...We sent a mailer to top execs in some of South Africa’s biggest companies. When it landed on their desks, it would look like a piece of clothing that has been returned from the dry-cleaners, with a typical plastic cover and dry-cleaning tag. However it would be addressed to that particular business exec. When they took a closer look at the jacket, addressed to them, they would see an orange prison jacket, but when reversed it, it became a school blazer , that would typically be worn by a secondary-school student. The message: your donation has the power to turn the future of our country around. To leverage the influence of those decision makers and to give our mailer as much mileage as possible, we then encouraged those execs to fill out the next dry-cleaning tag, and address it to someone in their network who could also support our cause.

...Only 20 jackets were made, and because the agency had direct access and contact details of business decision-makers, the agency sent the first batch of 20 jackets out to clients with big networks and deep pockets. These 20 jackets were then collected and redistributed to the next forwarding addresses as supplied by the first group of execs.

...With a very limited budget and only 20 pieces produced, we managed to raise R1,25 million during 2015. These efforts sustained four key projects and various smaller projects across two disadvantaged public schools in South Africa. These projects included getting high calibre English First Language tutors to improve language skills, and other leadership and academic programmes.

There has been a vast overall improvement in the Matric (final year) pass rate from only 52% in 2008 to 87% in 2015. Two students also received some press and praise for their magnificent achievements in 2015 - Pabala Phiri and Lebo Masekoameng were Forte Secondary School's top achievers with 7 and 8 distinctions respectively. (http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/shouts-tears-of-joy-as-sowetos-top-performers-get-results-20160106)

We know that none of these achievements would be possible without the financial aid received from our donors.

For more information and results you can go to www.oneschoolatatime.co.za.