JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - February 29, 2016) - groupelephant.com announced today that SuccessFactors has donated $25,000 to groupelephant.com's Elephants, Rhinos & People (ERP) program, pursuant to its $1 per Tweet campaign that ran throughout the 2015 SuccessConnect conference season. The interactive fundraising program was launched by Mike Ettling, president of SuccessFactors, at the inaugural 2015 SuccessConnect event held in Las Vegas in August, and ran through December.
ERP Redux: Elephants, Rhinos & People
Elephants, Rhinos & People by groupelephant.com, known as "ERP," is focused on the preservation and protection of elephants and rhinos in the wild, by way of a strategy based on poverty alleviation. "This is achieved through donor-funded, nonprofit activity, augmented by impact investment projects designed to provide sustainable economic engines for rural communities," said Jonathan Tager, CEO of groupelephant.com, which includes SAP partner EPI-USE. "External donations such as this amplify our existing efforts on behalf of elephants, rhinos and impoverished rural people, and we are deeply appreciate of the support from SuccessFactors," Tager added. This initiative helps bring economic benefits to rural communities through wildlife economies, ecotourism activities and agriculture -- leveraging community-owned restituted land that enables the creation of wildlife corridors and conservation areas. ERP also adopts tactical measures designed to combat the poaching problem, and to promote the welfare of elephants and rhinos in the wild, in general.
"When you light a spark in your people, you can impact not just your business and your customers, but also the world around you," said Ettling. "One of the ways SuccessFactors and its parent company SAP SE contribute to building a shared experience that motivates and connects our people is through our commitment to corporate social responsibility. For the SuccessConnect events globally in 2015, we chose to support the work of Elephants, Rhinos & People because the program illustrates the global world in which we live today. Extinction of elephants and rhinos at the hands of humans is not just an issue for Africa. We all have a stake, and the opportunity to help create better, more meaningful lives."
"Africa is tragically losing elephants and rhinos in the wild at an alarming rate due to poaching," said David Ludlow, group vice president of Solution Management at SuccessFactors. "A key contributor to this increase stems from rural poverty. SuccessFactors decided to team up with groupelephant.com to raise money and awareness to help combat this problem. Through the donation, SuccessFactors is helping to promote the preservation of at-risk elephants and rhinos, and the economic uplifting of underprivileged people in areas adjacent to the threatened species -- a novel definition of 'ERP,' if you will."
More than simply a corporate social responsibility program, ERP is the "Beyond Corporate Purpose" focus of groupelephant.com. Together with other for-profit companies in groupelephant.com, EPI-USE applies 1% of its revenues to Elephants, Rhinos & People.
"Our group goes 'Beyond Corporate Purpose' by incorporating support of Elephants, Rhinos & People initiatives into the day-to-day activities of many of our people throughout the organization," said Jan van Rensburg, senior executive at groupelephant.com. "We are tremendously grateful for the donation from SuccessFactors, and also for the awareness that they are helping us to create of the elephant and rhino crises in Africa."
The Tembe-Mozambique Cross-Border Initiative
The donation from SuccessFactors will be applied toward an ongoing project aimed at resolving human-elephant conflict in the northern part of South Africa on the border with Mozambique where, because of pressure and threats from myriad sources on the Mozambique side, elephants are forced to cross over into South Africa, where they routinely cause crop damage. South African authorities have historically dealt with the situation by shooting the elephants. Through its Elephants, Rhinos & People initiative, groupelephant.com is working with the Tembe community to diminish the human-elephant conflict through drilling wells to provide water for the elephants in Mozambique, establishing a corridor for safe elephant migration and protecting the community from crop damage. In addition, the organization is implementing new agricultural and other local economic development initiatives, and bolstering anti-poaching mechanisms. Learn more by reading here and viewing here.
You can support this and other ERP rescue initiatives by donating directly on the groupelephant.com Web site and also by enrolling as an ERP Ambassador. groupelephant.com funds all overheads of its nonprofit organizations, so there is a 100% pass-through of any external donor funding to the project beneficiaries, viz. Elephants, Rhinos & People.
About groupelephant.com
groupelephant.com is a largely employee-owned group of technology companies, nonprofit organizations and impact investment businesses with a global footprint now covering 19 countries (having just started up operations in New Zealand). The Group is characterized by a primary strategic imperative in terms of which it goes 'Beyond Corporate Purpose' in its day-to-day activities. groupelephant.com has an unconventional approach to philanthropic activity.
Rather than implementing a traditional corporate social responsibility program and simply donating funds to charities, in 'Beyond Corporate Purpose' it has a multi-zoned operating model (comprising for-profit, nonprofit and impact investment zones) that provides it with a professional, institutionalized delivery capability in the area of nonprofit activity and impact investment. Primary focus areas are the preservation and protection of at-risk elephants and rhinos in the wild, and the economic uplifting of rural people in areas adjacent to the threatened species.
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