The first step on our journey towards meaningful social investment is awareness of the issues we face, as a nation and globally. A large part of GreaterGood SA’s work is to help South Africans – individuals, corporates and causes – become more aware of these issues and to help them understand and engage in sustainable, accountable development. |
As part of our efforts to simplify and unify our message, campaign communications and publicity mechanisms have been refined and improved, bearing fruit in free full and half-page advertisements in a number of national magazines, as well as coverage and advertisements on websites. In 2008-09, we generated R2,279,915 worth of media coverage, including R1,598,237 in the print media, R834,415 on radio and TV and more than 36 stories or banners in online media, with a total PR value of R9,119,658.
Our redeveloped monthly GreaterGood SA email newsletter gives subscribers a better understanding of South Africa’s development needs, with dedicated discussions on good practice and global trends in social investment as well as feature interviews with thought leaders in the field. This newsletter now has over 4,000 subscribers who are encouraged to engage with us by using the comment boxes below each story and by participating in online surveys or by giving us feedback - a great deal of it positive.
A forum for CSI Managers
|
GreaterGood South Africa launched the first in a series of Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Managers Forums in early 2008. These networking and knowledge-sharing forums take place every two months in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The forums are designed exclusively for in-house Corporate Social Investment Managers and Coordinators and create an un-pressured environment where CSI Managers can get quick, fact-based information about specific areas in the Corporate Social Investment field.
"It is essential that this kind of sharing and networking happens. It makes a huge contribution to personal development for capacity building of CSI managers." – Feryal Domingo, BP SA
|
|
|
|
"Thank you ALL for this super newsletter, and thank you for assisting with my change of mindset."
- Sue Schwartz, subscriber to GreaterGood news
|
|
Web savvy
In the past year, we noticed a substantial increase in visits to GreaterGood SA websites, compared to 2007-08. The visits to our home page, greatergoodsa.co.za, more than tripled with 71% of traffic coming from Google searches. This meant heightened exposure not only for GreaterGood SA but for all our cause profile pages too. Early in 2009 we created a new landing page for the greatergoodsa.co.za domain to make navigation around our various websites easier. We also noted a 38% increase in visits to gifts4good.co.za; a massive 754% increase in visits to teachersdream.co.za; a 32% increase in visits to sasix.co.za; and a 4% increase in visits to makechristmasmatter.co.za.
Sector research
We have continued to increase awareness and understanding of development sectors and good practice by updating the detailed sector research that informs our SA Social Investment Exchange. Focused on priority development sectors, chosen specifically for their alignment to the Millennium Development Goals as well as their national and regional significance in the lives of people and communities, SASIX is committed to promoting awareness of the Goals and doing what we can to ensure South Africa achieves the Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015.
The sector research will be published in the second half of 2009 and will cover:
• Education
• Enterprise Development
• Environment and Conservation
• Food Security and Agriculture
• Health
• Vulnerable People
In the year ahead we will work to increase our presence and voice in online media and the social networking arena. |
