In 2025, overseas Filipinos sent home a record $39.62 billion in personal remittances, equivalent to roughly 8% of GDP and the highest remittance-to-GDP ratio among major ASEAN economies. For millions of families, that money is the difference between hardship and stability. It’s an act of love, repeated every month, across every time zone.

But love, without structure, can quietly become strain.

Many overseas Filipinos carry a weight that rarely gets named out loud: the pressure to keep sending, even when their own financial futures are uncertain. The guilt of ever considering their own needs first. The fear that saying "I need to invest in myself too" will be heard as abandonment. At the same time, families at home can find themselves in a kind of waiting — for the next transfer, the next holiday, the next lifeline — in ways that were never anyone's intention but slowly become the shape of things.

This is not a story about blame. It is a story about a system that was not designed for sustainability on either end.

The need for capital at home is real and acute. Philippine banks lend only 4.73% of their total loan portfolio to MSMEs, far below the old government quota of 10%, and a figure that has barely moved in years. Loans to micro and small enterprises specifically sit at just 1.96% of total bank lending. NCR (Metro Manila) generates 31% of Philippine GDP while housing only 12% of the population, leaving most of the country chronically underserved by capital.

The money exists. What's missing is the infrastructure, the products, trust, and channels, to allow Filipinos abroad to invest in the Philippines and in themselves, not simply remit and hope. How might we build structures that create financial dignity on both sides?

Last year, I surveyed 63 Filipino and Filipino American respondents (94% based in the United States) about their financial goals, barriers, and appetite for something new. Here's what I found.

The desire to invest is real. Building generational wealth (59%) and wealth accumulation (67%) topped the list of financial goals. But notably, 37% named impact investing as a goal, and 54% selected "Access to Philippine impact investing opportunities" as a benefit they’d be interested in, the most requested feature across all demographics. These were people actively asking for a door to walk through.

But the barriers are structural, not motivational. Respondents cited lack of knowledge, lack of access to experts, and lack of time, not lack of interest. One put it plainly: "Understanding what investment opportunities are available in the Philippines. Finding an easy way to get financially involved without too much oversight on my part."  

Community matters as much as returns. They also most valued financial education (48%), community events (52%), and annual impact reports (38%). Filipino Americans don't just want a financial product. They want to belong to something.

One organization has already solved a version of this problem at scale: Calvert Impact Capital. Since 1995, Calvert has channeled over $3 billion from more than 20,000 ordinary investors into high-impact community development projects across the US and 100+ countries, with 100% repayment of principal and interest since inception. Their Community Investment Note, available for as little as $20 and offering 3–4.5% annual returns with no accreditation required, works because Calvert registered it as a public security, opening it to everyday investors. A Philippine-focused equivalent would need to navigate US SEC and BSP/Philippine SEC requirements. But the blueprint exists.

Ken’s background: BA Economics, Columbia. MBA, Harvard. Goldman Sachs Asia, The Carlyle Group Japan, Asian Development Bank, and 14 years as Partner and MD at Baring Private Equity Asia (now EQT). And now he is fully focused on stewarding his time, capital and expertise to positively impact Filipino lives. 

Today, Ken serves as General Partner at Foxmont Capital Partners, one of the most active early-stage venture capital firms dedicated to Filipino entrepreneurs. Foxmont has been named among Tech in Asia's Top 100 Most Active Investors in Southeast Asian startups, and recently reached a first close of its Fund III at $30 million.  

Ken is also a Co-Founder and GP of Archangel Impact Capital, the first faith-driven, high-impact direct investment fund in the Philippines. Archangel focuses on SMEs with values-driven leadership pursuing what they call a tripartite focus: social impact, spiritual impact, and financial returns.  

Ken also serves on the board of International Care Ministries (ICM), the organization behind the Transform program we featured in Issue 005, which has lifted more than 2 million family members out of extreme poverty.

After over two decades investing across Asia and the world, he chose to narrow his focus to the Philippines to empower underserved communities and support social entrepreneurs in the country of his heritage. This is exactly the movement we need more of. How might we invite more overseas Filipinos in?

We spend a lot of time in this newsletter imaging new ways to build bridges. But before any of that, there is a more fundamental practice: taking time to ask meaningful questions to truly understand.

An invitation: This quarter, pick one person in your life you want to know better. A family member in the Philippines. A colleague. A neighbor. Someone whose inner life you've assumed you understand but have never really asked about.

Then ask them questions you've never asked before.

What are your dreams? What does success look like to you? What would you do if nothing were holding you back? What matters most to you right now? What are you most afraid of?

And then do the harder thing: stay quiet. Don't fix. Don't redirect. Don't share your own answer until they've fully shared theirs. Just listen with the intention of being changed by what you hear.

This is empathy as a practice, not a feeling. It is something you do, not something you wait to feel. And it turns out to be one of the most countercultural acts available to us in a world optimized for talking, scrolling, and performing.

The best investors, builders, and community leaders we know share one trait: they are genuinely curious about other people. Not networking-curious. Not transactionally curious. Curious in the way that makes the other person feel, perhaps for the first time in a long time, truly seen.

That is where transformative possibilities begin.

Reply and tell me what you uncover. I read every response.

How Might We? is published every other week. To share this with someone building, hiring, investing in, or dreaming bigger for the Philippines — forward this email.