We are an independent grant-maker established in 1995 to improve education outcomes in the public schooling system in South Africa. Our work revolves around advancing language and mathematics education through funding the implementation of programmes in schools, commissioning research and evaluations, and funding the development of learning and teaching resources.

We commission research to better understand and solve key educational problems in language and mathematics. We also commission independent evaluation of all our funded programmes to deepen our learning, inform future programme development and influence policy and practice in the sector.

We focus on the Foundation and Senior Phases (Grades R-4, and Grades 8 and 9, specifically). We support coverage of the early grade literacy and numeracy curriculum, which are foundational for future learning. Interventions in the Senior Phase address backlogs in language and mathematics as learners transition to high school. 

We undertake projects primarily in four provinces: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape. These four provinces balance the urban-rural, socio-economic and language contexts. We may work nationally and in other provinces in partnership with the Department of Basic Education.

We are a proactive funder and conceptualise and co-design our projects in collaboration with educational experts and strategic partners. These projects are informed by internal and external research, as well as ongoing monitoring and evaluation. We generally approach experts and partners with initial project ideas rather than them approaching us.

Delivery is always through implementing agencies and researchers, selected through open calls for proposals. We put out calls for proposals and terms of reference on an ad-hoc basis to which suitable and interested individuals and agencies, primarily from the non-profit sector, respond.

We do not provide funding for proposals and requests received outside our calls for proposals. Through these calls, we fund multi-year projects, which means that our funding is committed in advance and no funding is available for unsolicited requests. We also do not support individual schools, teachers, or learner bursaries. Instead, we work with clusters of schools selected in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education, based on specific project criteria.

We do not fund any form of infrastructural development, such as building science or computer laboratories or classrooms. We also do not supply other resources to schools such as school uniform, stationery or food items. We do not support staff costs.