IT is the season for giving and everyone wants money. Charity is big business in the Kingdom and people are being inundated with requests for cash. The beggars are at the streetlights, outside the supermarkets and ringing doorbells every afternoon. The licensed charities have tables at the malls and tents near the Corniche. There are even representatives of charities based in other Islamic countries who have traveled to Saudi Arabia to publicize the work they are doing for desperately needy Muslims abroad.
Not all groups are using the personal touch in their fund-raising efforts. Those charities that don’t have enough staff to reach out in person, are packing post boxes with pleading letters. People are already feeling squeezed this year and are worried about hard economic times to come. It is simply impossible that any individual or company could give a reasonable donation to all the groups who have already asked for one and yet the requests are still piling up.
Because they have had an office in the Kingdom for years and realized that economic conditions would make this a challenging fund-raising season, UNICEF was off the mark early. They had their letters for holiday giving posted by the end of Rajab. While they included their excellent card and gift catalog in the mailing they also sent a letter which stated that they would accept direct donations by check or to their bank account.
In order to reach the widest audience possible, all the information for UNICEF’s fund-raising campaign was provided in Arabic and English, using fronts and backs of pages rather than separate sheets of paper. They also included every possible type of contact information from postal address and telephone to e-mail and pager. One thing that couldn’t be understood from the details in the packet was how the cards and gift items would be shipped. Consequently, it was impossible to know what was the latest date to order if holiday delivery was required.
Another group that started their seasonal fund-raising early was the International Islamic Relief Organization. The representative at IIRO’s Alkhobar Corniche tent, Anees Muhammad, said that the group had been working since the beginning of Shaban on their current relief effort, which was primarily for Afghanistan. Since the Alkhobar Corniche tent opened, the IIRO had raised SR50,000 from that one location. They also had taken in a large amount of donated goods like clothes and blankets.
"Many of the donations are small, but that’s fine because every amount helps. Many small amounts add up to a lot in the end and we are grateful for any donation either in cash or kind," Anees said.
The IIRO’s staff is trained to be extremely polite and express gratitude no matter what the size of the donation. They ask the giver for what purpose he would like his donation used and then provide either preprinted coupons stating that purpose or write the intended use of the donation on a receipt offered to the giver. Anees stated that he is pleased to accept donations from anyone and that although his English is limited, he always does his best to communicate his thanks to expatriates.
A Palestinian who is in the Kingdom speaking out about the desperate situation in the occupied territories is Mohumoud Ma’roof Mustafa. He has come to Saudi Arabia to deliver annual reports to those companies who have been generous supporters of the Nablus Zakat Organization in the past.
This year the situation in the occupied territories is especially difficult. With the downturn in the US economic situation, the tragedy at the World Trade Center, and the crisis in Afghanistan, it has been a terrible struggle to attract financial aid.
In Palestine, many poor children are unable to afford private education and the Palestinian Authority simply doesn’t have the funds to keep schools functioning anymore. Al-Farouq National Secondary School is one in crisis and Mustafa is hoping that he can find individuals or an organization interested in helping this school stay operational. Mustafa has all the necessary letters of certification from the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian Ministry of Education, now all he needs are people with generous souls.
Last Friday, in Arab News’ Islam in Perspective page, edited by Adil Salahi, there was a religious opinion given that "helping a Muslim in urgent need, such as the refugees from conflict areas such as Afghanistan or the victims of Israeli aggression is far more urgent than helping the general Islamic advocacy work." The opinion went on to read that if an individual had plenty of money to give away, he would do well to divide it in a way that would help several causes. If, however, he had only a small amount to give, then he would have to consider which of the causes needed more urgent assistance.
No one can question to whom people choose to give their charity, but what must be questioned is the ways in which some charities are soliciting their donations. Standing in the Alkhobar main post office this month I stood at a table with representatives from other companies sorting through the incoming mail. There were so many letters from charities. The Qur’an Memorization Society in Al-Qunfuddah, the Foreigners Guidance Office Al-Khobeb at Buraidah, and Al-Bir in Al-Quwara were among the dozens of organizations asking for funds from afar.
Most of the letters had cost SR1 to send plus the cost of preparing the materials inside the envelopes and people simply stood over the trash can at the post office and dropped them in. Local charities must do a better job of targeting donors because much of their current efforts are useless. How many children in Afghanistan could have been provided with shoes or students in Palestine could have been educated for the cost of those mailings?
