Rethinking CSI to meet the collaboration imperative

The outcomes of that collaboration reflect a lesson that companies could do well to remember. Combined knowledge, skills and funding are more likely to create the critical mass and wider reach needed for any intervention. Collective effort is also an opportunity to optimise resources. In addition to a larger pool of funds to support bigger projects, joint efforts can prevent duplication of efforts and reduce wasteful spending, enabling the sharing of expertise, networks and infrastructure and reducing operational costs through shared administrative functions.

While companies are quick to note their willingness to engage in corporate social investment (CSI) collaboration and partnerships, the reality tells a different story. Complex, multistakeholder collaboratives may be on the rise in the philanthropic world, but they are still a rarity in the CSI arena.

The social issues that CSI aims to address are complex ones. Youth unemployment, educational inequality and food insecurity play out against a backdrop of a flailing local economy, the rapidly increasing effects of climate change and international conflict. These ‘wicked’ problems are part of the polycrisis that requires meaningful joint effort to resolve. If companies have any intention of moving the needle on our country’s most pressing social challenges, they need to embrace complex collaboration as part of their CSI strategy.

How do South African organisations collaborate?

Corporate responsibility advisory Trialogue’s latest research, published in the 2024 Trialogue Business in Society Handbook, reflects the limited nature of CSI collaboration. Where companies and nonprofit organisations (NPOs) do collaborate, their primary motivation is to leverage existing relationships. Companies are driven to collaboration by the need for greater reach, while NPOs are driven by knowledge exchange and access to funding.

Companies reported collaborating most commonly with NPOs and universities and research organisations, though fewer companies reported partnerships with these entities than in 2021. Some 36% of companies partner with other private sector or state-owned entities through jointly funding programmes.

Companies reported being most likely to share research and information with universities and other research organisations (27%) and industry associations (24%) though less so than in 2021. They collaborate the least with regional multilateral organisations, international aid agencies and international multilateral organisations.

Joint programme implementation is most often in collaboration with nonprofit organisations (72%) and community-led groups (41%), suggesting that CSI still tends to prefer basic partnership models where companies act as funders and NPOs serve as implementers rather than more complex collaborative models.

Stumbling blocks to CSI collaboration

The reluctance of many companies to engage in deep, multi-stakeholder collaboration is understandable. The corporate world is fundamentally built on competition, not cooperation. Companies are accustomed to guarding their brands and working towards short-term metrics that demonstrate their individual impact. Sharing the spotlight with other players, or diluting one's own brand recognition, can feel counterintuitive – even threatening.

There are also the financial and time realities associated with the coordination of multiple stakeholders to consider. The collaborative process itself presents the challenge of aligning different priorities, timelines and reporting requirement across multiple organisations and building trust amongst the parties. This requires long timeframes and adequate process and administrative resourcing to ensure the best chance of success. The nebulous nature of ‘collaboration’ also makes it harder for results-driven corporates that prioritise direct project funding over process funding.

The short-term performance pressures from stakeholders contribute to a reluctance to engage in CSI efforts that will take far longer than an annual corporate cycle to deliver results.

Collaborative efforts have more impact

CSI partnerships that have overcome these hurdles show just how much impact can be achieved through collaborative effort.

The Do More Foundation (DMF), an independent NPO established by South African food manufacturer RCL Foods, partners with like-minded public, private and nonprofit partners to pool resources, ideas and capabilities in the service of South Africa’s young children. Working from the premise that improving the circumstances of the 11.1 million children living below the poverty line is the key to building a thriving future generation, DMF has positioned itself as a 'backbone support organisation' to coordinate collaborative efforts to improve the situation.

The organisation supports its more-than 260-strong partner network to improve child and maternal health, nutrition and food security, early learning and stimulation, child safety and protection, infrastructure services and caregiver support, among needs.

Collaborative effort can take a multitude of forms, responding to the needs being addressed. Nonprofit organisation Jozi My Jozi coordinates a place-based collaboration that is revitalising the Johannesburg inner city. Where previous efforts have failed, Jozi My Jozis rallying of business, nonprofits and local government is inspiring widespread involvement that is spreading well beyond the bounds of the original project. The collaboration represents a proof of concept that could rolled out in the service of other initiatives and needs across the country.

Collaboration could be better for business

Complex social challenges require coordinated, collaborative responses that leverage diverse skills, resources and perspectives. If companies are serious about making meaningful change, they must be willing to shed competitive instincts and embrace the possibilities of multistakeholder collaboration. They must also be willing to invest both time and money in the process of collaboration itself. It is an evolution that requires clear-eyed reckoning with their own motivations and a more expansive, systems-level view of value creation. Such perspective represents an important step towards CSI that harnesses collective power to build a more prosperous, equitable future.

For more information on impactful collaboration in CSI, read the 2024 Trialogue Business in Society Handbook, which explores trends in responsible business and CSI, the role of business in sustaining democracy and models and examples of effective collaboration.

The Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2024 can be downloaded for free at  https://trialogue.co.za/businessinsocietyhandbook/.

Trialogue and its partners will be discussing the latest developments impacting the CSI sector at the Business in Society Conference in May. You can register and find about more on the programme, masterclasses and speakers on the conference page: https://trialogue.co.za/trialogue-business-in-society-conference-2025/.