The Trialogue 2015 CSI Handbook was launched last month at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The yearly Trialogue CSI Handbook, now in its eighteenth edition, reports on primary research into corporate social investment (CSI) spending patterns and support per development sector in South Africa.

Trialogue estimates that total CSI expendi-ture in South Africa to be around R8.1-billion for the 2014/15 financial year. This estimate represents a year-on-year decline in expenditure of 6% in real terms, following a real decline of 2% in 2013/14.

The primary reason for the decline given by companies participating in the research is a reduction in corporate profits. The rapid and continuous growth the CSI sector experienced between 2001 and 2013 appeared to have entered a sustained period of decline.

CSI in education showed steady growth over the last five years, from 37% of total CSI expenditure in 2011 to 47% in 2015. The majority of corporates in Trialogue’s research sample (92%) invested in education initiatives in 2015, with social and community development and health coming in as the second and third most popular sectors.

Tertiary education accounts for 27% of corporate spend on education in 2015.

Trialogue has a partnership with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) in New York, the US, and provided a portion of its primary research for CECP’s ‘Giving Around the Globe’ report.

The 2015 findings show that across the world, corporate giving as a percentage of profit has increased and corporates are becoming more focused in their giving and are increasingly measuring impact. As in South Africa, education remains the most popular sector for investment globally.

According to Statistics South Africa, in 2014, of the nearly 20-million people below 35 years of age, 9.8-million are not economically active, 6.2-million are employed and 3.6-million are unemployed.

The Trialogue 2015 CSI Handbook features a dedicated chapter on the challenges facing South Africa’s youth, aged 16 to 35. Issues such as unemployment, poverty, access to education, declining health, lack of leadership and the realities of life in a rural setting are examined more closely.