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- 1. © [Blue Palm Community NPC │reg no. 2014/106381/08]
BLUE PALM – A NON-PROFIT COMPANY:
Have you ever seen a charity or organization promoting a cause that touched your heart, and being so caught up in the busy
lifestyle we are all used to, ended up not following through on an intention to contribute or help? My answer to this question
was yes! However, what if this problem could be resolved?
At Blue Palm we believe that youths are genuinely interested in helping disadvantaged children and youths, however, the fast
pace and busy nature of modern life and institutionalized social stratification largely prevent us from reaching out and helping.
By providing the structures within which your average person can play ahelping role, in a quick and convenient framework, we
aim to empower youths, strengthen their innate desire to be charitable, increase the sense of social responsibility in privileged
communities and provide aid to disadvantaged children and youths.
Blue Palm is not a charity organization in the classical sense, but rather a revolutionary student initiative aimed at bridging the
gap between a busy world and a world in need by linking youths in privileged communities to nearby disadvantaged children
and youths and facilitating the flow of help the two.
BluePalm is currently based and active in Pretoria East, on the University of Pretoria’s main campus and its surrounding suburbs,
and in Centurion, on The Open Window Institute and its surrounding suburbs. For more information on your local Blue Palm
community please contact info@bluepalm.co.za!
ABOUT US:
Blue Palm’s Mission and goals
Blue Palm undertakes to provide convenient, innovative and encouraging means for youth to come together and make positive
contributions to disadvantaged children and youths.
Our goals are to simplify the process of donating, connect youths to charitable causes and provide opportunities that allow
youths to become proactively involved in making a positive impact where needed. Blue Palm seeks to do this in a manner which
is interactive, current in its approach and which both aids in addressing the basic needs of struggling children and youths, as
well as increases the sense of social responsibility among privileged youths.
How does Blue palm work?
Blue Palm is a registered and developing non-profit company and is continually developing its innovated business model. As
we are student based, Blue Palm works to establish University and school societies which are guided by our concepts and work
to carry out projects that are in line with Blue Palms MOI and the respective Blue Palm society constitutions based thereon.
Furthermore, Blue Palm works to facilitate the development of these societies, guide their action, provide supportive services
where necessary and create a network of such interacting student societies. Currently Blue Palm is opening its first society on
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The University of Pretoria (the University that is home to the founders of Blue Palm) and it’s second on The Open Window
Institute in Centurion.
For more information on the activities Blue Palm and its societies carry out please see the projects page.
Blue Palm’s story
Blue Palm (founded in 2014) was conceptualized, developed and is now run by a diverse group of young students who have
come together through a shared aspiration to start making a difference in the world around us! Initially, after having 12
Contribution Bins sponsored and with the help of friends, family and The Open Window Institute, we launched in March 2014
with a charity day successfully hosted at the Sax Arena in Centurion. During the remainder of 2014 we hosted another
successful charity drive launch on Tuks, in which we collected stationary and school books and interacted with our fellow
students; periodically set up our Contribution Bins at various locations in Pretoria and collected donations; coordinated a
month long charity campaign (Baby Season) at several shopping centers and schools, and in which we ran interactive
promotions and collected various baby products; we ran an outreach to a pre-primary school in Mamelodi; we coordinated an
upliftment project to restore the home of one of our beneficiaries; and registered as a non-profit company. 2014 also saw Blue
Palm’s membership grow from 3 initial founders to a team of 12 and a handful of casual volunteers.
As we head into the future we hope to continue our growth and momentum, increasing the supportive services and aid we
offer, by establishing a society on the University of Pretoria and on The Open Window Institute, growing our team, improving
our business structures and by offering a number of partnership and sponsorship opportunities for businesses interested in
collaboration. We hope to develop a network of Blue Palm student communities that interact with one another and work
together toward our common goal.
How can you help us?
As we are a non-profit company run solely by students Blue Palm needs sponsors to help us with operational costs and with
obtaining equipment that will help us run more efficiently. We would greatly appreciate your donations toward this cause.
