ENABLING A COHERENT STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT 

Community investment

Our organisation or project's community is where we have our greatest impact through our day-to-day activities. It is, therefore, part of the foundation of our business and requires investment.

By investment, many organisations make a fundamental mistake by focusing mainly on financial investments or bought infrastructure.

The IFC reported in its June 2010 Strategic Community Investment Handbook that:

"Money can’t buy you love. A multi-year study of

over 60 international companies operating on five

continents concluded that there is no correlation

(and sometimes even an inverse correlation)

between the amount of money a company spends

on community projects and the quality of their

relationship with the community."

In reality. successful investments in a community are a balance of of five capitals: Human, Social, Natural, Manufactured and Financial; with the first two providing the backbone for sustainability and successful community relations. All five capitals are needed, however, and it is through robust stakeholder engagement that the balancing is done.

This forms a central part of the expertise we offer clients.