HOW can we do good with less?

For the Lopez Group corporate social responsibility (CSR) community, the answer may begin with something simple: bringing people together.

On Oct. 1-2, 2026, more than 30 CSR leaders and emerging champions gathered for the Lopez Group CSR Assembly 2026, entitled “Doing Good with Less: Advancing Philanthropy Together,” to revisit a century-long tradition of philanthropy and explore new ways to do good together. The two-day gathering brought together people working toward different causes, creating space to reconnect, exchange ideas and discover opportunities to make a greater collective impact.

Held alongside the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) Expo 2026, with its theme “Adapt. Align. and Accelerate.,” the event opened the Group’s CSR practitioners to a wider community of organizations working toward social development.

But before the discussions turned to programs, partnerships and the future of CSR, the gathering began with something more personal—a breakfast, familiar faces and conversations among people who shared a common purpose.

Longtime colleagues caught up on one another’s lives while newer members introduced themselves and found their place in the group. Though they represented different companies and worked on different advocacies, they shared a common desire to make a difference.

It was a reminder that doing good together begins with knowing the people behind the work.

Seeing the bigger picture

The morning began with a collaborative collage-making activity that brought the Group’s seven advocacy clusters back to life: Environment, Education, Child Rights and Development, Humanitarian Action, Livelihood and Social Entrepreneurship, Health and Wellness, and Arts and Culture.

Participants brought photographs, project materials and stories from their respective organizations. Working with others in their clusters, they arranged these pieces into shared canvases that would later become part of the Lopez Group booth at the LCF Expo.

As they shared their work, individual initiatives began to form a bigger picture. Treegrowing programs, educational interventions, community enterprises, health services and cultural initiatives were no longer presented as separate efforts. Together, they showed the breadth of the Group’s commitment to social development.

For some participants, the activity was their first opportunity to connect directly with their advocacy cluster. For others, it offered a fresh perspective on work they had been doing for years. The experience helped clarify where their organizations fit within the Group’s broader development agenda and where opportunities for collaboration might lie.

It also revealed something worth recognizing: The Lopez Group was already doing a great deal across its different organizations. The challenge was to see these efforts not only for their individual value, but also for what they could achieve when connected.

Legacy beyond its history

If the collages showed what the Lopez Group is doing today, the assembly’s fireside chat explored where that tradition began.

The conversation brought together Benjamin “Jay” R. Lopez (BRL), president of Lopez Holdings Corporation and INAEC Aviation Corporation; Atty. Allan Barcena, assistant vice president and head of the Corporate Support Group of First Gen Renewables; and Briana Lopez Guingona, an environmental justice advocate. Moderated by Prof. Alfie Anthony Neodama, history professor at Iloilo Science and Technology UniversityMiag-ao campus, and Perpi Tiongson, operations head of Lopez Group Foundation Inc. (LGFI), their discussion traced the Lopez family’s tradition of philanthropy across generations, long before CSR became a familiar business term.

One early example dates to the great famine of 1876, when Eugenio Lopez and their family extended assistance to workers and neighbors by providing food and other resources. That spirit of helping others became part of a family tradition that continued to evolve alongside its businesses.

For the current generation of CSR practitioners, this history offered more than a reason to look back. It provided a deeper understanding of the values behind the work they carry forward today.

Asked what doing good means to him personally, BRL offered a simple answer: “Doing good, I think, is serving others.” He recalled how growing up as the seventh child in his family taught him, even at a young age, that sometimes survival meant serving his six older siblings. Beneath the lighthearted anecdote was a more serious lesson—service begins with recognizing the needs of others.

“Doing good, seriously, is more than just contributing one’s value. It is giving of your time and your talent,” he added, recalling how he witnessed this spirit in his parents, Oscar M. Lopez and Consuelo Rufino Lopez.

His reflections brought the discussion back to the people behind philanthropy. Giving is not measured by resources alone. It also involves the willingness to participate, share what one can offer and make service part of everyday life.

For Briana Lopez Guingona, the responsibility of carrying this legacy forward takes on a particular urgency for younger generations. Growing up amid environmental and social challenges, she observed how many young people feel the weight of problems that can seem too large to solve. Yet she also sees a generation looking for ways to align their work with their values.

For her, “corporate social responsibility should not be treated as a checkbox or an activity businesses pursue outside their primary operations. It should come from a genuine desire to improve people’s lives and shape how organizations do business.”

Barcena reinforced this point from the perspective of business: “Companies depend on people and communities, and their long-term success is closely tied to the trust they build with them.”

