On 21st October, WINGS helped facilitate a telemeeting for the Pilot Survey of Institutional Philanthropy in Saudi Arabia.

Despite a surge of new institutional forms of philanthropy in the Arab region, there is little reliable evidence to-date that demonstrates the value of this sector or its contribution to socio-economic development. There is still a heavy reliance on anecdotal evidence and qualitative data in the region. Based on this clear need for data, the Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, in partnership with the King Khaled Foundation and the Hauser Center at Harvard University, is piloting the first country survey on institutionalized philanthropy in Saudi Arabia. This data collection process is part of a global collaborative to develop comparable data on the contribution and role of institutionalized philanthropic giving. Watch this space for survey results.

Heba Abou Shnief, Research Advisor for the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, and a specialist in development policy research on the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, is leading the survey.