Exploring corporate social responsibilty initiatives in Western Cape: the case of Sanlam Foundation

• Main Author: Rao, Shubhra
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Social responsibility of business > South Africa
• Online Access: Rao, Shubhra (2016) Exploring corporate social responsibilty initiatives in Western Cape: the case of Sanlam Foundation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20723>; http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20723

A research report presented to The Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Social Development March, 2016 === Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is now moving beyond being peripheral to business to becoming an integral part of it. Although there is a sizeable amount of literature on CSR, there is still no standard and agreed definition of CSR. The way CSR must be implemented and evaluated also remains a topic of debate. This gap is problematic as increasingly governments are involving corporations to address the inequalities that exist in society. At the same time several studies suggest that organizations struggle to have robust and effective CSR practices within their organizations. In South Africa, several legislations have been put in place to indirectly involve the private sector to address the inequalities arising out of the Apartheid and the BBBEE Act of 2003 has been instrumental in shaping the developmental path of post-apartheid South Africa, thus making implementation and reporting of CSI initiatives more important than ever before. The study sought to explore the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of the Sanlam Foundation in the Western Cape, South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative case study design and the study population consisted of officials drawn from Sanlam Foundation and its implementing organizations. Participants were drawn from Sanlam Foundation’s implementing partners and key informants who are senior officials of the Sanlam Foundation also participated in the study. A sample of eight participants and two key informants and were drawn using purposive sampling. Semi structured interview schedules were used to collect data using face to face interviews with both participants and key informants. The findings revealed that monitoring, evaluation and reporting of CSR initiatives remain the biggest challenge in implementing of CSR initiatives. The findings also establish that there remains a gap in the NGOs’ and funder’s understanding of the reporting content. Measuring and expressing qualitative impact is a challenge for NGOs. The report recommends that both funders and partners must understand the implications of monitoring and evaluation of programmes. It also emphasizes the need to have simplified discussions with partners at inception to understand their views and develop project specific reporting templates that justify project specific impact. It is anticipated that the research findings will enable Sanlam Foundation and other companies to strengthen their CSR activities.