How does the Jeel Fund work?
The Jeel Fund is Impact Lebanon Charity’s first fund raising initiative, in support of education in Lebanon. Our fundraising effort relies on two pillars:
- Online donations: Those will be raised through the donate page on our website. They can be one-offs or recurring donations. We are targeting the Lebanese diaspora globally via social media. We expect the average donation to range from £10 to £30 per month. We hope to scale relatively quickly.
- One-off donations: Those are typically larger amounts from individuals, corporations or non-profits who approach us for. When such opportunities arise, we have direct discussions with the donor(s) where we go over our work in more detail.
Why the focus on education?
Education is vital in nurturing critical thinking, providing a sustainable source of income, increasing social mobility, and is a key building block of a more inclusive society. Over the last few years, Lebanon has suffered from political unrest, a meltdown of its financial services and banking sectors, a significant increase in unemployment (more than 40%), poverty rates (in excess of 55%), inflation (in excess of 280%), cost of living, security issues and disruption of the supply of critical materials, such as medical supplies. The Beirut port explosion on August 4th, 2020 exacerbated these issues. As a result, the education sector is significantly suffering, with students not being able to pay their tuition fees and universities being under immense financial pressure.
Where will the collected donations be used?
We plan to follow a two-pronged approach to help us deliver impact in the short term while also building out a sustainable model to help us continue to support education in Lebanon in the longer term:
- Over time, part of the funds raised (we are targeting 50%) will go towards scholarships every academic year to our selected universities.
- The balance will be used to build an endowment fund that we hope will enable us to grow our capabilities and build a long-term mechanism to contnue to support education in Lebanon. The amounts we place in our endowment will be invested in a mixture of asset classes by Impact Lebanon Charity and managed by a team of volunteer financiers.
Why an endowment?
An endowment is an aggregation of the funds received through donations. The endowment funds are invested over multiple generations. Hence unlike a donation that is expended upon receipt, an endowed donation keeps on giving over time. Endowed donations help enable future generations of students to benefit from a higher quality of education.
Who will receive the scholarships?
We will initially focus on scholarships for Lebanese undergraduate students in the top three Lebanese universities (American University of Beirut (AUB), L’Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (USJ), Lebanese American University (LAU)).
Impact Lebanon Charity assessed the universities landscape in Lebanon based on eight criteria mixing economic, social, educational, and operational aspects. A leading global consultancy kindly helped us with this work on pro-bono basis. The table below summarises our findings based on these criteria. As a result of this assessment, Impact Lebanon Charity decided to prioritise these three universities in Lebanon. We intend to do regular checks to ensure that the money is going to tuition fees. Each of these universities have a long history and have been accredited by international organisation.
What academic programs/ fields of study will the fund sponsor?
All academic programs/ fields of study are eligible for the scholarship.
What are the criteria for the fund disbursement? Who is eligible for the grant?
We will work directly with AUB, USJ and LAU to select the candidates that fit our criteria for receiving a scholarship, thereby ensuring that fund recipients are indeed deserving students who most need financial assistance. The selection will rely on a mix of criteria with clearly allocated weights and scoring metrics which are outlined in the table below.
How many students will be targeted yearly?
This will depend on the amounts we raise. But our ambitions are big and we we do hope that donors will support us! Our 3 year objective is to reach a scale where we can support more than 150 university students every year. We will report on this number on yearly basis to provide transparency.
What will the disbursed fund cover? Only tuition fee?
At this stage, we will support tuition fees. Moving forwards to hope to be able to expand this scope.
Who will receive the funds and how will you follow up on their effectiveness?
Impact Lebanon Charity will be disbursing the tuition fees directly to the three universities mentioned above, rather than to the student. We will also coordinate with the universities to monitor the academic performance of scholarship recipients.
How will you ensure transparency to your donors and the public?
The Jeel Fund is an initiative by Impact Lebanon Charity. As a UK charity we are governed by the reporting rules and regulations of the UK Charity Commission to ensure transparency and accountability. We have a full set of policies that our volunteers must abide by. We will also be reporting publicly on yearly basis through our social media accounts, our website and emails to an opted-in donor or subscriber list.
Is Impact Lebanon Charity connected to Impact Lebanon LTD?
Impact Lebanon Charity and Impact Lebanon LTD Limited have a shared wider purpose to support impactful initiatives in Lebanon through the diaspora’s engagement, yet they are two separate legal entities, each fully independent, and with a clear separation in their governance structure, their financing and their leadership.