The Gerry Roxas Foundation (GRF) is one of the oldest foundations in the Philippines. Organized in 1958, it originally began as the Roxas Educational Advancement Committee, an educational trust providing scholarships to poor youth in Capiz. In 1967, this educational trust was reconstituted into a non-stock, non-profit corporation known as the “Roxas Educational and Welfare Committee, Inc. (REWC), Inc. which then pioneered a nationwide program that recognizes the “beginnings of individual excellence and leadership in the community” among young Filipinos known as the “Gerry Roxas Leadership Award”.
The drive to recognize excellence in the Filipino became the seed through which the REWC, through the years, emerged as a leading non-government organization (NGO) in youth leadership development.
In memory of its illustrious founder, the REWC, Inc. was renamed the “Gerry Roxas Foundation, Inc.” (GRF) in 1982 and expanded its vision into community transformation and nation-building. Since then, the GRF has evolved beyond its youth leadership program into a development foundation with national, regional and international programs for Leadership Development, Barangay Justice, Community Outreach and Governance.
Each GRF program focuses on enabling leaders: public servants, barangay justice advocates or exemplary youth to pursue its mission of creating a nation of leaders for change. Through their energy, commitment and visions, people’s voices are heard, access is created, communities are served and development becomes sustained progress.
For more than 12 years, GRF has been a recipient of various financial and technical awards from local and international partners such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, European Union, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). These projects allowed GRF to build the capacities of close to one hundred civil society organizations consisting of academic institutions, people’s organizations, cooperatives and non-government organizations nationwide.
In recognition of its major role as a technical service provider to civil society organizations, on August 2013, USAID awarded GRF a 5-year contract to manage a grant-making facility for non-state institutions through the Philippine-American Fund project. This USAID project now stands as the 20th largest grant making facility managed by a non-government organization in the world.
GRF is accredited as a donee institution by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) and is registered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as a development institution. It is also a member of the board of LoGoTRI-PhilNet and Association of Foundations, and is a recognized technical service provider of AusAID.
