Page 9 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

FoUNDER tRustees
THE LITTLE GRANTMAKER THAT MADE A BIG IMPACT
Gordon Young and Di Oliver, two of the founding trustees of SCAT, reflect on the secrets of SCAT’s success over the last 35 years.
By gordon young
SCAT has never been a large organisation, and when it started it was very small indeed. It operated in fact out of Barry Streek’s dining room, and Benson the Labrador was an honorary member of staff. SCAT has, I believe, had an impact that belies its small staff and small budget. It’s been the cog that’s moved many wheels over a vast area of South Africa. If only our government could use its resources half as productively as SCAT does! In the early years from its foundation in 1984, frankly there was only a vague plan and some fine principles. Over time, the focus narrowed, and more and more activities were deliberately excluded. That is one of the secrets of SCAT’s success - it tries to do one thing very well. It was quite a wild ride in the early years as we experimented with one thing and another. Conditions were difficult especially during the State of Emergency when SCAT in its quiet backroom way was seen as part of the Total onslaught. In fact, the exciting aspect for everyone on this ride was the learning that happened along the way. So there’s secret number two: SCAT has always been a learning organisation.
Where in the end did we focus the spotlight? Firstly, we agreed that rural areas were least well served, and that is where we would work exclusively. That way we’d help the smaller organisations which were signally un-networked, never got the invitation to the embassy receptions, and were too far away to be on the itinerary of any visiting donor. In a sense SCAT became an efficient “retailer” to smaller organisations who would otherwise get nothing. This meant that SCAT had to be proficient at raising money from the “wholesalers”. That is the second angle in the spotlight.
The third aspect of the spotlight is what we came to call the Local Development Agency (LDA). This really isn’t just jargon. SCAT supports Agencies (that is, organisations) that are Local (that is, that are grounded in a specific community) and promote Development. Many of these started as advice offices, which were a form of resistance organisation operating in open view. They emerged in the 1980s to exploit the grey areas between legal and illegal opposition to apartheid. When apartheid had been conquered, some of these fell by the wayside, but many undertook the task of re-construction, and many new ones were formed to bring to their communities the economic and social benefits of freedom, in addition to their new political rights.
The fourth angle could be called “respect for autonomy”. It is too easy for grantmakers to lord it over their “clients”. We didn’t want clients, we wanted partners. A key principle in SCAT’s work is to be responsive rather than initiate its own programmes. SCAT has never told a Local Development Agency what its programme should be; how much it should pay its staff; who it should employ; who it should not employ; and so forth.
Gordon younG
RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years
7