Shared Hope, Greater Impact

SM Foundation and Mastercard’s Ten outstanding STEM students (TOSS) for Academic Year 2025-2026

When hope is shared, it grows. But when people come together with trust, respect, and a common purpose, that hope becomes something even stronger with a force for lasting change.

Collaboration is not simply people working side by side, it is the building of a shared vision where each partner brings strengths, resources, and ideas that make a greater impact possible. 

For decades, SM Foundation has done this through programs that bring education, healthcare, livelihood, and community support closer to Filipinos who need them most. Its scholarship program remains one of the clearest examples of this mission: one student supported today can become tomorrow’s professional, mentor, and changemaker.

Every step forward is made possible through shared purpose. Together with its participating organizations, SM Foundation continues to open doors to education, empowering scholars with the opportunities and support they need to pursue their dreams and create a brighter future.

Through collaborations with local communities, institutions, and industry stakeholders, SM Foundation helps farmers gain the skills, market access, and opportunities needed to build more sustainable livelihoods.

SM Foundation has supported 7,376 college scholars, with 4,640 college scholar graduates to date. Its education initiatives have also helped build 116 school buildings and 398 classrooms, creating safer and more conducive learning environments for public school students. Complementing these efforts, the Foundation has rehabilitated 228 health and wellness centers, helping improve access to quality healthcare in communities across the country.

The same mission extends beyond schools and healthcare facilities. Through 1,797 medical missions, SM Foundation has served over a million patients nationwide. Its SM Blood Bank initiative has collected more than 40,000 blood bags. In livelihood, its Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Market Linkage Program now has 72 farmers supplying produce to the SM Weekend Market, helping transform harvests into more stable and sustainable sources of income.

More than just numbers, the impact grows when support is designed not only to respond to immediate needs, but to create pathways that last.

SM Foundation works with around 60 participating organizations for education and more than 100 participating organizations across its education, livelihood, and health programs, each one helping extend opportunity to more communities. As its partner base grows, SM Foundation also continues to care for sponsors through recognition and meaningful value for the support they give.

Collaborations with industry participants enable SM Foundation to bring quality healthcare closer to underserved communities through medical missions and improved health facilities.

"At the core of every collaboration is the sharing of strengths," said Joy Guevarra, Partnerships Manager of SM Foundation. "By working together, we achieve far more than what we originally set out to do. Collaborations create a multiplier effect, allowing our programs to reach more communities and make a greater impact."

Working hand in hand with participating organizations, SM Foundation continues to create learning environments where students can thrive.

That multiplier effect is evident in SM Foundation's collaboration with Mastercard. What began during the pandemic with the provision of tablets to SM scholars, ensuring they could continue learning amid remote classes, has since evolved into a broader collaboration. Today, the collaboration focuses on expanding access to education and encouraging more youth to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Representatives from SM Foundation and Mastercard join TOSS scholars in celebrating a collaboration that continues to create opportunities through education. Built on a shared commitment to empowering Filipino youth, the collaboration reflects how working together can expand access to learning and help shape the next generation of leaders.

"Creating impact is not only about the resources each organization brings, but also about how we bring people together around a shared purpose," said Jason Crasto, Country Manager, Philippines, Mastercard. "SM Foundation's deep expertise in education, combined with Mastercard's network of stakeholders and cardholders, has allowed us to reach more students and create opportunities that neither organization could have achieved alone."

Every new supporter represents more than just an added name to SM Foundation's growing network. It can mean another scholar entering college, another patient receiving care, another farmer finding an avenue to sell, or another community gaining access to essential support.

Scholars who graduate can find gainful employment, support their families, help siblings or relatives continue school, and contribute back to their communities — proof that the change continues long after assistance is given.

"We've seen how opportunity can transform lives and open doors to new possibilities," Crasto added. "When organizations, communities, and individuals each contribute what they can, those collective efforts create lasting opportunities not only for today's scholars, but for the families and communities they will one day help uplift."

Guevarra carries the same message that “to create positive change, you don’t need to make it big. You can start with the world of the person sitting next to you.”

And when shared purpose is turned into action, its impact is not merely added. It is multiplied—one scholar, one family, one patient, one farmer, and one community at a time.