The recent Trialogue conference reinforced a growing conviction for me: Maximising the return on our CSI spend is less about how much we invest, and more about how intentionally we create value from it.

With R13 billion in CSI funding deployed last year, we are not short of capital. The more honest question is whether we are using it in a way that meaningfully shifts outcomes for South Africans or whether our current, fragmented and competitive approaches are limiting our collective impact.

A recurring theme at #BIS2026 was clear: Collaboration is the greatest lever we have to unlock more value from CSI investment. Yet, we continue to resist it, often defaulting to “collaboration is hard.”

But what is really hard?

Yes, we experience discomfort in our boardrooms. On a regular basis, funders and NGOs are having to navigate power relationships, trust, shared decision‑making, pace and sacrificing individual control or recognition. This is not easy.

But it doesn’t compare to the lived reality of the communities we aim to serve, where children are facing hunger, poor education outcomes and systemic inequality every day.

If we are serious about truly addressing inequality and poverty in our country, we need to reframe collaboration not as a burden, but as a strategic imperative.

That means:

• Moving beyond fragmented funding to coordinated, ecosystem-based approaches
• Investing time in relationships and trust-building across corporates and NGOs
• Co-creating solutions, rather than funding in silos
• Accepting the trade-offs such as slower decisions and shared ownership as necessary costs of greater impact
• Taking calculated risks on new models that can scale change

The uncomfortable truth is that collaboration feels “hard” because it asks more of us. But the cost of not collaborating is far greater. Diluted impact, duplicated effort and missed opportunities are only pushing out #TheFutureWeWant further and further into the future.

If we want maximum return on our CSI spend, we must choose to work differently and more courageously together.

Because ultimately, as veteran social justice and philanthropy leader, Lorenzo Davids, aptly said, “The future we fund is the future we get”.