“We want to change the lives of five million children so that they have a better future, education, and something more to look forward to in the morning.”

That is the goal of Mosaic SA, according to its president, Karen Baker. However, before the charity could begin to raise funds for orphans in South Africa, she wisely turned to RKL to learn how to operate a nonprofit and sustain its growth.

It was on her second mission trip to South Africa with Downingtown’s Hopewell United Methodist Church that Baker met Meyer and Louise Conradie. The couple had founded a charity called Mosaic to care for orphaned children through the creation of a sustainable community, where families would be given opportunities to better their circumstances through better housing, employment, education, and life skills.

After helping to build a house for one of those families, Baker returned to the U.S. motivated to continue her support of the organization.

“It’s really hard for me to go there and see children and families living the way they do,” said Baker. “I wanted to do something in the U.S. where we could raise money for those orphans, and that brought me to RKL because I needed to start a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but I had no clue what I was doing.”

As Senior Vice President at The Protection Bureau, an integrated security system specialist based in Exton, Baker knew RKL as her company’s assurance service provider. But Karen would soon discover that RKL, which recently opened a new office location in Exton, is so much more. A leading professional services firm, RKL helps businesses and organizations manage not only traditional tax and assurance requirements but also dynamic challenges like data analytics, performance improvement, risk mitigation, human capital management and cybersecurity.

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“They put me in touch with Ruthann Woll, who is RKL’s nonprofit tax specialist,” said Baker, “and she was just wonderful in answering questions and helping me set up the entire process. Being able to raise funds and know that our 501(c)(3) is set up properly and the reports are done right, that I owe to RKL.”

Baker’s relationship with RKL, therefore, parallels that of Mosaic SA.

“It will be 10 years next year for the charity, and since 2009, RKL has been walking us through the process,” she said. “When I started, I was looking for all that advice and they were there the entire time. Just being there when I call and say, ‘I have this idea, what do you think?’ I need that expertise.”

“It’s been a privilege to help Karen turn her philanthropic dreams into reality,” said Woll, Principal with RKL’s Tax Services Group. “At RKL, we take a collaborative and proactive approach to support Mosaic beyond routine compliance needs and lay a strong foundation for the organization’s continued success.”

As an acronym for Motivating Orphans in South Africa to Initiate Change, the word “mosaic” is appropriate for a charity that touches the lives of orphans and their families in so many ways.

“Mosaic is piecing together lives,” said Baker. “That’s what we do. We’ve got lots of little pieces because we don’t do one thing. We do everything that someone needs in their life that we take for granted. It’s not just providing a house. It’s not just providing a meal.”

Baker and her team learned that in communities like Ikageng (now called Mosaic Ikageng) and Mbkweni (now called Mosaic Paarl Valley), families take in orphans, even if those families live in shacks and have no jobs and no running water. In that culture, it is important for the children to be with a family. Her charity’s orphan-care model begins with identifying families with two or more orphans who are either in foster care or have been adopted.

Mosaic will build them a brick house with water, plumbing, and electricity, along with separate rooms for boys, girls, and parents. But the help doesn’t end there. The charity offers skills training and employment through two job-creation initiatives for parents to provide them with a sustainable source of income. Then, the family’s social needs are addressed, such as life-skills training for parents and supplemental educational activities for the children.

“Anything we do is going to improve the life of the orphan,” said Baker. “In our life-skills training, we have job-creation programs like a leather-making program and a food program, so part of it is to try and create business that the families can work with to help sustain the whole development. The idea is to be self-sufficient. A lot of these people have never had a job, and now they’re able to do more.”

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Knowing that some South African schools were recently ranked third from the bottom of all Third World countries, Mosaic offered after-school programs where children have a safe environment to receive help with English and other subjects.

“It’s important to get the families into the life-skills training, and the kids into the after-school training,” said Baker, “and to try and get them jobs, help them grow and change how they see things, so they can be a long-time successful member of the community.”

Plans are in place to replicate the Mosaic model in other locations throughout South Africa.

“We’ve started three communities now. Our goal is to take care of all five million children,” said Baker. “But we can’t do it just by ourselves.”

Baker is not only speaking of volunteers and donors who give their support to help her charity, but to the initial and continued support of the team at RKL.

“I can ask you for a donation, I can tell you the stories, I can pull on your heartstrings and have you get your wallet out,” she said, “but what I want is to make sure that, when I’m doing that, I am doing it legally, ethically and following all the regulations that the IRS requires. That’s all RKL. They are always there. They are my lifeline.”

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