Exploring efficiency

Reprint of the article ‘Overseas Filipinos Pitch In’ by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
which appeared in the February 2007 issue of Filipinas Magazine


SAN FRANCISCO, USA—AS slides of children’s faces were shown in a posh hotel room in San Francisco, a multitude of hands sprang up, from people begging to be the children’s sponsors.
The successful sponsorship of ten new street kids by Filipino and Filipino-American donors was among the highlights of a recent fundraiser that marketed the 20th year of the nonprofit Philippine international Aid (PIA).
But the PIA isn’t the only overseas Filipino group doing this good work. Whether they’re based in the U.S. or elsewhere, Filipinos overseas are frequently showing their desire to see the Philippines improved.
The Los Angeles-based Federation of Mindanao Associations in Southern California (FMASC) has pooled multiple donors of US$2.40 each to sponsor over-200 people’s access to a government-managed annual health insurance program. “It is quite a shame if we in the U.S. cannot provide just US$2.40, and that amount goes a long way to our kababayans,” said FMASC official Mina Monina-Ladlad.
Retirees, workers and children of the newly-formed Pangasinan International Charitable Foundation meet monthly and plan, among other things, an annual picnic and a beauty pageant to declare the year’s Ms. or Mrs. Pangasinan.
Experts in social development formally call this form of benevolence migrant philanthropy. It is the philanthropic world’s newest buzzword, not only because the practice provides a multimillion dollar resource.
Migrant philanthropy, at least for Filipinos, is a decades-old phenomenon that occurs individually, and its potential to bring about widespread equity and socio-economic development in the Philippines has yet to be maximized.

Extracurricular
IT’S the favored “extracurricular” activity of overseas Filipinos. Some immigrant-donors, despite their busy schedules, try to go and see for themselves the conditions back home. Jacqui Lingad-Ricci, an official of San Francisco County, visited Guinsaugon, South Leyte mudslide victims last August as a representative of Heartbridge International Foundation (HI).
Mudslide victims received a total of US$70,004 or P3,486,199.20. But more than the amount, Lingad-Ricci said the help from the two-year-old foundation would be the start of a “long-term initiative for Guinsaugon”.
Migrant philanthropy is also a transnational endeavor, with Filipino and non-Filipino donors and development advocates trying their best to extend and sustain their outreach despite their distance from the Philippines.
Fremont, California-based Save-a-Tahanan, Inc. (STI), which won two awards in 2006 for its 20-year-old development work to keep Filipino families intact, has a Philippine chapter as well as municipal chapters in Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Albay, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija.
STI founding executive director Honesto Tria said it has always been a challenge to ensure their recipients and partner organizations in the Philippines will work together to meet the development vision.
“We have tried many formulas. Some have worked, some did not. We have learned our lessons,” said Tria, who was a Presidential Awardee last December for his work with STI.

Efficient, effective?
FILIPINO donor groups simply have no organized way to assure the medium-term efficiency and effectiveness of their philanthropic work. Some rely on short-term visits, such as medical mission groups and those doing one-time gift-giving activities during annual Philippine visits.
Filipino groups in Germany, such as the Philippine Maharlika Folklore Tanzgruppe Kaizerslautern and the Deutsch-Philippinische Ferundschaftsgruppe, document and list down the non-profit beneficiaries of their donations within the rane of US$25,001 to $50,000 in the 11 years of their existence in Germany.
Surprisingly, some groups have yet to record their work: “I know we have records of the donations of our individual organizations,” said Roy Gaane of FMASC, “and I just saw the papers and thank you letters when I was cleaning the host last week.”
“Now we have to record them,” FMASC’s Monina-Ladlad said, “because these will be very helpful in our fundraising and in showcasing our track record to the public.”
According to the old balance of payments data (which summarizes a country’s transactions with the rest of the world) from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Filipinos abroad have made cash donations worth US$218 million in 2003 through the banking system.
“Filipinos abroad are the future of Philippine philanthropy,” Asia-Pacific Philanthropy Consortium chief executive Aurora Tolentino and program officer Tina Pavia wrote for the London-based philanthropy magazine Alliance in December 2005.
The rise of migrant philanthropy also comes at a time when remittances from Filipinos abroad are increasing. Charitable donations are also considered remittances. Among the frequent recipients of these donations from abroad are rural areas.

Difference-makers?
ARE Filipino donors making a difference in the Philippines?
Heartbridge International officer Sanny Leviste sees many challenges for migrant philanthropy but believes a lot of help for the Philippines has already made “a significant impact”.
“We will not compromise long-term work for the country for just a sack of rice. This shows how serious we are (at Heartbridge International) about working for the motherland and creating all the opportunities there,” Leviste explained.
Some donors are not satisfied. Officials of STI, including Tria and board chair Marisa Robles, are hoping that more donors can help co-finance their work because doing development work through STI is “a part-time involvement” on the part of Philippine-basefd volunteers. The work cannot be “scaled up” as much as Tria, Robles and STI want to. Members themselves call STI a “mom-and-pop” group.
Years of being involved in short-term medical missions in Bataan during the 1990s did not satisfy Dr. Offie Maristela who, with husband Joe, formed the nonprofit called Community Care Missions (CCM) in Daly City, California in the 1990s. Since 2004, CCM has been piloting what the Maristelas call a “sustained approach” towards providing medium-to-long term health care by adopting a hospital in Pasig City, Metro Manila.
“Filipinos abroad who annually go home for medical missions even disliked our approach when we shared this to them,” Joe Maristela said.
“It is now a challenge for Filipino groups abroad to make their philanthropic work for the Philippines more sustainable,” observed San Francisco Consul-General Rowena Sanchez. “We cannot have more one-shot deals when the Philippines has many development needs.”
Some of the donor groups from abroad are searching for examples. “It would be nice to know what other Filipino groups do for the motherland,” said Mila Glodava of the Colorado-based Metro Infanta Foundation (MIF), whose beneficiaries are in Infanta as well as nearby municipalities in Quezon and Aurora provinces.
Glodava hopes her 10-year-old nonprofit can be an example for others. Since 1996, MIF has raised over-US$20,000 annually through grant proposals plus individual and group solicitation letters to 400 Infanta-native families scattered worldwide.
The first three months of each year are “peak season” months for migrant philanthropy since many hometown associations, medical mission groups, host country-registered charities and nonprofits, and alumni associations stage their annual development missions during these moths. “Visiting the country at this time is our way of eluding the cold winter season,” executive director Tessie Alarcon of Fairfax, Virginia-based Feed the Hungry said. The group’s nearly US$1 million worth of cash and in-kind donations have reach 77 of 80 provinces.
Some have even made philanthropy a lifelong commitment. Displaced domestic worker Maria Luisa Tayco owns a small canteen beside a food manufacturing plant in Novaliches, Caloocan City. There, the daily clink of 25-cent coins from canteen sales dropped into a “Pinokyo piggy bank” is making her abrupt return to from abroad meaningful.
The founder of Pinokyos Welfare in Singapore, a domestic workers group that ships in-kind donations and supports the schooling of poor children in rural areas, Tayco admits that she’s not that systematic in managing a nonprofit. But this high-school graduate’s charisma is enough to charm Singaporeans and some Filipinos into giving.
“At least, through this piggy bank,” Tayco said, “Pinokyos members here at home and in Singapore will continue to help fulfill the dreams of young people.”