Presented during Tshikululu's first Serious Social Investing workshop, which took place on 25 and 26 February 2010. Sarah Morrison (client relationship manager, Tshikululu Social Investments) discusses strategy in corporate social investment.
2. Developing, reviewing or revising CSI strategy within the business Sarah Morrison Client relationship manager Anglo American Chairmanâs Fund Epoch and Optima Trusts
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11. Questions What is the current situation? What does success look like? How do you plot the course?
12. Activity Read the company case study and the sector overviews. Discuss and complete the draft strategic document, using the tools provided, if helpful.
Knowledge and mapping the environment Regulatory: increasing impact on Csi strategy, danger that it becomes a box ticking exercise, pleasing government rather than engaging gov in robust discussion - BEE scorecard, Industry Codes, social and labour plans, national, provincial and local government The business case: responsible corporate citizens, social license to operate, broader public reputation, relationship with government, community relations (bad press and litigation), employee preferences and attraction, consumer relations, strengthening skills base in the industry/ country Your own businessâs experience: what have you learnt/ learning ? Documenting it? Its evolution and unique history. What are your companyâs values â alignment, eg CF Your communities: national or localised approach â cluster approach can be effective CSI sector â key trends (see below) and other corporates Education: use CF as an example Health: Social Development:
Look at proâs and conâs of each CSI budgets: increasing even in recession (Trialogue); still small compared to gov spend, overlap, disparate etc Professionalisation of CSI: in house or out sourced, out source components, structures, principles and processes around giving away corporate resources, increased dialogue within the sector, external reporting pressures, away from Chairmanâs discretion for good causes; straddling between old fashioned philanthropy and social investment â confusion and unclear objectives Programmatic CSI: selecting focus areas upfront and proactively setting up programmes with objectives â move away from reactive grant- making Adv: measuring outcomes, focus on key areas of need, vs OâDowd: â â Systemic impact: leveraging, system strengthening â CDE report â level of funding, accessing government funds and international donor funding vs âcrowding out governmentâ focus away from NGO and civil society towards only looking at government objectives Partnerships and collaboration: increased dialogue â CDE, NBI, Bridge (Dinokeng scenarios), Unicef; sheep mentality, time consuming, slow process Sustainability; looking at an exit strategy/ transfer strategy upfront; welfare and projects that require ongoing dependency lose out Poverty alleviation: opportunity to take an integrated approach â development stages from welfare through to job creation. key government objective but what does it actually mean, projects ill conceived, over emphasis on entrepreneur development, link in with ED, social enterprise, entrepeneurial dev Government and civil society: increasing attempts to work with gov but still difficult, politics Monitoring and evaluation: tell what your money is doing but pressure on NGOâs, practmatic (measuing the cow doesnât fatten it)
Knowing your mission and vision: alignment with values, buy in from leadership within the business â what does success look like? Position within the business and resources: strategic decision re where Csi is situated in corporate structure (public affairs/ stand alone unit/ foundation or independent trust, line function in operations), selling the business case to executive, balancing regulatory and branding needs with ethics and independence of decision-making, linking in to other social development initiatives within business (volunteering, environmental divisions, public affairs, leagl and complaince, communications â internal and external, HR etc. Find opportunities to present your case and educate your executive, find an executive champion(s) The budget: level of funding, how to fund, reserves, multi year funding Where and how CSI funds are allocating: (trialogue) Focus areas: natural outcome of your business or wider social development objectivces? objectives and outcomes: selecting focus areas and sub sectors within that â eg CF Routes to delivery: questions of routes to allocate funding â teacher development â Uniâs, NGOâs, bursaries, school outreach, school led Partners and stakeholders Stakeholder analysis partners: government, co-funders, NGOâs and community, thinkers. NGOâs as partners not just delivery agents â CSI principles
Raise awareness through volunteerism and simple communication (CEO involvement) Fund/ conduct research Build alliances, partnerships Take a ârisk capitalâ approach to projects Business Foundations: select schools that are important and aligned to business, âprogrammes are a natural outcome of our businessâ eg Exxon Mobil â needs engineers, chosen to focus on maths and science education â quality issues ânear crisisâ, US spending: 550 BILLION dollars per annum on education (gov and private spending is 5 billion dollars Foundationsâ approach: Define the problem What outcomes are expected â focus âbuilding 21 st skillsâ, creating more engineers etc Allocate resources (focus and scale) Validate programmes â be able to demonstrate the programme works by documenting based programmes on research and data, specific objectives regarding maths and science teachers Bring best practice in management to education sector Microsoft: CSI as a âbusiness propositionâ addressing the digital divide â growth of markets, changing landscape of technology Promotes ICT as a development enabler- MDG (access to quality education through tech) Software development (in maths) and pricing progs Research (pedagogy and technology) Innovation Centres, IT Academies Partners in Learning programme â training teachers, online teacher network Big on partnerships (UNESCO, WEF, gov)
Execution Business champions Documenting Communicating: To whom? Who are your stakeholders (internal and external). Message focused on objectives and lessons (rather than your companyâs role). Raise awareness of issues through volunteerism and simple communication (CEO involvement) Capacity building Sustaining Partnering: build alliances Raise awareness through volunteerism and simple communication (CEO involvement) Fund/ conduct research Build alliances, partnerships Take a ârisk capitalâ approach to projects