Corporate Interest
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Achieving community investment with corporate returns
7 September 2011
Corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives can do much to build a company’s resilience and reputation and to generate sustainable improvements for South African communities. So why do many still struggle to gain internal corporate recognition and demonstrate lasting impacts? Louise Gardiner, international corporate sustainability expert and founder of First Principles Sustainability Services suggests four reasons and four strategies to address them.
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" alt="Seek social returns on enterprise development investments" />
Seek social returns on enterprise development investments
29 August 2011
The focus on enterprise development (ED) is given impetus by the fact that companies can earn points on their BBBEE scorecard by supporting such initiatives. But, says Jane Woodhouse, Business Development Manager at Tshikululu Social Investments, becoming involved in ED for the right reasons is more important than the pure financial contribution. -
NGOs need help in halting increase in fraud
26 August 2011
Have you noticed an increase in reports of nongovernmental organisation (NGO) fraud? Tshikululu’s CEO, Tracey Henry has, and doesn’t believe this means investors should run scared.
This article was first published by Business Day.
Our grant-making oversight has picked up as many cases (some not yet proven) this year as in the previous 12 years combined. And all around us we hear more stories of misrepresentation of accounts, or hidden extra payments to staff, or even outright theft. This is happening in a development sector under severe financial stress and holds lessons for private-sector funders of “good works”.
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" alt="Creating jobs in South Africa by learning from America" />
Creating jobs in South Africa by learning from America
3 August 2011
If we are to overcome the unemployment crisis, we will have to move intelligently and together; business and government working proactively and creatively.
Written by Yvonne Pennington, CSI practitioner at Tshikululu Social Investments.
In an article which appeared in Time magazine on 30 May 2011, the journalist Fareed Zakaria welcomed an end to the financial crisis, but introduced an important caveat: in the United States, the rebound has come at the expense of jobs. Though the U.S. gross domestic product has returned to where it was in 2007, it has reached this point with seven million fewer workers.
South Africa is facing an employment crisis too. A quarter of South Africans were reported as unemployed in the first quarter of 2011; a figure which does not include those who are not working but who are actively seeking work. This places us 174th out of 200 countries ranked in the CIA World Factbook. President Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation address in February this year, recognised the crisis, declaring 2011 a year of job creation.
