external and independant institution.
2. Annual auditing by SAICA accredited auditors.
3. Bi-Annual board of trustees financial review.
4. Full compliance with government regulations pertaining to Non Profit Organisations.

Performance Category 1: Program Expenses

We exist to run a programme that builds into the lives of disadvantaged young people and helps them enter gainful employment. We fail the expectations of givers when our spending on this is insufficient when compared to our overall income. We work out our programme financial efficiency as follows: if our spending on programme related expenses is R2.5 million and our overall operating budget is is R3.5 million we spend 71.4% on programme related expenses. A score of 70% and higher is recognised as a good score. We currently score 73%.

Performance Category 2: Administrative Expenses

As with successful organisations in any sector, in order for us to be effective we must recruit, develop, and retain talented people. We must however ensure that these administrative expenses remain reasonable and in line with our total functional expenses. Here again, we calculate our administrative expenses by comparing them to our total functional expenses. Thus, if we spend R500,000 on administrative expenses, compared to R3.5 million in total functional expenses we spend 14.3% on administrative expenses. A score of 15% or lower is recognised as a good score. We currently score 21%. At the outset our salary costs are high because we have a low student to staff ratio, this percentage score will be dramatically reduced as the number of students in RealStart increases. Our trust constitution clearly states that all our staff will work on a 50/50 ratio – 50% staff salary from RealStart, 50% from raising up personal support. This means that as time goes by we expect our salary costs to be well below 15%.

Performance Category 3: Fundraising Expenses

We spend money to raise money, but we do not exist to raise money. Givers support us because of what we do, not our ability to raise money. Here again we divide our fundraising expenses by our total function expenses. A score of 10% and lower is considered good. We currently score 0.5%

Responsible Financial Behaviour

Every week, every month and every year

Our budget is first approved by a board of advisors to ensure that our expenditure remains in line with the stated aims of RealStart. Then clear records are kept of all expenditure, captured (by an external bookkeeper) at the end of every week and totaled at the end of every month to produce a financial report that the board has access to throughout the year. Over and above this a full financial audit takes place at the end of every financial year to ensure that we maintain Non-Profit status. This financial report is also made available to all board members and key stakeholders.

Effective Use of Finances

In pursuit of excellence

Although we have brought together a highly qualified team to make the RealStart vision a reality we refuse to rest on past experience and ‘old’ knowledge. We are committed to constantly striving to see where we can be better and more effective in changing the lives of young people. Therefore we make use of external assessors to determine how effective our programme is in:

* Developing students holistically

* Enabling students to achieve vocational success

* Giving students an enjoyable experience

* Developing a civic minded spirit