For corporate social investment (CSI) to be truly strategic, it should have a positive developmental impact while also benefitting the business. Since 2014, the Trialogue Strategic CSI Award has recognised projects that exemplify strategic CSI. Through this award, Trialogue aims to encourage CSI practitioners to think more strategically when planning and implementing their initiatives.
Trialogue’s strategic CSI masterclass
Trialogue offers a Strategic CSI Masterclass at the Trialogue Academy for senior leaders and decision-makers working in CSI. The Masterclass equips you with tools to think strategically about CSI in your organisation and to make choices that optimise the business and development value of your CSI initiatives. The Masterclass is also offered in-person each year the day before the Trialogue Business in Society Conference.
Trialogue’s CSI positioning matrix
Drawing on years of experience, Trialogue has developed and refined a CSI positioning matrix with multiple criteria behind each axis. This enables companies to position their projects according to their social and business results and to allocate CSI funds strategically across the four categories of giving. This award seeks to identify projects that best demonstrate strategic CSI.
Strategic CSI projects deliver a combination of high positive social and business outcomes. While developmental CSI offers beneficial social outcomes, it does not always have significant corporate benefits. In contrast, commercial grantmaking prioritises corporate benefit over social return. Charitable grantmaking is typically more reactive, with social and business benefits seldom measured.
Judging criteria
Companies submit entries for CSI projects they consider strategic, using a standard entry form. Each project is judged against its objectives, social benefits and corporate benefits, as set out below.
Objectives
Targets need to be practical and realistic. Projects must have ‘SMART’ (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objectives.
Social benefits
Visible outputs: Evidence of short-term results that are immediate, visible and concrete (for example, the number of houses built, people trained, supplies or pamphlets distributed, community members treated, or hours of service delivered).
Beneficial outcomes: Evidence of specific changes in behaviour, knowledge, skills, or wellbeing of the project beneficiaries. These are medium-term developmental results that follow from achieving a specified combination of short-term outputs (for example, behaviour or attitude change, new knowledge or skills, improved grades, reduced isolation, or improved access to health services).
Beneficial impact: Evidence of broader long-term (three years or more) consequences of the project. These include community, society, or system-level changes that are the logical consequences of a series of short- and medium-term results (for example, improved effectiveness of the education system, reduction in HIV prevalence, new social norms, a more educated or healthier population, inclusive decision-making, lack of stigma, or increased capacity). Government engagement, lesson sharing and advocacy are also considered when judging this element.
Business benefits
Recognition of contribution: Recognition of the project that improves the company’s reputation. This can include recognition of expenditure as socioeconomic development spend in line with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Scorecard, as well as internal and external communication of the project.
Stakeholder benefit: Meaningful engagement with key business stakeholder groups in the funding, design, or delivery of the project that improves the company’s relationship with that stakeholder group. Stakeholders can include communities, regulators, government departments, suppliers, customers, or employees.
Competitive benefit: Project benefits that enhance the business’s competitiveness. This can be achieved by securing a licence to operate, opening up new markets for the business, introducing new products, reducing costs by developing local suppliers, leveraging corporate resources, or securing specialised talent.
About the judges
Gugu Mclaren-Ushewokunze is the Head of Economic Inclusion at the National Business Initiative (NBI). She is responsible for developing and implementing the NBI’s strategy to deliver programmes that empower South African youth through skills development, youth employability and SME support. Gugu has more than 15 years of experience in social and sustainable development, having worked across sectors, with the bulk of her career spent in the corporate sector, driving the development and implementation of sustainable development strategies. She holds an MSocSc in Gender and Development from the University of Cape Town.
Jacob Mwathi Mati is Deputy Director of the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) and Associate Professor of philanthropy and social investment at Wits Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand. He also serves as Director for CAPSI’s academic programmes. Jacob has more than two decades of experience in academia, civil society and consulting across Africa, Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. He has published extensively on civil society, philanthropy, volunteering and their intersection with governance and development. He has consulted for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Management Services International (MSI), the International Forum for Volunteering in Development and the International Association for Volunteer Effort, among other organisations.
