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Corporate South Africa dedicated R11.8 billion to corporate social investment (CSI) in the 2023 financial year, just under a billion rand more than last year, as firms rose from the ashes of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to findings published by Trialogue in the latest edition of the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook, at least 59% of local firms surveyed reported increasing their spending on social initiatives compared to 36% in 2021.
In 2022, CSI spend was reported at R10.9 billion.
According to the research, firms are more likely to integrate sustainable development goals (SDGs) into their strategies than the goals of the South African National Development Plan (NDP).
“Companies aligned with 5.6 SDGs on average. CSI programmes aligned most closely to SDG 4 (quality education), with 84% of companies reporting alignment. Sixty-three percent of companies aligned with SDG 2 (zero hunger), up from 43% in 2020. Corporate support for SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing), SDG 9 (industry) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) decreased between 2020 and 2023,” Trialogue noted.
Education popular
The education sector continues to be popular for local firms, with 78% of firms reporting supporting initiatives in the sector, with average spend increasing to 48% this year from 44% in 2022.
Corporations also showed an appetite for social and community development initiatives, followed by food security and agriculture, receiving 13% and 9% of CSI spend during the year, respectively.
“South African companies, primarily driven by a moral imperative to influence positive social change, are increasingly positioning themselves to achieve systemic impact,” Trialogue director Cathy Duff said.
“Their CSI efforts are becoming more collaborative, and resources are being applied to research, networking and thought leadership in their development fields of interest.
“This is securing their voice on critical social issues and contributing to addressing the country’s social development challenges in the face of government budget cuts,” Duff added.
The health and social services sector was not as popular, with local firms only dedicating about 6% of CSI to it. Contributions to environmental initiatives were even lower, receiving just 3% of spending.
Non-profits
According to the research, non-profit organisations (NPOs) remained the most preferred CSI recipients, with 84% of firms directing an average of 63% of their spending to NPOs.
“After NPOs, schools, universities, hospitals, and other government institutions were the second most common funding channel, with 57% of corporates providing an average of 19% of expenditure towards them. Support of social enterprises increased from 17% of companies in 2022 to 28% in 2023, with social enterprises receiving an average of 5% of CSI expenditure.”
“Fifty-three percent of companies reported non-cash giving in the form of products or services or volunteering time, while 83% of NPOs received non-cash donations.”
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