Majority of companies support CSI initiatives
According to research by corporate social investment (CSI) and sustainability consultancy Trialogue, 78% of South African corporates encourage employees to get involved in their communities. This year 103 companies completed the corporate questionnaire and 208 organisations answered the NPO survey.
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On average, corporate respondents spent 3% on employee volunteering and staff events, and a further 1% on employee matched funding in 2013. However, only 27% measured the cost of employee time spent volunteering. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents with employee volunteer programmes (EVP) recognise volunteers, most frequently through awards, internal publicity or employee competitions. In 2013, a small subset (14% of those corporates with EVP) incorporated volunteerism into employee performance reviews.
Morale boost
While company-organised volunteering initiatives were the most common form of employee involvement among corporates, with 87% of companies running such projects, NPO respondents were least enthusiastic about these types of programmes, particularly when done on an ad-hoc basis. Whereas companies enjoy the morale boost that volunteering days bring, NPOs can find these sporadic activities disruptive. Fundraising and collection drives, the second-most popular initiative with corporates (67%), were far better received by NPOs, with 46% of organisations saying this is the support they would most like to receive.
The full results of Trialogue's research have been published in the 16th edition of The CSI Handbook, available on www.trialogue.co.za. In the handbook, Trialogue reveals trends around funding flows, sector-level investment, development practice, monitoring and evaluation practice, and communicating and reporting on activities, among other key issues.
