Mandela University’s 2025 Giving Campaign is endorsed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and aligns with its #MandelaDay 2025 theme of “It’s still in our hands to combat poverty and inequality”.
The objective of Mandela University’s fundraising appeal is to help its students graduate. It aims to generate this help by eradicating the main challenges that arise. The University’s Empower Futures: Nourish Minds, Fund Dreams campaign has two aims:
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To help deserving students, particularly postgraduate and those deemed “missing middle”, who cannot fund their studies and
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To help unfunded students in the aforementioned categories who are forced to skip daily meals because they cannot afford food.
About 60% of Mandela University students are National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)-funded, with the rest being fee-paying students. A significant portion of fee-paying students are postgraduate students who were NSFAS-funded during their undergraduate funding, as well as those whose household income is between R350 000 and R600 000 – deemed the “missing middle”.
In the spirit of the legacy of the institution’s namesake, former South African president Nelson Mandela, an international icon for social justice and reconciliation, Nelson Mandela University’s 2025 Giving Campaign aims to help these students succeed and make their mark in society.
Senior Director for Strategic Resource Mobilisation and Advancement at Nelson Mandela University, Dr Denver Webb said: “Our Empower Futures: Nourish Minds, Fund Dreams campaign is driven by the belief that, no academically deserving student should be denied access or excluded from education due to their financial situation.
“But exclusion is not only about fees. Increasingly, student nutrition represents a persistent challenge. Recent research by the Council on Higher Educations shows that between 11 to 38% of students at public universities in South Africa, suffer from food insecurity.
“At Mandela University thousands of students are missing meals and struggling to study on empty stomachs. If we want them to graduate, we need to help them, and we need to help them now with a unified, people-centred approach.
“We are extremely grateful to Tiger Brands, which sponsors 500 food parcels a month, but the queues at Student Health Services when they are distributed, shows we need far, far more. Our Food Systems Network, which meets quarterly, has many plans, once the funds are in place. Your gift can fill a plate today and build a graduate tomorrow.”
Dr Webb said the University’s digital 2025 Giving Campaign aims to beat its own record. In 2023 we raised R1,6 million and in 2024, R1,9 million, which represents a growth of 15%. “This year we are going bolder to serve our growing needs. We aim to raise half a million rand for student nutrition, and R5 million for bursaries and scholarships,” he said.
“We need to be fuelling futures. An investment in Nelson Mandela University’s campaign is an investment in a world-class higher education institution, an investment in the future of our youth, our national capabilities, and ultimately in the economic welfare of South Africa.”
To donate to the Campaign and for more information
Watch one of the beneficiaries share his story on the Campaign