Al Waqf

This book explores how philanthropy is perceived and practiced in Egypt. It is the first scientific quantification of philanthropic giving and volunteering using a representative sample of the Egyptian population.

Philanthropy is not a recent phenomenon in Egypt; it is imbedded in a strong culture of giving and volunteering that dates back to ancient Egypt and fortifies into concepts of institutionalized philanthropy like the "zakat" (Islamic compulsory giving) and "waqf" (endowment) throughout the Islamic era. Whether among Christians or Muslims in Egypt, philanthropy has always been the backbone of their civic engagement and this is manifested in Egypt's biggest hospitals and universities that used to be constructed as "waqf" funds sustaining centuries and centuries of public services. With the rise of the modern state in the 19^th century Egypt, and the government becoming the sole provider of all aspects of economic life, philanthropy was no exception. The government started building up ministries to control properties that have been endowed and run as private foundations and the legal environment became more and more restrictive to autonomic civic structures. Traditional philanthropic models became stagnant held by the iron fist of the governing bodies and individual ad-hoc and seasonal giving took over the institutionalized form of philanthropy that used to prevail as waqf structures. After the so called "Arab Spring" there was a glimpse of hope to a more active civil society taking shaping up. This hope soon evaporated hand in hand with the state of chaos and insecurity that characterized the region. Instead, a new phenomenon started to manifest, and that was the rise of young people eager to change the status quo. More and more youth started to be interested in developing social enterprises and the concept of social entrepreneurship began to attract attention among civil society organizations working with young people. The relationship between philanthropy and social entrepreneurship has not been covered in the qualitative part of this study, yet with the creation of Waqfeyat al Maadi Community Foundation (WMCF) as a direct result of this work, more innovative form of philanthropy started to develop. This work does not only provide the reader with qualitative and qualitative analysis of the state of philanthropy in Egypt, but it also provides a solid direct product of the research embodied in the creation of a community foundation reviving and modernizing the concept of waqf. Thus, this action-oriented research is a prefect example of how scientific studies can be best employed to create proto-types that uses learning into calculated action.