Reg Rumney
The acronym of the new body representing the philanthropic=20 companies who give money=20 to deserving causes, Saga, seems apt. The South African=20 Grantmakers’ Association was launched this week, with 33=20 paid-up members, after a four-year gestation.
Saga aims to bring some professionalism to grant-making and=20 give legitimacy to corporate social investment (CSI).=20
This, in turn, as Gauteng Finance Committee chairman Leon=20 Cohen pointed out in a speech made at the launch this week,=20 has a critical role to play in preparing a platform in=20 South Africa for sustained high growth, providing resources=20 to a wide range of communities and organisations.
On a practical level, the three relatively unambitious=20 projects Saga has embarked on are:
* A training programme for CSI professionals. This will=20 probably start this year at the University of the=20
* The compilation of a comprehensive grantmakers’=20
* A national newsletter.
Among the luminaries at the launch was Judith O’Connor of=20 the United States Council on=20 Foundations, the US equivalent of Saga.
The chairperson of the new association is Eunice Sibiya of=20 Coca Cola South Africa, and Hugh Maclean of the Liberty=20 Life Foundation is the vice-chair.
While it can list among its members some of the firms=20 foremost in social investment in the country, the formation=20 of Saga has not been received with unanimous acclaim.
Conspicuous by its absence from the list of founder members=20 is Anglo American and De Beers’ Chairman’s Fund, whose=20 director Michael O’Dowd criticised Saga last year as being=20 “taxation without representation”.=20
He objected to Saga giving one vote on new policies to=20 every member, regardless of the size of the grantmaker’s=20 social investment budget.
Anglo-owned Johannesburg Consolidated Investments, another=20 leading light in social investment,=20
is also not a member. And, although Kagiso Trust is listed=20 as a member, the association has not yet attracted any=20 black-owned companies as such.
As the founders of Saga stress, it is not a cartel able to=20 sink or support individual projects, but a body whose aim=20 is to deepen understanding of the ethics of grantmaking,=20 discuss general policy guidelines for funding and sharpen=20 its members’ appreciation of how social investment can best=20 be used.