Since 2011, the Sanlam Foundation has invested more than R652 million in education, financial literacy, health (HIV/AIDS), water security, enterprise and supplier development initiatives and employee volunteerism.
About Us
Our focus areas
Our latest initiatives
The Foundation team reports to the Board of Trustees of the Sanlam Foundation Trust, made up by Mr Paul Hanratty (Chairperson), Ms Mathukana Mokoka, Dr Johan van Zyl, Dr Shirley Zinn, Dr Siphokazi Koyana and Adv Ndumiso Luthuli.
Together with various NGOs and partners, the team behind the Foundation works hard to help improve the lives of people in all communities.
Sanlam Foundation
Personal profile
The Foundation team is led by Nozizwe Vundla, Head of the Sanlam Foundation. Before this, she was Executive Director of Student Sponsorship Programme, a non-profit trust.
Governance and Reporting
Personal profile
Bianca Maneveld is Head of Governance and Reporting in the Group Transformation Office, and the financial officer of the Sanlam Foundation.
Programme Manager
Personal profile
Meshaye Sylvester is a programme manager for the Sanlam Foundation.
Strategic Projects and Relationship Manager
Personal profile
Frank Louw is Programme Manager for strategic projects and relationships in the Sanlam Foundation.
Senior PA and Project Coordinator
Personal profile
Lizelle le Roux is the senior PA and Project Coordinator in the Sanlam Foundation.
Financial Controller
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Lusanda Ndzunga the Financial Controller for the Sanlam Foundation.
Group Chief Executive Officer
Group Chief Executive Officer
Nationality: Irish
Year of birth: 1961
Director since 2017.
Mr Paul Hanratty has been appointed as Group Chief Executive Officer on 1 July 2020 and qualifies as an executive director.
Independent Non-executive Director
Independent Non-executive Director
Nationality: South African
Year of birth: 1974
Director since 2018.
Ms Mokoka has been a member of the Board of Directors since March 2018.
Non-executive Director
Non-executive Director
Nationality: South African
Year of birth: 1956
Director since 2016.
Dr Van Zyl has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2016.
Independent Non-executive Director
Independent Non-executive Director
Nationality: South African
Year of birth: 1961
Director since 2018.
Prof. Zinn has been a member of the Board of Directors since December 2018.
Chartered Director of Companies—CD(SA)
Dr. Siphokazi Koyana holds degrees from Smith College, Yale University, and Temple University in the USA.
Adv. Ndumiso Luthuli was admitted to the Johannesburg Society of Advocates in December 2015.
The Sanlam Foundation has a national footprint with a focus on the following as key strategic areas:
Our Socio-economic Development Programme includes a range of projects focusing on education, environmental matters and strategic partnerships.
Establishing new Education strategy (Year 1 - 2022)
Onboarding new partners and programmes. Conducting baselines, needs analysis etc. Focus on flagship project and partners.
Holistic implementation (Year 1 - 2023)
Partners have fully established programmes, understand reporting, Monitoring and implementation evaluation. Start focusing on some areas of alignment in Small Grants.
Taking stock (Year 1 - 2024)
Evaluating against key outcome indicators. Preparing for expanding existing or adding components to strategy roll out.
Growing (Year 1 - 2025s)
Building on gains from first cycle. Expanding model and partnership work. Replicability, trust, relationships. Emerging impact.
Full STEAM ahead (Year 1 - 2026)
Full alignment between partnership programmes, small grants, and flagship project. Measuring impact using evidence toward developing further alignment with other SF pillars.
Together with Sanlam Sustainability, the Foundation supports WWF South Africa to implement a water conservation project in targeted water catchment areas.
Also drives other developmental projects supported by the Foundation, such as the Kay Motsepe Cup (in partnership with the Motsepe Foundation), the WOW Spelling competition (in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch), and a brand project with the Takalani Sesame television show.
Kay Motsepe Cup Tournament in action
Our Consumer Financial Education Programmes endeavour to impact financial literacy skills to a targeted groups within communities, worksites and organised labour groupings nationally.
The Sanlam Foundation has partnered with various organisations to provide Consumer Financial Education training with the aim of empowering people with the knowledge to understand financial terminology and their personal financial affairs, and to ultimately improve their financial decisions which will impact their future financial resilience positively.
We also promote the empowerment of retirement fund trustees through a unique combination of thought leadership pieces and sponsored articles in the Today’s Trustee publication. This initiative seeks to stimulate awareness on topical issues and to extend our educational support.
The Sanlam Foundation has partnered with the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) to provide investment funding and business development support (BDS) to supply chain aligned SMEs and financial planning businesses via the Sanlam Group Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD) programme.
The intent of the programme is to transform, develop and grow Sanlam’s distribution network and supply chain, through the creation and support of an environment fostering financial resilience and sustainability for high potential businesses.
ESD Beneficiary: Legaći.
As part of it's mandate as custodian of corporate social investment activities across the Sanlam Group, the Foundation supports developmental work in other African countries with a focus on education and Consumer Financial Education.
The Foundation manages the Group’s Staff Volunteerism Programme (SVP) which aims to provide an outlet for all Sanlam’s staff members to contribute meaningfully to the developmental agenda of the county. To date, these include Payroll Contributions and Day of Giving, both of which are managed in partnership with Group Human Resources.
Leveraging Sanalam's existing, extensive art collection, the Foundation entered into a partnership with the Norval Foundation, an arts centre dedicated to the research, education and exhibition of 20th and 21st century visual art from South Africa and beyond.
The collaboration has thus far focused on developing an accessible African art history book for children. The aim is to teach children about African artists in a fun and accessible way, whilst sparking an interest in the arts.
The Sanlam Foundation supports communities through two types of grants:
Core funding applications are only open when an EOI is published. There are currently no open EOIs.
Should you wish to apply for funding through the Small Grants Fund, please click on the 'Apply Now' button below.
Apply nowThe Sanlam Foundation partakes in a wide range of community initiatives and programmes – such as our Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) Programme which has had a deep impact on SMEs in Sanlam’s supply chain.
See our Sanlam Foundation 2022 Annual Report