Outliers

Changemaker: Ponce Samaniego

In the Philippines, almost 22.6 percent of the population (or more than 21 million people) live on less than 1.25 USD per day and while economic growth has been continuous over the past decade, mass poverty remains to persist. Between 2003 and 2006, poverty incidence actually increased despite above-average economic growth.

Serving the underprivileged in the Philippines are 3,000 -5,000 development-oriented NGO’s. However, these selfless servants also face increasing difficulty. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that funding has been a growing concern in the past decade, stressing that “the sector urgently needs a resource base that is more reliable, yet few organizations provide training in resource mobilization.”

This is where OUTLIERS makes a difference. We exist to be in service of those who serve by being outsourced business expertise for nonprofit organizations. Our young and dynamic team of students and recent graduates from the Business Administration program of the University of the Philippines is driven by the mission to empower Civil Society groups through the channel that we know best: business development. By merging traditional practices of aid organizations with efficient, market-based approaches, Outliers is effectively turning charities into sustainable social enterprises.

We currently serve VF (Visayan Forum), Futkal (Football in the Streets), Law of Nature Foundation, Mano Amiga Philippines, and CASA San Miguel Foundation. We are working with Starbucks Foundation to improve their Impact Assessment for grantmaking decisions.

We were named Philippine Winner out of 156 social businesses in the PBPSP and Citibank’s Business in Development Challenge 2010, and are supported by Starbucks Foundation, VF, Japan Environmental Education Forum and the Gobal Changemakers Programme.