The social enterprise was founded in 2012 by Melbourne Business School MBA graduates Justin Garrido Julia Sevilla. Julia has a split-degree with Rotman School of Management.
Social Project.PH is a registered for-profit US LLC company, operating primarily in the Philippines by screening and vetting project partners. Much of Justin’s work has been done to help those displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, which has affected the lives of an estimated 14 million people.
The enterprise is developing “Butterfly homes” – an innovative housing solution made of low-cost steel, which has the scalability to help those made homeless by Haiyan.
They are also planning to export organic food products to the U.S and hope to help local social enterprise partners with marketing, packaging, and branding their products.
Justin tells us that he believes the Philippines can be a source of social brands and a model for social enterprise globally.
Which sector do you operate in?
Crowd-funding and social enterprise.
What does the business do and what are your core products?
SocialProject.PH is a crowd-funding platform that connects inspiring initiatives for communities in the Philippines to supporters around the world who want to increase the impact of socially good projects.
Created in 2012, it advocates responsible giving that promotes sustainability, empowerment and creativity, for a better future.
Who is the founder/CEO?
I am the CEO.
SocialProject.PH was co-founded by myself and Julia Sevilla.
Julia is a renowned social entrepreneur who completed an MBA from Melbourne Business School and the Rotman School of Management.
How was the company founded?
My motivation to start a social enterprise was from going on MBA exchange at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). As a Filipino American, I had never lived in the Philippines and seeing the vast social challenges like poverty really struck me hard. Living in the U.S and Australia, you see social challenges, but in a developing country, poverty is on a much greater level.
But asides from the challenges, I saw tremendous opportunities and I was inspired by the Filipino social enterprises that were doing amazing things and empowering the poor as partners.
I wanted to find a way to support the current eco-system of social entrepreneurship and help grow the sector. There’s an estimated 30,000 social enterprises [in the region] and the three key needs of the social entrepreneurship sector are funding access, market access, and mentoring support.
The crowd-funding website was developed to help provide funding access to social enterprise partners.
But I had always envisioned SocialProject.PH to be a marketing and business development consultancy, starting with the website and later by providing market access to social enterprises.
SocialProject.PH is a for-profit enterprise – how does the business make money?
I believe in order to bring the best talent and resources to addressing the world’s greatest challenges, making a profit is important to incentivize partners who don’t typically work in the non-profit sector. Although, profit is not the only metric of how a business is evaluated.
Right now the website charges a small percentage fee if a project reaches funding goals, which isn’t much. I’ve taken consulting projects with a social good component under Social Project.PH to supplement my income, as well as taking regular for-profit consulting projects plus income from other investments.
What are your plans for the business now?
The market access initiative of exporting organic food products will be the next revenue stream for SocialProject.PH.
We are currently working on exporting organic food products to the U.S and helping social enterprise partners with marketing, packaging, and branding their products.
This is currently being done offline, but once we develop the supply chain and infrastructure we plan to pivot the website to reflect the market access aspect.
By developing social brands and providing a channel for social enterprises to a global marketplace, we give a model for inclusive growth for others to follow in the future.
I envision the Philippines being a source of social brands and a model for social enterprise globally.
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