Sanlam’s Youth4Tourism initiative
Sanlam is a leading financial services group with a legacy spanning more than a century and a presence in 31 countries. Guided by its purpose – to empower generations to be financially confident, secure and prosperous – Sanlam continues to shape futures across Africa and beyond.
Sanlam recognises that tourism is one of the key sectors in the South African economy where young people are uniquely equipped to participate. As a vital contributor to the national economy, tourism is slowly recovering after the Covid-19 pandemic – and our youth can help drive this recovery. With this in mind, Sanlam became the founding partner of the Youth4Tourism initiative, launched in collaboration with the Youth Employment Service (YES) in 2023.
Youth4Tourism is a catalytic initiative aimed at revitalising and expanding the tourism sector, which was expected to support a record 1.9 million jobs in 2025. On the continent, tourism is a growth sector, expected to create more than 18 million new jobs by 2035, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Annual growth rates of up to 6.5% are expected across Africa if supportive policies are adopted. Youth4Tourism brings together a diverse network of partners – public, private and community-based – to unlock opportunities for young people and enhance the visibility and viability of tourism across the country.
YES and Sanlam provide strategic leadership, funding and programme design, while corporate partners like Mercedes Benz SA, Hollard, Pizza Hut, Fairtree, Sun International, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and others help to fund youth jobs and sponsor training opportunities. Their contributions enable the placement of young people in tourism and related roles, from chefs and tour guides to concierges and content creators. Implementing partners – which include Conservation South Africa, RLabs, the Youth Content Collective (YCC) and Africa Foundation – deliver training and help manage on-the-ground placements.
During Phase One of the initiative, which ran from June 2023 to July 2024, Youth4Tourism aimed to place 1 000 young people with strategic partners, as well as launch incubation and mentorship programmes in collaboration with industry partners. The strategy involved equipping young people with the relevant certification and skills to participate in the gig economy while fostering the development of micro-enterprises within the tourism value chain.
Social benefits – internships and scalable job creation
The programme has delivered visible results. In Phase One, 1 040 young people were trained and placed in internships with strategic partners. Immediate benefits included the promotion of tourism, skills development and training. A Sanlam gig fund supported 450 gig opportunities for youth, with a value of R2.1 million.
In Phase Two, the initiative expanded to support 60 small and medium-sized enterprises. Youth entrepreneurship was boosted through incubation and mentorship programmes launched in collaboration with industry partners, and access was provided to funding and market links for youth-led tourism businesses. Not only did this aid the recovery of South Africa’s tourism sector, but a framework was also put in place to track impact and inform scalable youth job creation in the future.
The programme led to 30 confirmed job placements with international and high-profile tourism bodies, including the Italian, Spanish, Swiss and UK Chambers of Commerce and the Indian Consulate, and contributed more than R60 million to the tourism sector – the cumulative value of salaries, gig earnings and SMME support.
Sanlam and its partners have demonstrated how strategic partnerships can unlock opportunities and deliver measurable impact, thereby building a more inclusive, sustainable economy and enhancing the South African tourism brand.
At the heart of the initiative is a commitment to uplift marginalised communities. Beyond the upliftment of the 1 040 interns in Phase One, the initiative has also become a blueprint for inclusive development, inspiring replication across sectors.
Business benefits – brand building and business agility
The social benefits of the programme are clear and demonstrable; moreover, the initiative is having a beneficial impact on Sanlam’s reputation, brand, innovation and agility. For internal communications, the total advertising value equivalent (AVE) of the Youth4Tourism programme was over R780 000 in 2024, with an article clip count of 33. External communications translated into 136 123 views of the programme’s website landing page. The total public relations AVE was R2.6 million.
