Our Services

Fund Management
We provide end-to-end fund management solutions to public benefit foundations, community trusts and empowerment vehicles established with the social intent of improving the lives of South Africans. These solutions include governance, secretarial support, risk management, financial management, social investment strategy, project identification, project due diligence, stakeholder management, strategy implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Socio-economic Strategy Development
The most effective social investment takes place when it is guided by a well-researched and focused strategy. Tshikululu designs social investment strategies in several investment areas including education, health, welfare, agriculture, blended finance and impact investing. Every strategy is customised to meet our clients’ social investment goals and grounded in sound research and expertise.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Monitoring and evaluation is central to our work at Tshikululu. Our specialists have experience in performing formative evaluations, impact evaluations, monitoring programmes, and designing M&E reporting frameworks.

Community Assessments
Community assessments and stakeholder engagements are important when designing community-based programmes. This is due to the growing realisation by development practitioners that a “one size fits all” approach does not work, as communities differ vastly in terms of their needs and social dynamics. In addition to solving the above, community assessments provide an opportunity to collect baseline data that allow us to track changes and improvements throughout the implementation of the programme. We conduct community assessments consisting of primary and secondary research. These assessments include interviews with key community stakeholders to understand the developmental priorities of the people living in the area.

Project Due Diligence
Identifying reputable organisations to fund that have the requisite track record and experience can be difficult for many social investors. Tshikululu assists clients who manage their own foundations/trusts internally, providing due diligence services that assess the quality of the programme, the organisation’s ability to deliver on development programmes, and governance performance. Our governance team also has extensive experience in conducting governance and financial controls testing on beneficiary organisations, providing improvement recommendations for large systemic programmes.

Impact Investing
Impact investing is gaining increasing traction in South Africa, requiring a blend of skills from both the finance and development sectors. We provide research on themes and impact areas that are key to the investor’s strategy and are able to track social investment performance and returns.

Skills Development
We have designed a streamlined solution to solve the challenges many corporates face when it comes to allocating skills development spend to external beneficiaries. This is informed by our experience in the higher education sector and our deep understanding of and hands-on experience in managing bursary programmes.

Social Infrastructure Project Management
Tshikululu has extensive experience in managing infrastructure projects which aim to enhance the development of the communities they serve. From rural schools to clinics located in the remotest areas in South Africa, Tshikululu has the expertise to ensure that any infrastructure project is delivered without losing sight of the people who the project intends to benefit.

Social and Labour Plans (SLPs)
Tshikululu works with mining companies to assist in designing and implementing the social component of their SLPs. This is related to the development of host communities. Our services include programme management and infrastructure project management, as well as reporting to stakeholders.
Implementation Agreements (IAs)
Social development and investment in communities is hard-wired into the Independent Power Producers (IPP) programme. Tshikululu has extensive experience in designing and implementing socioeconomic strategies for IPPs and community trusts.
Ownership Solutions
Tshikululu provides fund management and advisory services to trusts which form part of ownership structures to ensure that the PBO mandate is executed and that the trusts are well-governed.
Research
Research has been the foundation of many strategies and programmes produced by the Tshikululu team over the past 20 years. Our team contributes towards producing high-quality research in support of our social impact investment solutions.