Telkom: Trust Benchmarking

Date of work: 2024

“I was very impressed with the work we got back from Trialogue, considering they had a very short time to deliver the benchmarking exercise. The results gave us comfort that what we are doing is in line with market and have also sparked conversations in management about evolving as a foundation.”

Judy Vilakazi, Executive: Corporate Social Responsibility, Telkom.  

The Telkom Foundation is an autonomous legal entity of Telkom SA SOC Ltd with its own board of trustees. Its primary objective is to contribute to the transformation of disadvantaged communities through sustainable development programmes. The foundation collaborates with the government, the private sector and education institutions with the goal of improving the quality of education in science, technology, English and maths.  

Trialogue was appointed to benchmark the governance structures and processes of corporate foundations similar to the Telkom Foundation. Governance, strategy, operations and independence were specified as critical aspects to be addressed in this benchmarking study.   

Trialogue started by reviewing the Telkom Foundation’s governance and strategy documentation, and the governance landscape in South Africa. This process informed the key benchmarking criteria to be used in the exercise. Five comparable South African foundations were then identified, and benchmarking information obtained via a desktop review of public information and interviews with the foundation heads or managers.  

The Telkom Foundation used the findings to compare governance structures and determine how the foundation needs to evolve in the coming years.