Business Talk – Bridgit Evans unpacks the remarkable impact of the SAB Foundation’s social innovation programmes

In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, Bridgit Evans explains how the SAB Foundation is helping small businesses.

Evans is the Executive Director of the SAB Foundation, a role she has held for over a decade.

She is a passionate advocate for helping South Africans realise their potential and change their lives for the better.

She first entered the industry at Tshikululu Social Investments, philanthropic grant managers that worked with organisations like Anglo American, De Beers and the First Rand Group.

Evans also worked as the CEO of the GreaterGood Group, a firm specialising in socio-economic development consulting, and at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, where she ran the Social Entrepreneurship and Imagination Leadership Programmes.

Under her guidance, and leveraging the experience she earned in her prior roles, Evans has helped the SAB Foundation expand its support for small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises and fulfil its goal of creating and building sustainable businesses.

She has a BA in Psychology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Enterprise Management from Rhodes University, as well as an Honours Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Johannesburg and an MBA from the University of Cape Town.

Evans is also an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow and is part of a SETA ELearning task team currently developing a course for entrepreneurs and NGO leaders.

The interview

In this Business Talk interview, Evans discusses how SAB Foundation has managed to help many small businesses succeed despite tough market conditions.

She unpacks whether South African corporates and government are doing enough to measure the impact of their small business initiatives.

Evans then outlines the most important programme changes she’s seen in the last ten years, and reveals the value of a blended financing scheme.

She also explains how SAB Foundation uses new technologies to help scale its programmes.

Evans concludes the interview by sharing what lies ahead for the SAB Foundation.

Watch the full interview with Bridgit Evans below.