A message for business and its relationships with non-profits by Shelagh Gastrow, Executive Director – Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement.

“If I have a message for business and its relationships with non-profits, it is to move away from a mechanistic way of grantmaking and to start looking at the systemic issues that impact on our society and therefore impact on business. Although social justice organisations involve some risk for a company, particularly in relation to government, systemic change will often create the milieu in which the company can do better business. This is long term thinking and is not so pretty in an annual report, but it is often better for the country.   Without imagination you will continue to support change without change, you will only make poverty bearable, but won’t provide for the future that we need in SA. Take off the linear matrix and the blinkers and start to engage in the very messy, muddled and complex world in which we live.”

Original Article: The Civil Society Landscape