The project

Gifts and Graces was founded by Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez and Marge Barro who were both graduate students at AIM when they met. They both conceived of Gifts and Graces as a result of a case study showing that NGOs need marketing support for their livelihood programs. Gits and Graces was registered in January 2006 and is currently headed by its Executive Director and President Ms. Greg M. Perez. The Gifts and Graces team has five (5) female and three (3) male employees at the office, and two (2) sales clerks, one (1) male and one (1) female, in Robinson's Ermita. Gifts and Graces is currently supporting twenty-five (25) partner community-based livelihood enterprises consisting of NGOs, Cooperatives, People's Organizations, and Micro-entrepreneurs from Metro Manila, Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. These producers are urban poor women, men and their families, indigenous groups, street children, former prison inmates, persons with disabilities, special needs individuals, coconut farmers and trafficked girls. Each livelihood enterprise has from three to thirty (3 – 30) producers. Gifts and Graces has an in-house Designer that provides design inputs for products. Gifts and Graces then purchases and aggregates the products from their partner suppliers then markets them to different corporate clients or different retail establishments such as Robinsons Department Stores, Wellworth Department Store, and the Ayala Museum Shop. Gifts and Graces also partners with other organizations such as Globe Telecom to be able to hold capacity building for their partner communities. Last year, selected producers were trained on fair trade, enterprise management, skills training, emailing, and product development. In the future, Gifts and Graces envisions putting up a flagship store and growing its e-commerce business in order to reach a wider market. Lend a Hand partner’s NPFC is helping Gift and Graces acquire additional capital to boost the purchases and support for the incoming orders.