A Little from Many Becomes Much

A turning point.  In the 1990s friends helped me stage concerts featuring my religious compositions, performed by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Basil Valdes, Dulce and others at the Meralco Theatre or the Cultural Center of the Philippines.  We donated the proceeds to institutions, such as the Alagad ni Maria in Infanta, Quezon and Sibol Hesus of Mr. Onofre Pagsanghan.  After several months of preparations, we would be happy to have raised half a million pesos for our beneficiary.

The fund-raising email campaign for the 2004 typhoon victims made me realize that so many people want to help the poor, are willing to give, but often, do not know how or through whom.

One reason the Filipinos in the USA readily responded to my email appeal was the assurance of transparency and accountability.  We required our beneficiaries, Bp. Rolando Tirona, OCD, representing the communities of Infanta, Quezon, and Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ recipient on behalf of the Bikol region, to email us a scanned official receipt of the exact amount wired to their accounts.  We then emailed all donors the master list of donations, the total amount collected and the scanned official receipts, verifying that every dollar collected in the US was sent to the typhoon victims in the Philippines.

A happy realization.  I no longer needed to stage costly major concerts that took several months to mount.  All that was needed was to set-up the infrastructure for people to give to causes they believed in and the systems of accountability.

Upon returning to Manila in 2005, I gathered friends and volunteers to reactivate the Tanging Yaman Foundation, Inc., which lay dormant during my five-years of graduate studies in the USA.  In August 2007, this core group of friends, who constituted the new Board of the TYF, invited a hundred fifty friends to a re-launching of the TYF.   After a two-hour program consisting of a few inspirational talks, AVPs and songs, we raised a little over 2 million pesos in checks and credit card pledges.

An Unconventional NGO.  What makes TYF unique?  The TYF serves as conduit between benefactors and beneficiaries.  We do not only raise funds for a particular institution or sector.  We raise funds for families, institutions and communities in need.  Neither do we implement the programs of the beneficiaries.  We simply link those who have resources with those in need of assistance.

How so?  Donors first decide whom they want to help among our five clusters: Children’s Basic Needs, Education and Formation, Environment and Livelihood, Relief and Rehabilitation, Elderly and Infirm.  For many potential donors, may malapit sa puso nila because of personal reasons and convictions.  They then decide how to help, whether by contributing their finances, goods or services.  If they opt to help financially, they then choose whether to do so through cash, check or credit card.

As TYF is a merchant-client of HSBC and BDO-Equitable, we are able to process any credit card.  Donors hence can opt to stagger their donations into monthly pledges, to as low as P300/month, which are automatically charged to their credit card.

TYF then remits the donations received to various beneficiaries, be they seminarians or college scholars, fisherfolk or farmers’ cooperatives, daycare centers or homes for the elderly, families displaced by typhoons or communities wanting to rehabilitate their environment.

On the other hand, beneficiaries sign a memorandum of agreement with the TYF, implement their respective programs, and submit updates and final reports to TYF, which informs donors of the progress of their chosen beneficiaries.

Services to other institutions.  This July 23 and August 13, 2011, TYF will hold donors’ summits for the Joey Velasco Foundation (JVF), Philippines Jesuit Prison Service (PJPS) and Recovery Circle (RC), among others.  These institutions invite their friends and contacts who will pledge financial or material support for their respective programs.  TYF will collect and collate all the donations, transact with the banks involved, remit the donations to JVF, PJPS and RC and furnish them with the data bank of their respective donors.  That way, other NGOs can focus their energy implementing their programs, instead of constantly raising funds because, for instance, a P500 monthly pledge from a hundred friends will amount to 600,000 pesos/year.

TYF Philosophy.  We are not targeting huge corporations to help our partner beneficiaries; many of them are already doing so.  We want to help create a culture of philanthropy, a culture of giving and sharing.  We tell young people they do not have to first enrich themselves before they can give and make a difference in the lives of others, the poor especially.  We invite them to give according to their present capacity. Because when the widow’s mite is pulled together with the other contributions of the poor, even a group of poor people can help a more desperate person.  The miracle of the loaves takes place again and again, when the “little from many becomes much”.

Source: THE WINDHOVER - The Philippine Jesuit Magazine

Year XIII, vol. no. 2 / July-Sept 2011