RamsayMedia runs an ambitious programme of corporate social investment initiatives aimed at making a difference in local communities. A range of worthy causes in the fields of the environment and education/skills training has been selected because of their fit with the company and its brands. Under its CSI arm, RamsayMAD – Make a Difference – the company supports:

Greenpop, an NGO that plants trees in “under-greened” schools around Cape Town and focuses on environmental education and community upliftment.

Give a Duck. This project benefits both Learn to Earn, a skills training and job creation project that works with unemployed adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, and The Bobs for Good Foundation, which aims to restore dignity and pride to needy learners by providing them with school shoes.

Rally to READ. For many years RamsayMedia has donated money and magazines to under-resourced rural schools, been part of the 4x4 caravan that delivers them and provided editorial coverage in its magazines.

Wines with heart supports charities working with children who suffer from the effects of alcohol abuse.

Khayelitsha Cookies is a small entrepreneurial enterprise that provides employment and skills to previously unemployed women from Khayelitsha.

Matla a Bana: A Voice against Child Abuse is RamsayMedia’s charity of choice for Mandela Day. Each year funds are raised and comfort packs assembled for child rape victims.

Spread the Bread, a weekly drive to provide sandwiches and fruit to the children of Protea Primary School in Bonteheuwel on the Cape Flats each Friday – identified by the Peninsula Feeding Scheme as one of the neediest in Cape Town.

Library of the Blind. The magazines in the RamsayMedia stable are provided on disk to this worthy cause, which converts the contents into audio files for its subscribers.

Conscious of the environmental impact of its activities, the company implemented recycling at head office from 2011 through two greening companies, eLiquidity and No Standing. Collected recyclable waste is taken back to their factory for sorting, helping to provide further employment opportunities.

The company and its staff support Xolani Primary School in Gugulethu. Corporate funding from the company, coupled with monthly contributions from the staff, have enabled Xolani to send learners on field trips, buy new equipment and establish and maintain a garden, among other things.

The Norton Ramsay Foundation, a charitable trust established in 1982 by the previous chairman of the company, supports a number of charitable, ecclesiastical and educational organisations each year.

Other worthy causes under consideration for inclusion in the RamsayMAD portfolio include:

• Bright Green CAR, which calculates and recommends ways of off-setting carbon emissions;
• a voluntourism venture under the banner of “give a day, get a night”;
• an internship programme for selected students from Learn to Earn;
• an annual fundraising golf day.
  
  RamsayMedia also ran a countrywide ad agency competition in 2010 that saw child welfare, endangered wildlife and hunger relief selected as worthy causes to benefit from R750 000 in advertising space in the company’s media throughout 2011. Regional winners of Ramsay Racer, an interactive computer game, chose Foodbank SA, the WWF’s International Rhino Campaign and Wines with heart, an NGO supporting charities working with children suffering from the effects of alcohol abuse, as the beneficiaries of the campaign.
  
  RamsayMedia’s CSI division is run by Sandy Immelman. She can be contacted at 021 530 3190 or sandyi@ramsaymedia.co.za.