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- Another financial year is wrapping up, and U-Turn hosted its big Donors’ Breakfast dedicated to celebrating long-time donors while garnering new supporters of the organisation, whose sole purpose is to eradicate homelessness in Cape Town.
- Based in Claremont, U-Turn expressed gratitude and confidence in its mission and achievements on Thursday morning 1 February at The Cellars Hohenort Hotel’s Greenhouse restaurant in Constantia, featuring guest speaker Greg Bortz.
- Bortz’s LinkedIn profile depicts him as the chair of GMB Investments GMBI), the South African holding company of the Bortz Family Office, which is involved in private equity, real estate and public and private investing in South Africa. Bortz currently serves as chair of one of its portfolio investments, Cape Racing.
Another financial year is wrapping up, and U-Turn hosted its big Donors’ Breakfast dedicated to celebrating long-time donors while garnering new supporters of the organisation, whose sole purpose is to eradicate homelessness in Cape Town.
Based in Claremont, U-Turn expressed gratitude and confidence in its mission and achievements on Thursday morning 1 February at The Cellars Hohenort Hotel’s Greenhouse restaurant in Constantia, featuring guest speaker Greg Bortz.
Bortz’s LinkedIn profile depicts him as the chair of GMB Investments GMBI), the South African holding company of the Bortz Family Office, which is involved in private equity, real estate and public and private investing in South Africa. Bortz currently serves as chair of one of its portfolio investments, Cape Racing.
He formed the Bortz Family Office after retiring from a career in investment banking and private equity in America, during which he founded the private equity firm CREO Capital Partners. The Bortz Family Office focuses its investment activities primarily in the United States and South Africa, where he’s returned to in recent years after living abroad.
His topic of discussion touched on five keys to turn one’s business around, to which he said an essential key is “never to back the people that drove the thing down to the abyss and expect them to lead you back up to the promised land.” Bortz added that this does not mean the people working lower in the organisation are to be sacked, but rather that “it’s the leadership that’s so important.”
In his address to the gathering Bortz called U-Turn a place where one finds passion. “It is focused, knows what its doing and has a strategy . . . The return on investment in U-Turn is that you get people off the streets, which is something that, in turn, benefits the whole of Cape Town and beyond.”
An information brochure handed to those attending the breakfast reflected U-Turn’s financials since 2020, during which it had grown from an operating income of R12 180 831 to R35 031 621 in 2022. Operating expenses went up from R11 084 228 in 2020 to R31 570 026 in 2022.
It stated that U-Turn’s “overall income more than doubled in 2022 allowing us to expand our footprint and service delivery rapidly.” Furthermore, their donations increased by 83% in 2022, and U-Turn was also successful in receiving funding from the National Treasury through the Innovation Fund and the Public Employment Programme.
Of the year 2022’s income it reports 43% as “self-generated”, followed by “donations” contributing 26%, plus government funding of 24% and grants making up 7% of U-Turn’s income.
Expenses were highlighted as 40% spent on “social enterprises”; 24% going towards “work readiness”; “change readiness” of 16%; followed by 15% going towards “support function” and “sustainability” taking up 5% of their budget.
U-Turn also boasted growth in the number of social enterprises that helped increase its self-generated income by 98%.
“This was also supported by a like-for-like growth in shop sales of 48% with the opening of five new retail locations.” This contributed 43% of U-Turn’s total income and “is an effective sustainable income model.”
From the moment a homeless person approaches U-Turn, Phase One called “Change readiness” is set in motion, during which people are prepared for life change at one of the organisation’s five support centres.
This year, U-Turn plans on opening two new Support Centres in Cape Town using a “partnership-based Social Franchise model”.
Phase Two focuses on “Rehabilitation” in which individuals are supported through drug and/or alcohol rehabilitation.
This year U-Turn plans on forming “closer partnerships with accommodation partners in partnership with Project Exodus in Kalk Bay (once the Fish Hoek Support Centre has a new home).” And, in partnership with Project Exodus, U-Turn plans on opening up new support groups across the city.
Phase Three aims on “Work Readiness”, during which work training is provided in addition to personal development. It plans on continuing its expansion of work-readiness spaces in Cape Town this year. This includes introducing front-end web development and coding as a champion (U-Turn’s succeeding beneficiaries) work opportunity by adding these services to Connect Solution’s offering.
Phase Four is about fostering “Independence” by assisting graduates in maintaining sobriety, transitioning into open labour-market employment and independent accommodation.
This year, U-Turn will launch its online jobs board to facilitate graduate employment as well as social housing units dedicated to U-Turn and MES (Mould Empower Serve) clients opening at Maitland Mews.
U-Turn proposes to open five new Service Centres in Cape Town, Observatory, Diep River, Mitchells Plain and Strand, which are said to provide 70% accessibility to clients versus their current accessibility of 25%.
U-Turn CEO Jean-Ray Knighton Fitt was proud to announce that “not one graduate has returned to the streets in the last two years, apart from one individual who chose to come back to U-Turn.”
They celebrate a high success rate of 80% of graduates who are reported to “remain sober and employed.
“We foresee doubling the number of our graduates this year, and to double that number again the year afterwards. We also invest a lot in relapse research for our model to be effective. That’s why we meticulously analyse successes and failures.”
