Lisa Isaacs
A TOTAL of R450 000 has been pledged by university alumni at the start of the first day of the #Fundafuture campaign.
Yesterday marked the launch of the campaign which is encouraging graduates to pay it forward.
Project founder and former UCT student, Patrick Schofield, said alumni would take on a role of a cause “champion”, set a monetary goal and utilise their networks to realise the target for their alma mater or a university of their choice.
The aim is to support 200 students per university per year, with about R10 million raised per university.
The funds raised will go directly to students through their university’s financial aid boards.
Schofield said yesterday alumni from UCT, Stellenbosch University, Rhodes University and the University of Pretoria have stepped up as “champions”.
He said there was also interest expressed from Mr South Africa 2015 Armand du Plessis to be an ambassador for the project.
“We’ve seen a bunch of people keen to be champions, and we are also in consultation with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, The University of Venda and others about this project.
“From what we have seen so far, there has really been a positive response,” he said.
On Twitter, 40 000 accounts had used the hashtag #Fundafuture, with about 66 000 people talking about and engaging with the project online, Schofield said.
He added that the coming weeks would be telling as he would be able to gauge what a realistic target would be for the initiative.
“What we have seen has been amazing, and we have seen a bunch of sprinkler campaigns as people realise how powerful crowd-funding can be.”
The UCT Student Representative Council had also been in consultation with the team to engage with new students and their parents at orientation, Schofield added.
“People are saying its an interesting initiative and they want to get involved. They are seeing that it is necessary to support students. It is the state of a movement.”
The project will run until April. To get involved, visit http://fundafuture.co.za/
@lisa_isaacs