In just a month‚ the crowdfunding initiative to raise funds for South African students by the Feenix Trust in partnership with Standard Bank has raised over R1-million.

Since launching in June‚ 25 students have been fully funded and a total of R1‚090‚ 000 has been raised.

 “Thank you to all our donors‚ individuals and corporates‚ who have come on board to show their support in improving access to tertiary education for students across the country and‚ in so doing‚ change the face of economic transformation in South Africa‚” said Jayshree Naidoo‚ Interim CEO of the Feenix Trust.

“As a proudly digital bank Standard Bank wants to play a meaningful role in improving access to education. We see the power of crowd sourcing as a viable solution to boosting educational funding channels and are very proud of what has been achieved in just one month. We look forward to far more success via this initiative in the future‚” said Naidoo.

Standard Bank has undertaken to be the financier and go-to-market partner of the Feenix Trust‚ which has been established to retain and manage funds from donors. It has committed to the project for 36 months‚ or until the project is self-sustaining.

Naidoo urged donors to visit Feenix.org and create a profile on the website‚ browse through the database “pick a student or students you want to fund‚ and nominate an amount you would like to donate to them”.

 Businesses can donate from their skills development or CSI budget and will receive a Section 18A tax certificate. This also counts towards B-BBEE scorecards.