Mandela Day is when corporate South Africa rolls up their sleeves and heads off to the closest non-profit organisation (NPO), armed with business builders, volunteers, gardening tools, buckets of paint and plenty of good intentions.
For many charities, it is a day when teams from well-meaning businesses arrive in a hurricane of matching T-shirts and boot-loads of supplies, get stuck in and then leave as quickly as they arrived. Aside from having a freshly painted wall, the NPO is no better off than it was before they arrived – and more often than not, there’s a bit of a mess to clean up.
Here are five things you should not do if you really want to make an impact and leave a legacy, not just for one day a year, but every day:
A catering business could easily set up a soup kitchen at a homeless shelter. An IT company can teach underprivileged children how to access educational information online. One costs money, the other time but both are equally effective.
Schools for example, might choose printer paper over a painted wall. For stationery suppliers, this is a cost-effective, low-effort way to make a difference. Ask your chosen NPO for their wish list and act on it.
Without proper planning, the shelter could be left with a barren patch of sand that does not yield a single carrot. Plan for cleaning up, too. One of the reasons why charities dread Mandela Day is the chaos that is left in the wake. Keep it tidy and do not leave a mess for someone else to clean up.
It is also a good way to appeal to millennials. They are a conscientious bunch that wants to make the world a better place – that is the type of passion you need for your legacy.
Let us think about it more, collaborate more and make it part of our cultures. We owe it to Madiba.