Deepening Impact Through Community-Led Finance Samar Crusade Against Poverty, Inc. (SCPI)
Organization Profile
Samar Crusade Against Poverty, Inc. (SCPI) is a development-oriented microfinance institution rooted in the province of Northern Samar. Established in 2013, SCPI is committed to serving what it calls the demarginalized sector, rural farming and enterprising households, through an inclusive and integrated approach it calls Social Microfinance.
SCPI goes beyond conventional microfinance by offering both financial tools, including loans, savings, and insurance, and a range of non-financial services such as capacity building and technical support. True to its ethos, SCPI refers to its clients not as beneficiaries, but as partners who are active participants in their own financial journey.
The organization operates through three branches and a head office. In 2024, with support from the UNDP, it launched a field office in Catubig, implementing Community-Managed Microfinance Teams across 20 savings groups engaged in both livelihood recovery and biodiversity conservation. The result is a distinctive approach that fuses financial inclusion with environmental sustainability.
From Conventional to Community-Managed: Rethinking Microfinance Delivery
Before the partnership with RestartME, SCPI followed traditional microfinance center models. However, over time, they realized that top-down structures were limiting long-term community impact and portfolio sustainability. In response, they shifted toward a community-managed microfinance (CM-MF) model, where communities manage their own savings and lending activities.
This shift brought a dual benefit. It strengthened ownership and accountability within communities. It allowed SCPI to stretch limited institutional resources by activating local capital through savings counterparts.
However, challenges remained. Northern Samar was hard hit by COVID-19 and a subsequent African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak, both of which disrupted income-generating activities and heightened financial vulnerability among SCPI partners.
A Strategic Inflection Point: Enter RestartME
In 2023, SCPI formally partnered with RestartME, leveraging industry networks to access a targeted recovery loan fund designed specifically for pandemic- and disaster-affected microentrepreneurs. RestartME’s loan capital infusion helped SCPI scale up its rehabilitation support in a deliberate and structured way beyond emergency relief efforts of the past.
Impact Highlights:
759 microentrepreneurs accessed RestartME recovery loans.
Approximately Php 12 million in portfolio disbursements were made to support restarts of income-generating projects.
Borrowers showed high demand for repeat loans, signaling both recovery momentum and institutional trust.
Repayment remained strong, supported by RestartME’s flexible policies, which contrasted with the rigid terms of informal or corporate lenders.
SCPI reports that borrowers were deeply appreciative of RestartME’s 2% monthly interest rate, flexible repayment terms, and absence of collateral requirements. Compared to predatory daily-payment lenders charging up to 20% interest, the RestartME facility offered safe, dignified, and scalable recovery finance.
Rebuilding Livelihoods, Rebuilding Confidence
One borrower story stands out. A livestock entrepreneur who lost everything during the ASF outbreak. The trauma was so intense, they could not bear to look at their empty piggery. With RestartME’s help, they pivoted to a new income stream and are now rebuilding both their livelihood and their financial confidence.
In many cases, parents who paused their children's education to fund business restarts are now regaining stable monthly incomes which allows them to send their children back to school. As one borrower shared, without SCPI and RestartME, they would have resorted to exploitative lenders or abandoned entrepreneurship altogether.
Flexibility, Continuity, and Planned Recovery
SCPI sees an opportunity for RestartME to expand its impact through more continuous financing. Current one-year loan terms are helpful, but borrowers, especially those in recovery, need uninterrupted access to funds. RestartME’s flexible lending policies stand out. Some loans even stretch up to five years, which is a lifeline for rebuilding livelihoods.
There is also a need for technical assistance, as SCPI’s clients often come from crisis situations. Unlike typical MFIs, SCPI uses monthly repayments instead of weekly, giving borrowers space to stabilize and grow.
Perhaps the biggest shift RestartME enabled is turning disaster relief into structured recovery. Previously, responses were limited to food packs and used goods. Now, SCPI has a dedicated lending facility for calamity-affected areas, thanks to RestartME. Recovery is no longer reactive. It’s part of the plan.