This award recognises projects that exemplify best practice in strategic CSI in South Africa. Strategic CSI is defined as CSI that has positive developmental impact, as well as a significantly positive impact on the business, beyond reputational impact, as shown in Trialogue’s CSI positioning matrix, below. 

For CSI to be strategic, it must have positive developmental impact that is aligned with and contributes to the priorities of the business, beyond reputational impact. The Trialogue Strategic CSI Award recognises projects that exemplify best practice. It aims to encourage CSI practitioners to think more strategically when planning and implementing their initiatives.

As can be seen in Trialogue’s CSI Positioning Matrix, strategic CSI projects deliver a high combination of positive social and business outcomes. While developmental CSI offers beneficial social outcomes, it does not always have significant corporate benefits. Similarly, commercial grantmaking prioritises corporate benefit over social return.

Each entry is judged against objectives, social benefits and corporate benefits, as set out below.

Objectives

• Targets need to be practical and realistic. Entries should have ‘SMART’ (specific, measurable, relevant and time-bound) objectives.

Social benefits

• Visible outputs: Short-term results that are immediate, visible and concrete (e.g. number of houses built, people trained, supplies or pamphlets distributed, community members treated, hours of service delivered).
• Beneficial outcomes: Specific changes in behaviour, knowledge, skills or wellbeing. Medium-term developmental results that are the consequence of achieving a specified combination of short-term outputs (e.g. behaviour change, attitude change, new knowledge or skills, improved grades, reduced isolation, improved access to health services, improved self-esteem).
• Beneficial impact: Broader long-term (three years or more) consequences of the project. Community, society or system-level changes that are the logical consequences of a series of medium- and short-term results (e.g. improved effectiveness of education system, reduction in HIV prevalence, new social norms, more educated/healthier population, inclusive decision-making, lack of stigma, increased capacity).
• Government engagement, lesson-sharing and advocacy are also taken into account.

Corporate benefits

• Recognition of contribution: Recognition of the project that improves the company’s reputation. This can include recognition of expenditure as socioeconomic development in line with the BBBEE scorecard, as well as internal and external communication of the project.
• Stakeholder benefit: Meaningful engagement with key stakeholder groups in the funding, design or management of the project that improves the company’s relationship with that stakeholder group. Stakeholders can include communities, regulators, government, suppliers, customers or employees.

• Competitive benefit: Project benefits that enhance the competitiveness of the business. This can be done by securing a licence to operate, opening up new markets for the business, introducing new products, reducing costs by developing suppliers and/or leveraging corporate resources, or securing specialised talent.

• All entries need to be made by companies. Nonprofits are not eligible to enter the award.
• All entries need to be typed into the writable pdf entry form and emailed per the details below.
• Companies can enter multiple projects. A separate entry form needs to be completed for each CSI project being entered.
• Companies can enter the same project in multiple years if the project has not won the award previously.
• CSI projects that have won previously cannot be entered again.
• Entries should be signed off by a CSI manager or executive.
• Points are awarded for proof/evidence of positive outcomes – both on the corporate and social side. Please ensure that you include proof of the social and business results your project has achieved.
• Enterprise development (ED) projects that work with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the company value chain(procurement or distribution) are excluded from this award. ED projects working with SMEs not in the value chain may be included.

Applications for 2025 are now closed.

Please email your completed entry form to: lerato@trialogue.co.za