Beyond the KPI: Why Corporate–NGO Partnerships need real investment

South African corporates spent R11.8 billion on CSI in 2023 (Trialogue). A big number but the lived experience on the ground tells a different story.

We remain the most unequal country in the world, youth unemployment sits at over 43%, and more than 50% of households rely on grants to survive. If all the corporate spending was genuinely shifting the needle, our reality would look very different.

And the gap between spending and impact can be traced to one truth:
Too many corporate–NGO partnerships are built around KPIs, optics and compliance, not real, long-term investment.

The limits of KPI-Driven social impact:

Let’s be honest. Many partnerships start with metrics, not mission.

“How many kits?”
“How many volunteers?”
“How many training hours?”

Numbers matter but they don’t tell the whole story. NGOs see what the spreadsheet can’t capture:

• Schools with no water supply
• Households with no access to digital tools
• Children studying in overcrowded homes
• Communities where a “once-off donation” solves nothing

A KPI might say deliver 500 hygiene packs. On the ground, the real issue might be that the school has no functioning toilets, or learners walk 5km daily with no sanitary facilities. KPIs show activity, not impact.

The power imbalance hurts the work:

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: only 39% of South African NGOs feel financially stable.

This means most NGOs operate in survival mode, shaping programmes not based on community needs but on corporate donor preferences.

Short-term cycles and conditional funding often lead to:

• programmes designed for reporting, not community transformation
• burnout and instability
• a “please the funder” culture

This isn’t partnership, its dependency dressed up as collaboration.

But! When corporates get it right, impact skyrockets:

There’s another side to this story and it’s powerful. When corporates commit to multi-year partnerships, the impact is significant. NGOs are able to increase their programme reach exponentially, often extending their work into communities they couldn’t previously access. These partnerships also improve learner outcomes in one instance by 27%, because programmes can run consistently and with better resources. Long-term support enables stable staffing, which strengthens programme delivery and deepens long-term impact. And as organisations grow more stable and effective, they’re also able to attract additional funding, creating a sustainable cycle of growth.

In other words, real investment creates real impact.

What real partnerships look like:

If corporate–NGO collaboration is going to deliver meaningful results, here’s what needs to change:

Measure what matters, not just what’s easy

Count numbers, yes but also describe the change using other measurable or observable details e.g., “beneficiaries gained more confidence,” “community members became more self-sufficient”.

Human impact > corporate reporting cycles.

Build NGO capacity, not dependency

Corporate support should empower NGOs to grow by investing in systems, tools and data, and by funding leadership development, in turn creating organisations that can thrive long after a single grant ends.

Treat NGOs as experts

NGOs are not “implementers” of corporate ideas. They are experts with decades of community knowledge. Your role as a corporate? Listen. Learn. Leverage your strengths without overshadowing theirs.

Commit to the long haul

Social change does not match financial year calendars. Long-term investment creates trust, continuity and systemic change. If the internal budget cycle matters more than the community outcome, the partnership is already broken.

Final word

Corporate–NGO partnerships need to evolve urgently. Not because KPIs are bad. Not because corporates are doing too little. But because the challenges facing our country are too deep, too complex and too human to be solved with surface-level engagement.

To build the South Africa we dream of, we need long-term commitment, shared purpose, mutual respect and real investment.

Less ticking boxes. More transforming lives. More responsibility.