Business leaders unite to transform NPOs through entrepreneurship

Durban — Non-profit organisations have been encouraged to think at an entrepreneurial scale, to maximise their potential to reach greater heights.

People came out in numbers to the Pavilion Hotel in Durban on Monday, where a breakfast workshop was held, to establish a tri-partnership between the Regent Business School (RBS), the Umhlanga Business Network (UBN), and non-profit organisations.

The relationship aims to form a holistic approach to education, business innovation and social welfare, through social entrepreneurship, and building self-sustainable projects that will support the NPOs.

According to Ashok Sewnarain, the Founder of UBN which provides support to philanthropic, charitable, humanitarian, disaster relief and religious organisations that provide services to humanity, he had a dream of becoming a “dollar millionaire” and he was seeking to share his ideas of how this could be achieved.

He said that throughout his time doing philanthropic work, he had noted some outreach and non-profit organisations that performed differently, with some doing work that was commendable, while others left plenty to be desired.

“I came across many outreach and community non-profit organisations. Some are doing good work, others are doing average work, and others are doing poor-quality work. The lack of resources, the lack of finances, and the lack of shared knowledge is astounding in all of these organisations.

Sewnarain said the UBN was seeking to connect and achieve plenty.

“As founders, we are not only going to connect the profit leaders with the non-profit leaders so that everyone shares in the profit of humanity, but more so, our leading universities of the world and our leading graduates,” he said.

Sewnarain encouraged organisations to become self-sufficient and to lend themselves to various tools such as Artificial Intelligence, which will assist the organisations to remain sustainable.

Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Diesel, said that the concept of social entrepreneurship was often brought up, however, it had not been applied accordingly.

Diesel encouraged organisations to maintain their data, ensure their figures were accurate, and to implement them accordingly to attract and retain sponsorship.

He said it was important for non-profit organisations to maintain public trust.

“I think it is something that we are always very protective of. If we are delivering a service, whether it is food, education or health, we make sure as non-profits that we maintain the trust of that organisation,” said Diesel.

Diesel also called on the bodies to become innovative and form partnerships.

“We cannot be in competition as non-profits. We have to be in partnership and in allegiance. We have to have common goals and we can all still work independently, but we can work in a way that makes us impactful in the areas we are working in,” he said.

Dr Ronel Blom from the Regent Business School said that next year, they were seeking to have some of their final year students put their efforts towards non-profit organisations, through structured programmes (internship and volunteer programmes).

According to attendee, Kasturi Jaganath from the Phoenix Animal Care and Treatment (PACT) organisation, the session was much needed.

“We really needed this session. I have learned so much here and I am hopeful that it is going to help us actually get money, instead of being in deficit all the time. Now we will have strategies and some money to carry us forward. We strongly rely on public donations,” she said.

WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.

Daily News