Our Purpose

To empower the people raising the next generation

Our Vision

Eradicate poverty in South African Families

Our Mission

Equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills and resources needed to unlock their full potential and access the economy

Our Promise

Empowering South African families to escape the cycle of poverty

Our Values

Accountability • Sustainability • Partnership • Inspiration • Response-ability • Excellence

Our Programmes

Resell

Equipping unemployed mothers to become successful fashion traders within the circular economy.
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Repair

Equipping unemployed South Africans to run appliance repair and trading businesses, reducing e waste.
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Remake

Equipping seamstresses to run financially viable businesses.
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Redistribute

Donating merchandise and clothing to nonprofits that support the vulnerable.
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Reskill

Equipping other organisations, individuals and our graduates with skills to become financially independent.
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GROW Educare Centres

Equipping preschools to operate as sustainable businesses that deliver quality education in low income communities.
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Our footprint

We have 4 branches across South Africa with the capacity to support up to 1000 unemployed men and women  across our Resell, Repair and Remake programmes at any given time. Our Grow ECD programme operates nationally, with offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Gqeberha.

TCB Milestone Timeline

2010

TCB opens its doors in Salt River, Cape Town.

Originally called The Clothing Bank, TCB started it’s life in a double garage made available by the local municipality and a large stock donation from Woolworths. Our co-founders, Tracey Chambers and Tracey Gilmore, recruited unemployed mothers through The Volunteer Centre and started training them to buy and sell clothing.

Truworths come on board.

2011

We out grew our first premises and moved to a rental property in Observatory scaling to 100 women in the programme.

Edcon joins as a retail partner.

2012

We open a branch in Paarl and start our Micro Franchise Accelerator Project.

TCB wins the Teach a Man to Fish Award.

We start our journey with the A2B development methodology.

2013

We expand to Johannesburg and win the African Philanthropy Award: New Charity of the Year award.

We form a strategic training relationship with The Tourism and Business Institute of South Africa (TTBISA) to train our second-year Participants in the Informal Small Business Practice (ISBP), which provides them with a SETA-accredited qualification.

We start the Greenlight Movement (formerly Poverty Stoplight) in South Africa and start measuring our poverty eradication impact.

2014

More retailers liked MRP and Clicks came on board.

We start the GROW Educare Centres programme (later renamed to Grow ECD) in Cape Town. Co-founder Lisa Voortman sets up our first ECD centre partnership in Langa.

2015

We open our TCB Durban and East London branches and purchase our first building in Cape Town. With a national footprint, TCB could now support many more retailers to redistribute their excess products. 

We start our Repair programme in response to growing volumes of appliance donations.

Our Amazi Beauty Project is launched in partnership with Sorbet. Pick n Pay Clothing and TFG are added as retail partners.

2016

Our co-founders receive the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award and become Schwab fellows.

2017

We win the Western Cape Premier’s Award: Best Overall Business and Best Social Enterprise.

Shoprite/Checkers and Home of Living Brands (HOLM) joins our list of retail partners.

2018

We expand our GROW project to Durban and purchased our Durban property.

Tracey Chambers (Co-Founder and CEO) is awarded an Ashoka Fellowship.

My Runway and Style Eyes joins as a retail partner.

2019

Our Cape Town building is destroyed in a devastating fire (rebuild completed in 2021).

We expand our GROW Programme to Johannesburg.

2020

Covid19 hits our Participants and ECD centres hard. With the support of our partners, we use our warehouse spaces to offer food parcel distribution, essential service goods such as winter clothing, and stipends to assist ECD teachers who have lost all sources of income.

We add Queens Park, Rex Trueform and Gemeli as retail partners.

2021

We started a new programme, Remake, to work with seamstresses and use donations of excess fabric to start micro-manufacturing small businesses.

TCB won the Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Award (category Waste Management Best Practice).

Our Resell and Repair programme is listed in the international Acumen “100 Corporate Ready Social Enterprises” report.

We launch the GROW ECD Mobile App. Cotton On joins us as a retail partner.

2022

We launched our first Graduate Accelerator.

The Clothing Bank rebranded as Taking Care of Business, our new group name, which houses all our programmes and subsidiaries.

We launch our media-rich online ECD Curriculum and our ECD Small Business Accelerator programme. We also launch our Baby Curriculum for 1-2 year olds.

TCB is awarded the World of Difference Award by The International Alliance for Women.

2023

We expand our Remake programme in Cape Town.

We launch the A2B Human Optimisation curriculum and our new Year 2 Business Booster programme.

Tracey Chambers and Tracey Gilmore, our TCB co-founders, received a Cape Town Civic Honours Award from the Mayor of Cape Town.

We are awarded the Social Impact Award at the annual Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards.

2024

We launch our Reskill training division which ensures our impactful training programmes are now made available to other organisations.

Our Repair programme starts measuring and reporting on tonnes of eWaste processed.

Our Remake programme expands to include a Technical curriculum.

2025

Our Grow ECD programme joins the Government’s Intersectoral Forum and Social Compact for ECD in support of the 2030 ECD Strategy.

Tracey Chambers in invited to join the World Economic Forum Future Council on Financial Education working group.

We purchase a building in Johannesburg to support our growing operations and set us up in a new, permanent, home. 

TCB celebrates 15 years of impact, dignity and opportunity.

Our awards

TCB – Taking Care of Business is internationally recognized for its work in enterprise development, the circular economy, job creation, entrepreneurship and supply chain waste management across South Africa.

2013

Pan African Award for Entrepreneurship in Education

2013

New Charity of the Year Award

2013

Ashoka Changemakers Award

2015

Western Cape Business Woman of the Year Award for Social Entrepreneurship

2016

Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year

2017

Western Cape Premier’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Award

2018

Ashoka Fellowship

2021

The Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Award winner Category: Waste Management Practice

2021

TCB is one of the Top 100 Corporate Ready Social Enterprises globally

2022

Tracey Chambers was awarded with the TIAW World of Difference Award

2023

Tracey Chambers & Tracey Gilmore (TCB co-founders) receive the City of Cape Town Mayor's Medal

2023

TCB is awarded the Social Impact Award at the annual Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards.

BBBEE, Social-Economic Development & Enterprise Development, NPO and PBO status

As a Level 1 Qualifying Small Enterprise, TCB –Taking Care of Business is aligned to the spirit of the amended BBBEE Act. We can offer companies significant points on their BBBEE scorecard thanks to our focus on growing small, black-women-owned businesses and empowering the unemployed through skills development.

  • 100% unemployed South Africans
  • 100% black beneficiaries
  • 90% are black-women-owned businesses
  • < 50% are defined as youth

NPO number: 081-505-NPO

PBO number: 930032046

Impact Story: Nombulelo Magunya

“When I think back on my life before I join TCB it breaks my heart. In those days I used to share half a brown bread with my 2 kids, and we went to sleep early because I didn't have electricity for light. I didn't know how to budget at all! We had no savings. No planning. Now I'm so proud of myself. Since I start at TCB my life has been changing. Everybody at home now respects me. I make sure each and every week I save R2000 in Everybody at home now respects me. I make sure each and every week I save R2000 in my other bank account, because I now have a budget, and I have goals for myself. I am debt free!”