Two professionals working in corporate social investments are clear about what it takes to make it effective. Jackie Mondi spoke to them
You have to have the CEO or company chairperson committed to Corporate Social Investments (CSI) for it to be effective, say Lulu Letlape of Telkom Foundation and Mercia Maserumule of Murray & Roberts.
Letlape believes CSI must be in the office of top-level company leadership “because the distance away from the decision-making powers, strategically not just functionally determines the success of your projects and the level of involvement by staff”. This, she says, is a strategy that has to be kept in mind every step of the way. “I need to understand where my company is going.”
At Murray & Roberts CSI is seen as a critical aspect of the business, says Maserumule. It took a while to get there. “It takes a lot of hard work to get your board to a level where they appreciate the value of CSI in terms of its benefits to business operations, and performance.” It is only at this level, she says, that the board would give CSI the respect and authority it deserves. “I won’t claim that Murray & Roberts is exactly there but we are definitely on the right track.”
The board of Murray & Roberts decided to create a dedicated CSI department because they wanted to make it a priority within the company.
“I believe that CSI is separate. It is not really corporate communication or corporate affairs. It is not human resources. Therefore I believe that it is a stand-alone aspect of any business operation. It should therefore be part of your business plan and your business strategy,” says Maserumule.
Letlape says CSI is good for business. “We do get value for the company. We create a positive image and position the company in the minds of the people.” It is therefore crucial to target your projects to match the company strategy, she says, reinforcing her argument that CSI needs to be located right at the top and be integrated into the corporate strategy. “If you are very far away from the strategy, or even the strategy-making process, then obviously your CSI initiatives are going to be far away as well.”
Telkom is associated with telecommunications: telephones and computers. So are many of their CSI projects. In education, for example, Telkom provides Internet access to schools. Childcare projects include supporting a national toll-free Childline for children in need.
Letlape’s CEO has just called to tell her he has been to a function in Nquthu, KwaZulu-Natal, and noticed that two schools in the area had telephones but no computers. “He immediately knew that I had a budget somewhere to give these schools computers,” she explains.
Getting all employees on board with community projects helps to boost the status of CSI in the company. Murray & Roberts has created opportunities for all staff to be involved. They have “CSI champions” in the regions.
“The champions are individuals within the company, from executive level to the shop floor, who are willing to champion projects within the regions,” explains Maserumule. They do the groundwork by looking at potential projects to fund, making an assessment (in line with the company’s guidelines and strategies) and presenting a recommendation.
If the champions are in junior positions, they have to get buy-in from their senior managers, who will not support a project they know will be linked to the company’s name and not succeed, she says.
Increasing the status of CSI among senior management was helped along by Telkom Foundation’s Adopt-a-Project programme. Telkom’s senior management spearheads the projects and, according to Letlape, this is one of their key success factors.
The managers get a budget, allocated according to levels of seniority, and they have to identify a project to support. The involvement is not only monetary because the managers have to visit the project and make sure it is sustainable.
“Now we are finding that a lot of them are visiting projects, they are interested and they rave about social investment,” says Letlape. The bonus is that “they have become much more open-minded, they identify needs in communities and look out for development opportunities”.
Letlape and Maserumule say that for CSI to be effective, practitioners need to be experts in their field. Among other things, you have to be knowledgeable about your company, its strategies, products and trends both at home and internationally.
Maserumule pursued training to equip herself with the skills required for her area of work. This included fields such as communication, finance and community development. Her company has a budget for training personnel in its CSI division.
Letlape says CSI is an exciting field for which you need “lots of passion and patience”. It is also fulfilling. “Today I got an e-mail from a teacher from KwaZulu-Natal whom we had sent on an international conference on technology,” she says.
“He sent me the e-mail to prove that he is now using e-mail. And to tell us how much he had gained from the conference. Those are the things that make you go on, because you know that you make a difference.”
This article was published in the August edition of The Grantmaker a newsletter of the South African Grantmakers’ Association. This is the first of a series of articles the Mail & Guardian will run on corporate social investment as part of a build-up to its CSI special supplement Investing in the Future to be published on October 26