PROJECTS
Blue Palms projects are developed on the basis of striving toward achieving our mission and goals. In doing so, our annual
projects are coordinated in accordance with the academic year. Blue Palms projects consist of four main aspects:
Community Contribution Bins
Our Contribution Bins form the basis of a number of our services. They are specially branded with vinyls that instruct bypasses
on their proper usage and collection focus. Our Bins are walk-away-safe; modified with a security mechanism that prevents
theft of or tampering with donated goods. Our Community Contribution Bins Project sees our Bins being set up at various easily
accessible places; at schools and universities at which we are active and at shopping centres and other areas during events.
Youths and community members need simply make a donation and it will be collected and distributed to one of our
beneficiaries. The collection focus is unique in that it is geared toward encouraging functional donations (such as toiletries,
stationary and school books, cleaning and baby products, clothes, etc.) and in providing these items we support those
courageous caregivers helping disadvantaged children and youths, giving them the support they need to cope and to reach
their full potential.
Charity campaigns and special events
Our Contribution Bins are predominantly used during our charity campaigns and special charity events, which form the
foundation of Blue Palms activities. These projects have specific intentions and goals and are aimed at raising awareness toward
a specific cause and procuring donations toward aiding that cause. In a charity campaign or event we set up our Bins at a
number of specified locations over a given period of time (up to a month or more for charity campaigns and a few days for our
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special events). We then actively engage community members in those areas, run interactive promotions for the cause we are
supporting and encourage donations and support toward that cause.
Outreaches and upliftment Projects
The last area in which Blue Palm provides support to disadvantaged children and youths is through our outreaches and
upliftment projects. These are aimed at providing youths with a chance to be proactively involved with the people we support,
giving them a first-hand opportunity to help at the places we support and allowing them to see and experience the impact they
can have in others’ lives. Outreaches and upliftment projects are coordinated in collaboration with our beneficiaries and with
various community stakeholders and are specifically designed to address pertinent issues affecting disadvantaged youths and
children in our society.
Fundraising
Integrated into our projects we often run interactive fundraising initiatives to help acquire short-term goals; such as resources
needed to carry out the present or upcoming projects. Blue palms running costs are relatively minimal, with most operational
costs currently being covered by our founding members, however, equipment and marketing material not covered by the odd
sponsorship opportunity we encounter need to be paid for by funds we raise ourselves.
BENEFICIARIES/SUPPORT PLACES
Blue Palm connects with places that serve disadvantaged children and youths and works with them to provide aid sourced
from youths in nearby privileged communities. The types of places we look for are care centers, orphanages, schools, health
and education charities and other community initiatives. These places are often underfunded, marginalized and unable to
adequately serve their community. Our goal is to provide these places with donations collected in our Contribution Bins and at
our charity events, and provide support from our outreaches and upliftment programs. The donations we collect can both
support the basic needs in a child or youths life and aid these places in their day to day running.
If you know of, or represent, one of the above mentioned places, are located in or around Pretoria/Centurion and would like
to work with Blue Palm please contact us at info@bluepalm.co.za- we are always happy to hear about other people making a
difference out there!
GET INVOLVED!
Join our team
We want you- Bright, enthusiastic, compassionate youths who would like to join our team and work hand-in-hand with us as
we strive to make a positive impact in our society! We believe that it is people, not things, that bring value and meaning into
our lives, and that everyone has their own unique set of skills that they can contribute to furthering Blue Palm’s cause.
For applications please send a CV and/or short piece about yourself to info@bluepalm.co.za and we will get back to you with
more information on positions available and on scheduling a meeting.
Donate to Blue Palm
As we are a non-profit company run solely by students Blue Palm needs sponsors to help us with operational costs and with
obtaining equipment that will help us run more efficiently. Help in both these areas will contribute to us being able to provide
a better service to the public.We would greatly appreciate your donations for this cause.
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Start a society or youth community
Blue Palm is working tirelessly toward reaching our vision of creating a network of interacting Blue Palm youth communities
and societies. In such we are striving toward being able to spread our exciting and innovative student movement to new
locations by facilitate the development of these societies, guiding their action and providing supportive services where
necessary. Should you be interested in joining Blue Palm, bringing our initiative into your community and starting up either a
school or university society we would love to hear from you and help you get started.
Partnership, sponsorship and Bin sales
Blue Palm is developing a number of partnership and sponsorship opportunities for businesses interested in collaboration.
Should you represent one such business or be a potential independent partner or sponsor please contact us at
info@bluepalm.co.za.