Collective Csi Figures By South African Companies In 2017

Corporate social investment (CSI) in South Africa has been developing and evolving at a steady pace. While companies in the past didn’t really focus on CSI initiatives, more companies are beginning to recognise the merits of such programmes. There has been much debate going on around whether companies are actually dedicated to CSI because they really care about their impact on society and the environment, or whether it’s just about scoring BEE points. In South Africa, the Black Economic Empowerment score card requires companies to spend 1% of net profit after tax on CSI.

What is certain is that there is a lot more for companies to learn about CSI. Research into collective CSI figures by South African companies is quite scant, but the information that is available offers quite a bit of insight into the current situation and how it could be improved. Collective CSI expenditure by South African companies in 2017 is estimated to be R9 billion. This figure is quite encouraging, as it indicates a shift in corporate spending patterns when it comes to CSI. Since the early 1990s, most CSI efforts have been targeted at education. Not much has changed since then, followed by community development – 15% and health- 12%. Businesses are supporting smaller numbers of projects. In the beginning, companies would spend on hundreds of projects, but with more information now available about CSI strategies and how to make them work for companies, projects have become more targeted. In the earlier years, transparency was rare and not many companies had dedicated CSI management teams.

Companies are now more strategic. CSI figures by South African companies indicate that more companies are focusing on non-cash giving. This type of giving increased from 6% of total CSI in 2011 to 10% in 2017. CSI contributions by province: Gauteng – 20% Western Cape – 10% KwaZulu-Natal- 6% 8% of companies say they measure the impact of their CSI. There has also been an increased focus on data-driven solutions, which is encouraging – meaning that companies are actually measuring the impact of their CSI, which makes it easier to see what’s going right and what hasn’t been. This enables better CSI initiatives, with better results for communities and the environment.