Dear friends and community,
After many years and many iterations and locations, Impact Hub Joburg has unfortunately had to make the tough decision to close our doors in the Rosebank space at the end of September 2020.
As you can imagine, IHJ, like so many other businesses, has been impacted quite intensely by Covid-19. We have had minimal income from events and space since the lockdown first began back in March. These were the revenues that sustained us and helped us carry out our programmes and social mission on a larger scale. Although our cash reserves have kept us going up until now, and we have been busy trying to raise rescue funds from government and private sector, we were not able to raise enough to keep us going until a time when we anticipate things would pick up next year.
We are very proud of what we have achieved over the years. We ran several long and short programmes for social entrepreneurs, impact organisations, and the ecosystem as a whole, and hosted many thought provoking and innovative events. We have laughed and cried with many of you, and walked so many journeys in impact. We have helped connect our hubbers to funds and to opportunities. Even when lockdown hit, we managed to pull off our first entirely virtual programme in a short space of time and with excellent feedback. We hope we have made a difference to some of you – because you have certainly made an impression on all of us.
Although we will be closing the physical space end of September, we are giving ourselves another month to examine possible partnerships and see if any other funds materialise. If you or your organisation are potentially keen to join us and other ecosystem players in a partnership for the social enterprise ecosystem, or are interested to fund or support such an initiative, please get in touch. You can reach us at johannesburg.hosts@impacthub.net until the end of October.
We have really had some great times with you all! We hope this is not goodbye forever but just a see you soon. We know that the social economy and impact sectors in South Africa are full of passionate and committed people such as you all, and we have every hope that the social economy will rise out of these difficult times stronger than ever! We also hope that all of you will continue to stay healthy and safe and come out the other side successful and thriving.
With much much love from,
Co-Founders (Lesley, Alana, and Lana) and the entire IHJ team
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