Corporate social
investment (CSI)
and Grantmaking
Saving South Africa’s Social Sector
There’s an increasing sense of concern, disconnect, desperation and even hopelessness among the stakeholders that make up South Africa’s humanitarian sector – and with good reason. The sector is facing numerous challenges that not only...
Funder collaborations – approach with caution
Whether we choose to label the state of the world as a global polycrisis (focusing on multiple crises) or a permacrisis (focusing on the long-lasting impact of crises) is to some extent a matter of semantics. The reality is that we are...
A new future vision for the humanitarian ecosystem
Global polycrisis requires transformative philanthropy Hardly a day goes by that we don’t read or hear about an existing or new crisis, catastrophe or calamity, critical challenges or being at a crossroads. All these c-words also have ...
Transformative Philanthropy required to deal with a global polycrices
A struggling humanitarian sector amidst a global polycrisis: What lies ahead? The world is facing a global polycrisis of multiple, intersecting emergencies and disasters that require humanitarian intervention. We can no longer focus on s...
2023 Trends and Insights for the Humanitarian Sector
Insight: A Polycrises: A sector outpaced by global challenges, which are growing faster than we are applying solutions. Even where governments and business are starting to step up and do more, the nature of these challenges, which are...
7 lessons learnt during the pandemic?
Every year Next Genration publishes a research report for the grantmaking, social investment, humanitarian, philanthropy and development sector focusing on trends That is, until 2020 happened!2021 was a year of reflection – and here is...
Impact driven social investment
Grantmakers, donors, philanthropists and corporate social investors can choose among a multitude of ways to apply their philanthropic resources. Some donors derive great satisfaction from supporting a few nonprofit organizations that add...
TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: Philanthropy and grantmaking 2030
No one can argue that 2020 and 2021 have been difficult years. Even more so for those of us that work in the humanitarian ecosystem. Not only did we have to abandon well-crafted long-term strategies to respond to the human crises resul...
10 Things Corporate Grantmakers, Social Investors And Philanthropists Can Do In Response To COVID-19
As governments, businesses, and individuals scramble to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Corporate Grantmakers and those of us who work in the social sector rightly ask what we can do to effectively contribute....
Reimagining A Future For Corporate Social Investment
We are entering a new world order and future blockbusters and documentaries about the past will probably refer to the eras before coronavirus (BC) and after coronavirus (AC). Whatever your worldview, it is now clear from the world’s coll...
2020 CSI Trends, Forecasts and Impacts – Presentation
The new year always brings new hope, and trend forecasters are quick to join the cause to predict positive future scenarios. However, our research indicated that the social investment and development sector remains in turmoil....
Blended Finance
Innovative and blended finance as a route to greater social impact and sustainabilityThere are three ways in which private resources can be harnessed for meeting societal needs: Through charitable giving and philanthropy Through corporat...
2020 CSI Trends, Forecasts and Impacts – Research Report
This year, Next Generation’s annual research report is seeing the light quite late in the year. With good reason. The new year always brings new hope, and trend forecasters are quick to join the cause to predict positive future...
Are You Ready for the Money? Capital Generation Options
Because I’ve been working in the social investment and development sector for more than 20 years, sometimes it feels like I’ve seen everything. Yet, whilst I get impatient with the time it takes to see meaningful change occur, I’m ...
The good, the bad and the ugly of pitching for funding
A new trend is sweeping the globe, the advent of the challenge fund which invites social entrepreneurs who are pitching for funding in a competition space. From Barloworld’s Mbewu programme which will see R30 million awarded to social ...
Rethinking the funding of NGOs
The Next Generation Research Report 2020, Disruption with Impact dived deep into how the development sector, and how the funding of NGOs, is changing. Some of the most significant pressures that organisations face is the demand to become...
Aligning philanthropy and social development with Sustainable Development Goals
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations in 2015 has resulted in a seismic shift in the social development and humanitarian sectors. The 17 SDGs offer a blueprint that aims to align economic, social and env...
Fighting for survival – an uncertain future for the humanitarian sector
The humanitarian sector is grappling with an uncertain future. Not only is there less money to go around, the sector is becoming more crowded and competitive and funders are looking for greater innovation with new models and ways of thin...