Social responsibility, therefore, cannot stop at donations or community outreach. It must also be reflected in how companies treat their employees, make decisions and conduct their operations.

Together, the speakers offered a view of philanthropy that connects the past with the present, a tradition that remains meaningful because it continues to respond to the needs of people and society.

Legacy beyond the booth

The fireside chat set the stage for the afternoon’s advocacy quest, which challenged participants to take their learning beyond the assembly and engage with the wider CSR community at the LCF Expo.

Through a series of tasks, participants explored the Lopez Group booth, spoke with other organizations and examined how well-intentioned initiatives can sometimes produce unintended positive consequences.

They were also invited to reflect on how cultural traditions and community practices can lose their meaning when reduced to commodities or superficial displays. The activities encouraged participants to look beyond their own organizations and recognize the wider landscape of people working for social change.

At the LCF Expo, the cluster collages created that morning became a shared showcase of the Group’s diverse initiatives. Surrounded by other foundations, businesses and development practitioners, participants encountered new perspectives and potential partners.

Doing good with less, in this context, was not simply about working with fewer resources. It was also about making better use of what already exists: knowledge, relationships, shared expertise and opportunities to learn from others.

The experience underscored that the Lopez Group is part of a much larger community of practice. Its work becomes stronger when its members collaborate with others, share lessons, and remain open to new approaches.

Shared heritage to shared action

On the second day, participants gathered for a legacy workshop to reflect on what they had learned and identify ways to carry the experience forward.

The conversations returned to the advocacy clusters and the connections formed during the collage-making activity. Participants described the experience as eye-opening, particularly for those who had not previously seen how their work aligned with the Group’s wider development efforts.

For some, it was the first time they felt a stronger sense of belonging to a shared advocacy. For others, it revealed opportunities to turn existing programs into learning resources, share effective practices and explore collaborations across organizations.

The discussions also raised an important question: How can this shared purpose gain stronger support within individual companies?

Participants recognized the need to help senior leaders better understand the value of CSR, particularly when competing priorities affect resource allocation. Suggestions included making the Lopez philanthropic heritage more visible, sharing the Group’s collective impact and creating more opportunities for CSR leaders to learn from one another. These reflections pointed to a common aspiration. The Lopez Group’s tradition of philanthropy is not simply a legacy to preserve. It is a responsibility to keep building upon.

The activity concluded with a pinning ceremony led by the Lopez family, represented by Mercedes Lopez Vargas, president and executive director of LGFI, and Briana Lopez Guingona. Participants who completed the advocacy quest and those who demonstrated exemplary commitment throughout the assembly and expo received pins bearing the Lopezes’ coat of arms. The pins recognized them as champions and bearers of the family’s enduring legacy of doing good.

Doing good with less

For more than a century, the Lopez family and its businesses have supported efforts to uplift lives and serve the Filipino people. Today, that tradition continues through organizations addressing the needs of communities, protecting the environment, advancing education, supporting livelihoods and preserving culture.

The CSR Assembly offered an opportunity to recognize these efforts as part of a larger story, one shaped by different people and organizations but grounded in a shared commitment to service.

Doing good with less doesn’t mean asking people to do less for others. It means finding ways to make every effort count, building on what has already been accomplished and recognizing that collaboration can create opportunities no single organization could achieve alone.

As the Lopez Group CSR community looks ahead, its strength lies not only in the programs it delivers, but also in the people who make them possible and the relationships that bring their work together.

The two-day assembly began with a question about how to do more good with less. It ended with a deeper understanding that the answer is not found in any one program, company or individual.

It is found in the willingness to serve, the courage to keep learning and the commitment to work together.

Faith Bacon of LGFI welcomes participants of the Lopez Group CSR Assembly 2026

Mercedes Lopez Vargas (rightmost) with the LGFI team

Lopez Holdings Corp. and INAEC Aviation Corp. president Jay R. Lopez and his niece Briana Lopez
Guingona during the fireside chat

First Gen Renewables AVP Atty. Allan Barcena with other members of the
Education cluster during the collage-making activity

The Livelihood and Social Enterprises cluster working on their collage

Phil-Asia Assistance Foundation Inc. chairperson
Angela Lopez shares her insights during the fireside
chat

Oscar M. Lopez Center programs director Mariana
Vargas Morada shares her personal take on what doing
good means for her

Moderator Prof. Alfie Anthony Neodama of ISAT U

The pins bearing the Lopez coat of arms

First Gen’s Janbern Barel and other CSR practitioners receive their pins from Mercedes Lopez
Vargas and Briana Lopez Guingona

CSR Assembly participants display the clusters’ collages at the LCF Expo in Glorietta