Lend A Helping Hand and Do Social Good on SocialProject.PH

The concept of crowdfunding has been around for a couple of years, but has only been recently embraced by many, especially in the Southeast Asian region. We all know how crowdfunding can greatly help in various causes, especially when it comes to doing social good. Created in 2012, SocialProject.PH is a donation-and-rewards-based crowdfunding platform that features projects from registered and credible organizations benefitting various social causes in the Philippines.

The site is pretty careful about who gets on its platform. It screens and vets social enterprises and non-profit organizations (NGOs) and even puts its team is on the ground visiting the prospective partner’s communities, gaining in-depth information on their needs.

Co-founder Justin Garrido tells us the platform currently has five projects on board:

1. Hapinoy: Kayang-Kayang Kumita sa Hapinoy. It is a financial literacy and skills training program that focuses on business sustainability for 600 sari-sari store Nanays (which means ‘mothers’ in tagalog language) in provinces in Bicol. Through this program, Nanays can obtain business education and learn to better manage finances, goods, capital, or loans.
2. Bambowtie (Bambike company) and Gawad Kalinga (GK): Look cool, send kids to school! This project develops bamboo products with the GK Tarlac community, which provides them with a livelihood, and a portion of the proceeds go towards an education fund for the children in Victoria, Tarlac.
3. Stiftung Solar Energy Foundation: Solar Power to the People. This will provide 600 solar beneficiaries with 90 solar lamps to support livelihood and education in the off-the-grid rural community in Apia, Antipolo.
4. Gifts & Graces Foundation: Design workshops and lab for Social Innovation. This brings in top designers to train 30 co-op partners from across the Philippines on making higher-value products for workshops in Manila.
5. Ayala Foundation: Support the education of our bright CENTEX students. The program aims to provide up to 10 scholarships for underprivileged youth scholars to study in the Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education (CENTEX) in Tondo, Manila and Bauan, Batangas.

The birth of SocialProject.PH

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The idea of the crowdfunding platform came about in October 2011, where co-founders Justin and Julia Sevilla discussed on embarking on a project that is of social relevance in the Philippines. Both of them had a common vision in mind, which is to support projects with social innovation at the base of the pyramid, as Justin elaborates:

We wanted to develop something that would support the current ecosystem of organizations doing good and help them make a greater social impact to address poverty, of which over one-third of the Philippine population is in poverty and at least half of the 11 million people in Manila alone.

We came up with different business models but I was particularly inspired by Kiva, a micro-lending platform, and Julia introduced me to Kickstarter and crowdfunding. We ended up with www.socialproject.ph, a niche crowdfunding platform focused on social good projects in the Philippines.

We also believe in the power of social enterprise- a hybrid business model that generates revenue but also reinvests into their social mission and target beneficiary, a more sustainable way to do social good.

Upon successfully reaching the fundraising goal or milestone after 60-day time frame, the platform gets a 5 percent commission through pledges via PayPal adaptive payments. The company is also incorporated as a US company; as Justin explains, one of the key factors is that “the ‘pledge model’ for crowdfunding is not allowed for ASEAN countries at this time due to the risk of money laundering.” The team also plans to register itself in the Philippines in the near future.