What is grantmaking?

Many corporates have a grantmaking programme, either formal or informal, that they use to provide financial and other support to non profit organisations working in development. This often forms part of an overall corporate social responsibility programme. It can also be called corporate social investment (CSI).

Grantmaking can place a heavy administrative burden on corporates when hundreds of requests for funding arrive monthly in their offices. There is also the question of responsible giving – understanding the needs, funding against clear and consistent policies, assessing the effectiveness of organisations, deciding how best to support their work – and evaluating the impact of donations.

Often corporates would like to have an effective and efficient grantmaking programme aligned to company values, but need to define their grantmaking strategy and process more clearly. They may prefer to outsource the administration and management of the grantmaking process altogether, while keeping the decision-making within the company.

Key benefits of a grantmaking programme

• Builds good community relations
• Aligns company principles and value to corporate giving policy
• Enhances project impact evaluation and communication
• Highlights opportunities for non-financial support (goods, skills transfer, provision of venues, employee involvement, etc)
• Allows for long-term funding support

How can CAF Southern Africa help you?

CAF Southern Africa offers a range of options for corporates around grantmaking. We work with you to develop and implement a grantmaking policy specific to your company’s resources and needs. We offer grantmaking management and administration services, and we can help you to select and support effective non profit organisations

We can help by:

• Designing your company’s social involvement /grantmaking policy in line with its vision, values and core business
• Managing the administration of your grantmaking programme
• Providing advice on which organisations to fund
• Validating organisations that receive funds
• Assessing the impact of your funding
• Providing quarterly and annual progress reports