Nation Builder has launched a new online social investment peer learning community.
The collaborative resource platform is a first for the South African social investment community.
The Nation Builder Peer Learning platform includes an interactive online community to ensure further learning and opportunities for dialogue and collaboration.
In 2014 Nation Builder brought together a panel of top social investment experts that jointly developed the Good Giving Benchmarking Tool and Toolkits. This was an initiative that offered a neutral space for peer-to-peer learning and relationship building amongst all participants.
This year, Nation Builder launched a second phase of these advisory panel co-labs, expanded to three provinces for broader thought leadership and knowledge sharing.
Since January 2017, Nation Builder has hosted 15 co-lab panels involving more than 80 people, representing over 70 businesses, consultancies and NPOs, with more than 30 hours of time spent sharing knowledge, brain storming, learning and networking.
Participants have included businesses such as the MMI Group, GrowthPoint, Deloitte, Val de Vie, Millennium Trust, Trialogue, Investec and Tsogo Sun, as well as a wealth of advisors from the NPO sector.
Through these sessions, Nation Builder discovered numerous impactful, homegrown solutions that South Africans are implementing to address some of the social challenges that our country faces.
“We realised the great power and value of bringing these “pockets of knowledge” together – businesses and NPOs of all sizes and focus areas – in order to learn from each other, and then to take that outwardly to develop resources and knowledge-sharing for other businesses in South Africa,” says Lauren Henning, Nation Builder’s public affairs director.
“So we developed this platform to make this rich knowledge and expert community available to all businesses who have a passion for using their business as a force for good, to encourage and equip them to have a greater social impact.”
The online community is intended to offer shared learnings, best practice tips, case studies, animated videos and resources put together by CSI experts, academics, practitioners, NPOs and consultancies so as to get a fuller perspective of best practice.
“The success of social impact is greatly aided by a combination of knowledge, experience, innovation, patience and a willingness to work and learn together,” says Keri-Leigh Paschal, Nation Builder’s executive director. “To ensure greatest social impact, one needs to combine these elements together with collaboration, peer learning and community. This is what we aim to achieve through the online community.
“Together, we can achieve so much more to ensure sustainable opportunities for all South Africans,” said Hlengiwe Zulu, Nation Builder’s Social Investment Business Liaison. “We can do this through the implementation of collaborative social investment solutions,” she adds.
