CSR

I find being a judge—not in a court of law, for sure—to be an uplifting experience. Whether live—as when you judge a performance in a contest—or evaluating dossiers of candidates or projects for an award, being part of a panel of judges is serious and hard work; sometimes you get dossiers several inches thick that you have to read through and even have to do additional research just to cover all angles, before you get to interview the nominees or deliberate on the projects.

- DOREEN G. YU

But it is uplifting and rewarding because you get to see, know about, and meet some pretty outstanding people, performances, and projects. Most of the time, getting nominated or reaching the finals means the person or project has already met and passed a rigid standard, being a cut above the ordinary. Of course, there are some duds, but it's tolerable in the face of all the excellence one is confronted with.

Over the past couple of months, I've done my turn as a judge—the third time around—for the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF)'s Guild Awards. For the year 2024, 71 projects were nominated in eight categories: Education, Health, Environment, Enterprise, Disaster Resilience, Arts and Culture, Financial Inclusion, and Collaboration. The winners were announced and awarded recently, during the LCF's three-day CSR Conference and Expo held in Makati City.

The League of Corporate Foundations was founded in 1991 as a network of operating and grant-making corporate foundations and corporations in the country. Among its significant initiatives are the organization of the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (to weed out fly-by-night, Napoles-type organizations and foundations), establishment of the CSR Institute, and its being a founding member of the ASEAN CSR Network.