Operations
Our organisation grew out of a campaign for the University of Cape Town to stop investing in fossil fuels that started in 2013.
FFSA was legally established as a non-profit organisation in early 2015.
Governance
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Fossil Free SA endeavors at all times to follow best practice guidelines for the management of non-profits in South Africa, as outlined in these recommendations:
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Fossil Free SA is run by its staff (currently the coordinator and part-time administrator), but constituted as a voluntary association of:
members who support our mission (around 20, as of 2022)
with staff oversight from those members serving on our Management Committee
Members are invited to apply, are then confirmed as members by resolution of the ManCo, and are then eligible to serve on ManCo.
You can apply for membership by filling in our membership form here.
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Funding
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Fossil Free SA’s first-ever budget of approximately R70,000 was funded through a crowd funding campaign that closed on 31 January 2015. We have long received some ongoing contributions and donations from supporters, while some of our professional events have raised money via ticket sales and sponsorships. From 2017 onwards, we have received grants from foundations to fund our core activities.
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In 2017, our May divestment workshop was funded by R30,000 from 350.org and R12,000 from Futuregrowth Asset Management. Futuregrowth also part-sponsored our 2019 workshop on Climate-Proofing Retirement Funds. David Le Page’s travel to a 2017 global divestment conference in Amsterdam was sponsored by the Wallace Global Fund.
2017–2021: We received core operational funding from the Wallace Global Fund. We continue to receive small monthly donations from a number of individuals. We also received $3,000 from a private donor in the US in 2018.
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In 2022, we continued to receive funding from the European Climate Foundation and some small donations from private donors in South Africa.
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In 2023, our main funder was the European Climate Foundation, with some of our climate journalism work being funded by Natural Justice.
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Our ECF grant was supplemented this year by a small grant from the Rosa Luxemberg Foundation.