Tatler Ball is fast approaching! Did you know that 100 per cent of the proceeds raised at every annual Tatler Ball goes to our charity beneficiary? Here, we give you a brief glimpse of our partner charities through the years

It is one of the most anticipated events on Philippine society’s social calendar, and, as such, Tatler Philippines continues a tradition of celebrating its anniversary with characteristic elegance and flair. 

Since it was first held in November 2002, the Tatler Ball has become more than just a celebration of life extraordinary through our annual awarding of some of the country’s most prominent individuals. It has also become one of the country’s major philanthropic events. Over the years, the proceeds from the auction held at the Ball and private donations have benefited a broad spectrum of worthy causes. Find out more below: 

(2002) MAKABATA FOUNDATION

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Founded in 1996, this school foundation began as a feeding programme for street children by the Bread of Life Ministry in EDSA Shrine in 1994. From 1995 to 2001, under the auspices of the Poveda Learning Centre, its faculty, the parents’ association, and members of the Teresian Association, the children who were part of the feeding programme were provided with catechism classes and academic tutorials. By 2002, the foundation established its school in Pasig City and formally opened its doors from 2001 to 2002. Makabata School Foundation was the first beneficiary of Tatler Philippines, both starting to build their names in their respective fields at the time and making a difference in society.

(2003) BANTAY KALIKASAN – LA MESA WATERSHED

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ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation’s environmental arm, Bantay Kalikasan, was launched to serve as a catalyst to address the worsening state of the Philippine environment characterised by air and water pollution, denudation of forests, irresponsible waste disposal and their life-threatening effects. In 2003, the Tatler Ball raised funds for the reforestation and conservation of the 2,700-hectare La Mesa Watershed area.

(2004) PHILIPPINE NATIONAL RED CROSS

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Born officially in 1947, the Philippine Red Cross has become a premier humanitarian organisation committed to providing quality life-saving services that protect the life and dignity of indigent Filipinos in vulnerable situations. It used to be involved only in providing blood and in disaster-related services. Still, the Philippine Red Cross focuses on a holistic approach to uplift the conditions of the most vulnerable. It now offers a broader array of humanitarian services, from preventive medicine to therapeutic counselling to youth empowerment for leadership.

(2005) CHILDREN’S HOUR

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In 1999, Marks & Spencer Plc and the New Millennium Experience Company, under the leadership of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, created and developed “The Millenium Children’s Promise” campaign. It invited individuals, employees, organisations, and corporations to donate their final hour’s wages of the year to charities for children. This idea and movement soon went global with an international network of partners in twenty-three countries, including the International Youth Foundation (IYF).

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, an IYF member, brought the campaign to the Philippines in September 1999 and called it “Children’s Hour.” With its booming influx of support from the local community, the end-of-the-millennium campaign, initially set to run only for four months, eventually evolved into an independent foundation. Thus, in September 2003, Children’s Hour Philippines, Inc. was born. Since its initial introduction as a campaign in 1999, Children’s Hour has been working to raise funds, give grants to implementing agencies, and make friends—all to improve and enrich the lives of Filipino children nationwide.

(2006 AND 2015) OPERATION SMILE PHILIPPINES FOUNDATION INC.

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Operation Smile International has been around since 1982, providing free life-changing reconstructive surgeries to children born with facial deformities. It all started in the Philippines when a group of surgeons and nurses invited Dr William P Magee, Jr and his wife Kathleen to Naga City in Camarines Sur for a medical mission.

“We saw hundreds of children and saw many more turned away. We knew that this group was not planning to return. So we planned another trip, but when we saw how many people were suffering because of their facial deformities, we had to keep returning. You can’t help but be touched by things that we take as completely normal and suddenly become a monumental event in a child’s life,” Dr Magee said in a television interview 2002.

On August 18, 1988, Operation Smile Philippines Foundation, Inc. was registered. Since then, it has conducted year-round missions in partnership with public and private groups nationwide with a strong network of highly-trained local medical volunteers.

(2007) GAWAD KALINGA

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Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation Inc. was formally established in 2003, but the work began as early as 1994 in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City. Since then, it has expanded its reach to over 2,000 organised communities and has been adopted in other developing nations like Cambodia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. More than just building houses, Gawad Kalinga aims to end poverty by 2024!

(2008) SYNERGEIA

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A Greek word that means “a union of forces whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, Synergeia is a coalition of individuals, institutions, and organisations working to improve the quality of primary education. They implement programs to improve basic education for nearly 1.5 million schoolchildren in 250 municipalities in the Philippines. 

(2009) PINK FOR LIFE FOUNDATION & PHILIPPINE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION

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Above During one of the programs of the Philippine Christian Foundation

In 2009, there were two beneficiaries of the Tatler Ball. One is the Pink for Life Foundation, which was formed in March 2007, focusing primarily on treating patients with stage 1 and 2 breast cancer. Another one is the Philippine Christian Foundation, which was established in 2002. It was set to relieve poverty for children and their families living and working in depressed areas and public cemeteries. It runs education centres and feeding programs for as many children as possible. Lessons are carefully planned to build self-esteem and self-worth, and the God-centered curriculum enables children to understand that they are loved and valued. 

(2010 AND 2017) CHILD PROTECTION NETWORK FOUNDATION INC.

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Established in 2002, CPN increases the accessibility of medical, forensic, legal, and psychosocial services for abused children and ensures that they get the highest possible standards of care. Tatler Philippines chose CPN as its beneficiary to support victims of child abuse and human trafficking. In 2022, CPN’s executive director, Bernadette J Madrid, earned the Ramon Magsaysay award.