Towards 2030: Redesigning the future of humanitarian sector
Increased complexityThere is no doubt as the world changes, so we will have to reimagine the way philanthropy, grantmaking and corporate social investment is conducted. An intimidating range of forces—globalization, a changing ecosyste...
Theory of change – a critical tool for development professionals
The theory of change concept was originally developed to model and evaluate complex change initiatives, so it is closely related to systems change.The Aspen Roundtable on Community Change – which pioneered theory of change in the 1990s...
2020: A New Dawn for the corporate social investment and development sector
Challenging TimesThe continuing economic crises have forced corporate social investors, grant-makers, donors and philanthropists to reconsider their contributions to society and social purpose organisations as well as their investment an...
Executive Summary: Grantmaking & Social Innovation
Grantmaking: Executive Summary of research report 2017/2018: Reflections and insights from Africa regarding the social investment and development sectors....
NGOs – the big losers in the current social investment sphere
Social and developmental enterprises like NGOs are increasingly struggling to get funding for their projects and programmes – and with good reason. While everything else in the world – also in the social investment arena – is chang...
Africa starts shaping its own future – and the world is noticing
We’ve had news to this effect from various fronts, but we now have good reason to believe that 2018 – and beyond – will be Africa’s time. Globally, the disruptions, challenges and tensions of the past few years will continue, but...
In social investment, it’s now about hard evidence and measured impact (2018 CSI trends media release)
2 April 2018 Social and impact investors no longer just want to know that they’ve attempted to change the world for the better. They want to know if their investment meant something. They want detailed evidence that their investment le...
Social sector needs to up its game to keep receiving financial support (2018 CSI trends media release)
12 April 2018 Today’s philanthropists, grantmakers, social and impact investors want more control over their giving and they want evidence of the scale and sustainability of the impact they make. They demand greater transparency and ac...
Social investors now want to see impact, sustainability – and ROI (2018 CSI trends media release)
12 April 2018 Investing in social and developmental causes has become increasingly innovative lately, moving away from one-directional donations and suchlike. Social investors now use a mix of finance models to put their money where it h...
Dominant grantmaking trends in 2017: Assessing the year so far
Like any business or personal relationship, successful grantmaking is essentially about savvy expectation management. Whether it be the expectations of policymakers and strategists, social investors, donors and funders, beneficiaries, vo...
2014/2015 Trends in corporate social investment and development
Introduction and backgroundOver the past 10 years, Next Generation has analysed, reviewed, tracked and commented on the trends in the corporate community and social investment and development sector across Africa and South Africa. Over...
The future of CSI – moving from ‘lite’ to ‘deep’
he following research findings focus on the future of corporate social investment (CSI) and include social change, governance and accountability, innovation and standardisation of CSI. This research was undertaken with a view to consider...
The perceptions of funders and grantmakers: Do you care?
Funders/donors and grantmakers are well-known for their ability to critically evaluate development organisations and intermediaries. This due diligence forms an important part of the funding cycle. The main reasons for conducting the...
Managing risk: Community and social investment and development
Spending money is easy. Spending limited resources effectively and efficiently is extraordinarily difficult. Doing so in ways that please everyone is impossible as long as demand for money exceeds supply. Grantmakers are subject to a r...
Grantmaking – getting it right: indicators to measure success
Generally, grantmakers pay considerable attention to what they fund (grantmaking strategy and impact) and who they fund (the grantees, organisations and intermediaries they support). But what about the management practice of funding? In ...
Failing at grantmaking?
Failing at grantmaking? Low impact and low return: Funders and grantmakers should be concernedAfter conducting numerous impact assessments for some of South Africa’s largest donors and grantmakers, Next Generation Consultants came up w...
Measuring the social impact & ROI of CSI
Social and community investment and development programmes have become critically important for companies worldwide. As a result of the increasing demand for robust corporate governance and an illustration of the “licence to operate”, gr...
Best practice in corporate social investment (CSI)
A well thought through, comprehensive, innovative and creative CSI programme can become a competitive differentiator for a company. A good CSI programme is no longer a nice-to-have, but rather a critical component of business success. ...
Best practice in measuring social impact and return on investment of CSI
In the social development field, one of the most cited questions from investors and participatory stakeholders regarding social/community development and investment projects is: “How will you measure your social impact/outcome/change...