The Briar Foundation, a non-profit organisation, is raising funds for its 2025 youth entrepreneurial showcase (Yes) campaign

The organisation, which teaches young people entrepreneurial skills, has started a Thundafund campaign in partnership with a bank, which will match the amount raised. The organisation aims to raise R300 000.

Irene Oxley founded the Briar Foundation in 2023 after a UN entrepreneurship strategy review found that there was an urgent need for entrepreneurial growth in South Africa.

To date, Ms Oxley said, the organisation had been privately financed but to grow and realise its full potential, start-up funding was needed for the continuation and expansion of its Yes campaign.

In 2023, the organisation held the Yes campaign at several south peninsula schools including Fish Hoek High School, Simon’s Town School, Ocean View High School, Silvermine Academy, Masiphumelele High School, and Generation Schools Imhoff.

“We believe that the youth of today will leave school and may not be able to secure employment and will need an entrepreneurial spirit,” Ms Oxley said, adding that the schools had asked for the campaign to be run annually.

She said she had then registered the foundation as a non-profit organisation earlier this year.

“We already have a number of schools confirmed and registered for 2025,” she said.

Participants are selected through their schools to be interviewed by a member of the Briar Foundation. If their concepts are sound and viable they are invited to the showcase where they learn about the production of prototypes, marketing of products and services, budgeting, profit and loss projections, profit margins, and the compilation of a comprehensive business plan.

Next year, the Yes campaign will offer three workshops per school and will run from mid-February to the end of April with extra workshops throughout the year.

The foundation has invited entrepreneurs to talk about their successes and failures, and a bank will also give a talk about money.

Ocean View High School principal Andrew Sanders said the campaign was beneficial, and the school would participate in it again next year.

“It has given our learners a different perspective on creating wealth and sustainability and has been a real eye-opener,” he said.

For more information about the foundation, find it on Facebook or Instagram or email briarfoundation@iafrica.com

Director and founder of the Briar Foundation Irene Oxley with Ocean View High School principal Andrew Sanders.

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Foundation seeks support for entrepreneurship drive