(2011) HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

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Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity has built, rehabilitated, and repaired homes for millions in thousands of communities in over 70 countries. It started in a small Christian community in Georgia with the concept of “partnership housing”, where homeowners work alongside volunteers to build simple but decent houses. Habitat for Humanity Philippines was established in 1998 and has served countless families nationwide. 

(2012) TEACH FOR THE PHILIPPINES

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Founded in 2012 by Lizzie Zobel, Margarita Delgado, and Clarissa Delgado, Teach for the Philippines provides all Filipino children with an inclusive, relevant, and excellent education. They enlist some of the country’s most promising young leaders to teach in public schools throughout the Philippines for two years. Through this experience, they transform into lifelong advocates for education equity.

(2013) TYPHOON YOLANDA SURVIVORS

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November 16, 2013, would have marked the 12th Tatler Ball. Invitations had been sent out, the menu was all set, and quiet anticipation was in the air. However, on November 8, the infamous typhoon Yolanda struck the Visayas islands, with Tacloban City being the most damaged. Immediately, Tatler Philippines called off the Ball and launched a campaign to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity Philippines instead. With the help of supposed guests and partners of the Ball and the magazine's loyal subscribers, Philippine Tatler raised enough money to help the said foundation provide survivors with home cleaning kits, shelter repair kits and core houses for their families.

(2014) VIRLANIE FOUNDATION INC.

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French social worker Dominique Lemay established the Virlanie Foundation in 1992 with the help of his friends to provide care for children in need of special protection—the poorest of the poor, the abandoned, abused, exploited, neglected, and orphaned. Through its various programs and services, the foundation strives to build a better future for these children by giving back their smiles. The Virlanie Choir, which has sung at more than 70 events for companies, organisations, royalty, and benefit dinners here and abroad, performed during that year's Tatler Ball.

(2016) PGH MEDICAL FOUNDATION INC. - ADVANCED BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

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Conceived to assist the Philippine General Hospital in achieving its mission of providing excellent health care for its indigent patients, the PGH Medical Foundation assists those in need with the help of various civic-minded individuals, corporations, foundations, and other funding agencies. Last year, funds were raised to aid advanced breast cancer patients. Moreover, Leading Biotechnologies partnered in this cause to provide patients with the best biomedical healthcare solutions.

(2018) MOVED FOUNDATION

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In 2018, Tatler Philippines raised funds for the MovEd Foundation. MovEd aims to disrupt the mental framework of most Filipino low-income families to develop a lasting system and culture that places a premium on early childhood education. MovEd Foundation creates regulated spaces and standardised curricula for early childhood education (3-5 years old) in underserved communities in the Philippines. Patterning itself after k-12 systems, the foundation crafted its curriculum to serve students best. Working with local communities, MovEd takes over the facility to re-furbish and provide its systems.  

(2019) WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE

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This year, Tatler Philippines will raise funds for WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) to help battle global warming and assist in conservation efforts. Aiming to heal the planet, our only home, we hope to raise PHP 8,000,000 for this worthy cause. As we celebrate our 18th anniversary, we urge you to join us in several projects to create a lasting and positive impact in our world. You may choose to help WWF Philippines build a new Earth Hour Village that will have solar energy, container gardening, and watch catchment systems to improve the lives of Filipinos in off-grid communities. Alternatively, you can help support environmental education modules to be integrated into public school curriculums with the help of Teach For The Philippines. Lastly, you can fund WWF's Forests for Water program to sponsor a hectare in Ipo Watershed for the next three years. 

(2022) U-GO

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U-Go Founder John Wood with the foundation's scholars
Above U-Go Founder John Wood with the foundation's scholars

The Philippine educational landscape has been facing quite a struggle, especially for underprivileged women who can barely send themselves to college. This 2022, as the much-awaited Tatler-ball returns from its two-year pandemic hiatus, it brings the spotlight closer to the initiatives of John Wood’s ‘U-Go’ foundation. 

U-Go, an education and female empowerment NGO, seeks to give scholarship grants to women from the bottom rungs of society; in the past, it successfully provided educational opportunities to underprivileged women from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This year, it landed in the Philippines with philanthropist Mariana Zobel de Ayala.

“The role of women in the Philippine society has always been contradictory; we see strong examples of women leadership—as presidents, chairwomen of large private institutions, and even heads of household, yet we still lack representation in certain verticals such as mid-management and boards of private institutions,” says Mariana.

“We will create life skills classes so that U-Go scholars can also learn out of the classroom in areas ranging from financial literacy to expanding their career options,” Wood explains. 

(2023) PROJECT INCLUSION NETWORK

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Above Project Inclusion Network (PIN) aims to help persons with disabilities maximise their full potential (Photo: Project Inclusion Network)

According to the United Nations Population Fund, there are over 650 million persons with disabilities in Asia. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) also stated that the unemployment rate for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) increased to 7 per cent in January 2022, highlighting the challenging environment that the minority face. 

Hoping for a nation where the potential of PWDs is realised, the Project Inclusion Network (PIN) is an organisation that aims to improve access to opportunities for these people, enabling their full participation, growth, and success within the workforce. 

Last August 2023, broadcast journalist Karen Davila, in collaboration with former Justice Undersecretary Atty Emmeline Villar, both esteemed board members of PIN, spearheaded an event titled “Inclusive Flavors: Celebrating Abilities, Cultivating Change” to garner support for its initiatives.

Social Welfare and Development of the Philippines Secretary Rex Gatchalian, who was present during the brunch, emphasised the essence of genuine inclusion. “True inclusion transcends mere charitable giving; it hinges on society’s authentic acceptance of individuals with disabilities.”

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(Additional) Jove Moya, Angela Nicole Guiral

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