Background

The Otto Foundation is the philanthropic trust of the Otto family. The trust was established by Chris Otto and his daughter, Zephne Ladbrook, in 2016. Chris is an entrepreneur and was a founding director of PSG Group, Capitec Bank and Zeder Investments. He is involved in various community projects and currently also serves as chairman of the Stellenbosch Law Faculty Trust. The Otto Family and the board of trustees has mandated the Otto Foundation to contribute to social justice and positive change in South Africa through projects that improve early literacy. 

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Our Theory of Change

The Otto Foundation aims to improve early literacy by encouraging children to read for enjoyment. There is strong research evidence linking reading for enjoyment to improved literacy outcomes. Reading for enjoyment has also been found to be more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status - a crucial finding for the South African context, where income inequality is high, and education outcomes are so often correlated with household income. 

 

This visual representation of our theory of change outlines how our activities and outputs support our goals.

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