Community

AngloGold Ashanti launched the Hearts of Gold programme at its corporate office in Johannesburg in July 2004 to support and encourage staff members to contribute to their community.

Launched as a pilot programme to test staff response, the programme aims to demonstrate visible support for AngloGold Ashanti's employees' interest in their community, to encourage employees to make a contribution to the social development of their communities and to reward those employees already involved in such activities.

Within Hearts of Gold, employees can choose between the 'Give As You Earn' or 'Matched Volunteering' options. The former allows staff members to donate money, on a monthly basis, directly from their salary to a charitable non-profit organisation (NPO) either of their choice or from a list of pre-selected NPOs. This pre-selected list was compiled based on results of a staff e-mail survey, conducted in January 2004, to identify the most popular charitable causes. These were identified as helping people living with HIV/AIDS, children, the elderly and caring for the disabled. All nominated NPOs are strictly assessed by the Charities Aids Foundation South Africa (CAFSA) and the AngloGold Ashanti team.

AngloGold Ashanti agreed to match the monthly employee contributions on a Rand-for-Rand basis, in effect doubling the donation to the NPO. Participation rates increased from 2% in launch month to just under 13% at the end of December, based on 400 employees in the corporate office. The average donation to a NPO is R264 per employee and the average amount being donated in total per employee is R453 per month, a consequence of many employees donating to more than one NPO. Both figures are significantly higher than averages seen in other company 'Give As You Earn' schemes, as documented in the Charities Aids Foundation South Africa (CAFSA) report. On average, supported, NPOs receive about R17,500 every month in donations from AngloGold Ashanti and its employees at the corporate office.

The Matched Volunteering option operates on the basis that for every eight hours an employee assists at a NPO, AngloGold Ashanti donates R500 to that organisation. If four employees volunteer their services as a team, then the company donates R2,500 to the NPO for every eight hours served by that team. As an example of this, staff members participated in a pancake flipping event to raise funds for The St Vincent School for the Deaf, where about eight AngloGold Ashanti staffers participated.

Custodian of the Hearts of Gold project, Rian Raghavjee, attributes this success to the willingness of the company's employees to give towards worthy causes. The 'champions' of the project also play a significant role since they provide a point of contact. This group of eight people from various departments meet regularly and market the project within their divisions.

Although in South Africa, the project has only been launched in the corporate office, the intention is to implement it in some form in the South Africa region. However, Raghavjee recognises that since certain communications media are not as easily accessible to the group as a whole, the current method of intranet marketing, for example, might not be as successful as it has been in the corporate office. Also, all the marketing thus far has been in English, which might not be the language of choice for many outside the corporate office.