Corporate social responsibility does not begin and end with writing a once-off cheque and sending it to a charity organisation.
For South African businesses to be good corporate citizens, social impact needs to be a fundamental part of their organisational strategies. Employees and leaders need to go to work each day knowing they’re helping to make people’s lives and their communities better.
Social impact also needs to reach everyone, which means giving people from all backgrounds the chance to be heard.
This became especially important ahead of SA’s historic G20 Presidency, which brought together world leaders to tackle pressing global challenges, and the accompanying B20 Summit, which gave the business community a formal role in that process, allowing it to offer advice and recommendations to the G20.
As the country engaged on international policy issues, it became clear that ordinary South Africans had meaningful insights to contribute.
Amplifying marginalised voices
Regardless of where they live, how much money they make or what they do for a living, Old Mutual’s Add Your Voice campaign gave South Africans the chance to participate in a space that has too often excluded them — high-level policymaking — by providing a platform for them to share their views at the B20 Summit.
To make participation easy, citizens could submit their thoughts directly via Old Mutual’s B20 WhatsApp bot. The prompts were simple but powerful: What would make it easier to grow your business? What does a good life mean to you? What is holding your community back?
Every response was collected and brought into the B20 conversation, with highlights played at Old Mutual’s stand at the B20 Summit.
“Building on the gains we’ve made as a corporate citizen, the Old Mutual Group [also] took things a step further. We put small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, learners and community members from all walks of life in the same room as global leaders.
“That is how we achieve real, lasting social impact,” says Ndumiso Zulu, CEO of Old Mutual Group Social Investments.
With the B20 Summit now concluded, the voices gathered through Add Your Voice helped bring communities closer to decision makers and allowed them to participate in processes that align with global priorities. This connection between community perspectives and policy engagement reinforces Old Mutual’s wider commitment to social impact across SA.
Enabling positive change
Any social impact project must be guided by a simple mandate. It must make a difference in the communities where it operates.
Whether the focus is on education and skills development, healthcare, environmental awareness or economic empowerment, projects must serve as change drivers and open up opportunities for people who are disenfranchised or underserved.
Old Mutual Social Investments is one of those enablers. Made up of the group’s social impact initiatives, the division forms a key part of Old Mutual’s corporate responsibility strategy and champions an approach that promotes shared value and sustainability.
“As Old Mutual [has] evolved over the [past] 180 years, so too has our approach to responsible corporate citizenship. With Old Mutual Social Investments, we aim to futureproof our approach to community investment across the group,” says Zulu.
“The intention is that through our collective contributions, we will help enable a future where social inequalities and poverty are no longer pressing issues.”
Delivering people-centred results
South Africans need pathways for positive change. Those pathways can start at home, at their place of work, where they gather with their communities or where they learn.
What these spaces have in common is that they need support at an institutional level to help people thrive. This is where Old Mutual’s long-standing community investment work becomes so important.
Established in 1999, the Old Mutual Foundation set out to invest in vulnerable communities, focusing on key areas such as education, humanitarian relief and employee volunteerism.
Over the years, that mission has evolved along with Old Mutual’s group strategy. This has led to new initiatives that put people at the centre of the transformation the foundation strives for.
The Old Mutual Foundation has implemented long-term, system-wide interventions to strengthen SA’s education landscape. Its programmes aim to improve outcomes beyond individual schools, influencing the broader education ecosystem.
For example, in partnership with the department of basic education (DBE) and other stakeholders, it helped develop Africa’s first language-appropriate early reading assessment tool and supported the establishment of the DBE Language Unit, which promotes the use of African languages in teaching and learning.
Another of the foundation’s key initiatives, the Learn.Think.Do. programme, equips young people with essential financial literacy skills, helping them gain the practical knowledge needed to navigate real-world financial decisions.
In addition to education, the foundation has prioritised humanitarian relief efforts, including emergency relief, social cohesion, food security and livelihood support.
Over time, the foundation has placed a greater emphasis on proactive disaster risk reduction. This includes early-warning awareness, disaster preparedness and training for responders, which helps municipalities and other organisations strengthen their resilience and respond more effectively to disasters.
Alongside strengthening communities in this way, Old Mutual also supports economic participation through initiatives that empower entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Creating socio-economic opportunities
Socio-economic transformation in SA is driven by the empowerment of enterprises, entrepreneurs and innovators. The small business landscape, although one of the country’s most important economic sectors, continues to face structural obstacles that limit its ability to grow.
“The biggest challenges facing SMEs include finding reliable and relevant information on funding opportunities, regulatory requirements and market trends. Strict lending criteria, insufficient collateral and complex application processes prevent many SMEs from securing the funding they need to grow,” says Zulu.
“At the same time, a lack of tailored training, mentorship and business development support makes it challenging for SMEs to become investment-ready and sustainable.”
Old Mutual’s non-profit Masisizane Fund helps address these challenges directly. By offering tailored funding solutions to SMEs through development and commercial financing, the fund supports black-owned businesses, women, youth and people living with disabilities. Each application is evaluated on its own merits.
Alongside this, Old Mutual’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) unit supports majority black-owned businesses with targeted financial and non-financial assistance. The aim is to strengthen supply chain participation and build sustainable SMEs that participate meaningfully in Old Mutual’s value chain and the wider economy.
Through initiatives such as the Masisizane Fund and ESD, SMEs become a vehicle for job creation, increased economic participation and financial inclusion, and they help strengthen the communities where they operate.
Collaborating on a shared vision
Old Mutual’s commitment to social and economic transformation extends to the partnerships it builds and the platforms it supports. Part of creating change is amplifying the voices of those who need it most, which is why campaigns like Add Your Voice are so important.
“When we keep our people in siloes or fail to connect community structures with the governments and officials that serve them, we lose the chance to make real, tangible change. Add Your Voice puts the need for dialogue front and centre,” says Zulu.
“As has been the case at Old Mutual for 180 years, even before the establishment of the Old Mutual Foundation, we’re not interested in empty gestures or surface-level improvements.
“We want to fundamentally change the lives of all South Africans, and that change starts by including them in the conversations that matter.”
The insights gathered as part of the Add Your Voice campaign show that South Africans understand what is needed to build a more inclusive and prosperous society. They also highlight how important it is for social impact to reach every community and for people from all backgrounds to be heard.
Several key themes emerged:
- Infrastructure as the backbone of growth: Citizens called for the maintenance of existing assets, the completion of stalled projects, and increased investment in water, sanitation and electricity so that people can participate fully in the economy.
- Agriculture for inclusive prosperity: South Africans highlighted the need to address land ownership inequities and to support small-scale farmers with financing, skills development and access to value chains in order to unlock jobs and strengthen food security.
- Youth as Africa’s competitive edge: People emphasised the importance of universal digital connectivity, vocational training and rural revitalisation to help the continent realise the potential of its rapidly growing youth population.
- Integrity and anti-corruption: Citizens stressed that stronger accountability was essential to restore trust, attract investment and support long-term, sustainable growth.
- Jobs and economic participation: South Africans urged the creation of dignified work, better preparation for technological disruption and improvements to key enablers such as energy affordability, food security and public safety.
By bringing these views into national and international conversations, Old Mutual showed that progress is strongest when it is shared. Its work continues through the way it supports communities, invests in people and remains committed to building a future where every South African has a fair chance to thrive.
This article was sponsored by Old Mutual.
