A presentation by NGOs at a meeting of the Gauteng Legislature's Health and Social Development Committee reminded me of the tremendous role they play in our country, particularly those that are faith-based.
The Full Gospel Church of God, for instance, assists 45 000 people in Gauteng with a feeding scheme, and has other projects like job creation, computer literacy and crèches.
This is all done with very limited resources. As pointed out by management guru Peter Drucker, private charities "spend far less for results than governments spend for failure".
Internationally, the highest level of private charity is provided in America where it is 1.67% of GDP, and the lowest is France at a mere 0.14 percent.
South Africa is at 0.64%, which is a bit above the average 0.5% level.
The interesting thing in America is that charitable giving is lowest in politically liberal states like Massachusetts, and highest in states that are more conservative.
It seems that people who advocate higher taxes to get more government services for the poor see this as a substitute for their personal donation to charities of their choice.
Charitable giving in America is highest amongst born-again Christians, and low-income employed Americans give the highest portion of their income at 4.5 percent.
There is a similar trend in South Africa, where studies have found that the poorest people give relatively more of their income for social assistance than do richer people.
Volunteering is highest in the poorest provinces (Eastern Cape followed by Limpopo) and people in wealthy Gauteng give less money than in some poorer provinces.
Of 98 920 identified civil society organizations in 1998, some 53% were informal organizations in the poorest communities.
A recent survey found that 93% of South Africans support charities and other social causes, with 54% donating money, 31% giving food or goods, and 17% volunteering time to help the needy.
Whereas 96% of those interviewed who had a faith or religion had given money, goods or services in the prior month, this dropped to 80% among atheists.
Individual giving amounts to about R1 billion a month, and corporate giving is about R5 billion a year.
The most interesting philanthropic projects often reflect the dynamism of entrepreneurs.
Liberty Life founder Donald Gordon rescued academic medicine by donating R120 million to the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre that provides specialist training not available at state hospitals.
Natie Kirsch started a seed fund called Inhlanyelo in Swaziland that financed 5500 successful small businesses. Standard Bank is now a 30% partner and is rolling out similar schemes in South Africa.
Innovative maths and science teaching projects are run by Mark Shuttleworth's foundation.
In a myriad of ways, creative and caring NGOs provide support that cannot be matched by bureaucratic government.
They are part of what new British Prime Minister David Cameron calls the "big society", a necessary intermediary between the individual and big government.
So much of what is broken in society, especially in families and communities, can only be repaired by local projects driven by inspired individuals.
Government can facilitate this by tax concessions to charitable foundations as occurs in America.
They will make far better use of this money for societal good than government could ever dream of doing.
Jack Bloom is a DA Member of the Gauteng Legislature. This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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