PERSPECTIVE
Scaling up acts of
kindness to create sustainable social change by Luvuyo Madasa, Executive Director at ReimagineSA
I was recently part of a panel at FirstRand’s Beyond Painting Classrooms (BPC) event, where many South Africans who are passionate about corporate social investment (CSI) gathered to discuss ways to ensure that employee volunteering is sustainable and impactful. The fact that we are having these discussions is good news – it’s a welcome step on the road to a more effective and scalable approach to volunteering and CSI.
A
s the name of the event implies, it’s time for us to move beyond sending volunteers to paint classrooms at schools in poor areas for Mandela Day or dropping in at a crèche or retirement home to hand out Christmas gifts. While the beneficiaries usually appreciate these small acts of kindness, corporate volunteering is all too often something that happens to them – rather than in partnership with them. In reality, that often means armies of corporate volunteers arrive throughout the year to paint walls that were actually painted not so long ago. And in some instances, it means that there is no follow-through after the initial intervention on the part of the volunteers. Once that computer lab is equipped, who will provide the ongoing tech support? And was a computer lab what the school really needed in the first place? Harmonising efforts This is why we believe that volunteerism and other corporate interventions need to shift towards an approach that is less piecemeal and bottom-down – one that gives the beneficiary more of a voice, one that engages employees as active citizens, and one that takes a more strategic, long-term approach to making a difference.
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CeO 2020 Vol 20.1