Shanduka Black Umbrellas is a non-profit company involved in the support of emerging 100% black owned businesses through business incubation and enterprise development. The organisation’s fundamental purpose is to collaborate with partners in the private sector, government and civil society to address the low levels of entrepreneurship and high failure rate of 100% black owned emerging businesses in South Africa.
Shanduka Black Umbrellas was first conceived as the Black Umbrellas, a project spearheaded by Cape Town social entrepreneurs Charles Maisel and Mark Frankel to support SMMEs.
In 2009 the Shanduka Foundation partnered with Black Umbrellas to escalate the project countrywide with R5.2 million invested in the set up and operations of a Gauteng office.
What They Do
The programme focuses on promoting entrepreneurship as a desirable economic path, and nurturing 100% black-owned businesses in the critical first three years of their existence through the provision of nationwide incubators.
The advancement of black entrepreneurs and small business development is at the heart of the Shanduka Black Umbrellas programme. It is a multi-stakeholder collaboration with the common purpose of achieving economic and social change through action, inspiration and support. In order to create a sustainable programme to harness and strengthen South Africa’s black entrepreneurs, Shanduka Black Umbrellas works through a platform of co-operation between civil society, the private sector and government so that the correct resources, skills development, mentoring and access to markets are in place to support development at all levels.
By providing a structured and subsidised programme, using a national footprint of business incubation offices, their clients are afforded the expertise, office infrastructure and resources over a 3 year period to create the important foundations to achieve sustainable businesses. It requires commitment and hard work on the part of their clients, over and above their passion for their service or product, to graduate from the programme to become owners of independent and viable businesses. This is a vital initiative to transform the South African economy by linking big business to smaller suppliers and increasing the economic opportunities that arise out of enterprise development.
How It Works
The Shanduka Black Umbrellas model is aimed at supporting emerging black businesses through the incubation programme so that they are able to emerge as independent, viable businesses.
Fundamental to the success of the model is a tiered intervention, where applicants/clients transition and bolster their business through successive levels of activation.
The programme activation begins with a pre-incubation phase (3 months), followed by full incubation (3 years) through to graduation.
The SBU model uses its national reach to enable clients to benefit from guided mentorship, through which clients receive the transfer of business skills, knowledge and network linkages.
The businesses are assessed for their credit risk and an advisory committee offers their technical experience to assess the weaknesses and strengths of the businesses.
Ongoing support through the incubation centres and the office infrastructure linked to these include:
Currently incubators are fully operational in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Mooinooi, Lephalale, Pretoria, Richards Bay and Port Elizabeth.