The programme stimulated meaningful engagement with key business stakeholder groups, including Sanlam’s internal clusters, corporate partners such as Mercedes-Benz SA, Hollard, Pizza Hut, Fairtree, Ford, Sun International, and the TBCSA, as well as implementation partners like Conservation South Africa, RLabs, the YCC, and Africa Foundation.
Government recognition, notably from the Deputy President’s office, further strengthened Sanlam’s positioning as a strategic partner in national development. This collaboration enhanced transformation objectives, deepened relationships across regulators, suppliers and industry peers, and fostered a more inclusive, connected business ecosystem.
At the Youth4Business stage, which built on Youth4Tourism, Sanlam successfully onboarded young entrepreneurs supported by the programme onto its supplier database. This not only opened the doors for future business engagements but also catalysed supplier diversity for the business. It also helped Sanlam’s internal teams find new suppliers and opportunities that met their needs, sparking collaboration across the business.
This stage of the programme also directly supports the B-BBEE scorecard, improving Sanlam’s standing with regulators and stakeholders. In addition, recognition from the Deputy President’s office positions Sanlam as a strategic partner in national development, potentially influencing policy and public-private collaboration. The programme has enhanced the business’s competitiveness in several ways, including by building brand equity as a purpose-driven organisation and improving its employer brand by demonstrating a commitment to youth empowerment.
Judges’ feedback
“We looked for projects that have clearly thought through and articulated theories of change with clear measurements and data. Sanlam’s Youth4Tourism initiative, which aims to revitalise and expand South Africa’s tourism sector by leveraging youth employment, entrepreneurship and national collaboration was picked as the winner in 2025. The initiative has several key measurable objectives, including the creation of more than 1 000 employment opportunities for young people. The entry demonstrated the strategic relevance and impact of the initiative through building a skilled talent pipeline for the sector and diversifying Sanlam’s supply chain.”
Programme in numbers
| 1 040 Youth trained and placed in internships |
| 450 Gig opportunities created |
| 373 Gigs taken up and completed, with a value of more than R2m |
| 60 Small businesses supported, with average annual revenue of over R317 000 |
| R40m Total company expenditure on the project to date |
| R75m Total project expenditure in 2024–25 |
Commendable mentions
ABSA x YAEI Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme
The Absa X YAEI Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme focuses on youth entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital readiness and township economies across all nine provinces. Implemented in partnership with the Young African Entrepreneurs Institute, it targets youth aged 15 to 35 who are interested in entrepreneurship, enrolled at public universities or Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges, recent graduates, or those engaged in early-stage business ideation or development.
With a cumulative R4.5 million investment by Absa, 2 304 aspiring entrepreneurs were supported in the 2024 programme cycle, with a total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate of about 55% (1 277) and a new business ownership rate of about 37% (842). Funding opportunities were provided to 300 young entrepreneurs, with 33 successfully securing funding.
Judges said:
“A great submission that largely outlines the objectives of the project clearly, and impressively provides substantial measurement of impact and a very clear link to the organisational strategy and business model.”
AECI’s Level Up programme with Siyabonga Africa
AECI and Siyabonga Africa’s Level Up Programme is a multiyear strategic CSI initiative that started by supporting grassroots social enterprises such as community bakeries, food gardens, poultry projects and upcycling ventures to create jobs for unemployed youth and women, provide affordable food and stimulate economic activity.
The second phase focuses on enhancing enterprise sustainability, expanding market access and introducing environmental innovations such as delivery bicycles and rainwater-harvesting systems. The programme’s impact includes the establishment and support of 10 social enterprises, including bakeries, food gardens, a poultry project and a sewing business; the creation of more than 130 work opportunities, including full-time, part-time and learnership placements; ongoing support of 1 400 vulnerable individuals in high-need communities each month; and the establishment of more than 100 home food gardens. The programme demonstrates that through tools, training and support, social enterprises can drive transformation in vulnerable South African communities.
Judges said:
“A great submission with a clear theory of change, measurement and articulation of impact. The objectives are clear but would benefit from time-boundedness. The outputs are clear and quantifiable.”
