Alfanar Venture Philanthropy
Building the capacity and sustainability of Middle Eastern social enterprises
Alfanar Venture Philanthropy provides long-term funding to social enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa who often struggle to survive or grow thanks to limited funding sources and capacity-building support.
Alfanar’s funding and technical support aims to strengthen business models, enhance operational capacity and help mature enterprises to scale up.
The charity, which puts children, young people, women and people with disabilities at the heart of its mission, believes that providing social enterprises with patient funding, hands-on capacity building and access to markets and networks is crucial to create a sustainable impact.
Support comprises three core components: grants to help the enterprises hire talent and develop sustainable revenue streams; a dedicated portfolio manager to provide advice on areas such as finance, marketing and governance, and scalability; and access to potential new markets and investors.
In 2024, the charity supported 39 social enterprises in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine to address challenges such as access to quality education, sustainable employment, environmental resilience and cultural heritage preservation through £711,720 in grants and £785,830 in technical support.
The enterprises it supported improved the lives of 83,631 people, including 11,332 children who accessed quality education and 24,456 people who received emergency food aid. They increased their annual impact by 37% and self-generated revenue by 34%.
Three-quarters of social enterprises supported by Alfanar last year said that they significantly improved their impact and financial performance as a result of the charity’s support, and almost nine in 10 stated that they valued Alfanar’s technical support as much as or more than its financial support.
To avoid a funding gap after the social enterprises exit its portfolio, the charity also offers zero-interest loans and a post-support impact fund.
Awards judge Richard Hawkes, CEO at the British Asian Trust, praised Alfanar’s “absolutely brilliant development practice”.
Shane Ryan, senior adviser to the National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The patient capital approach combined with intensive capacity-building represents a thoughtful intervention strategy that builds sustainable solutions rather than creating dependency. Their focus on underserved populations including youth, women, and people with disabilities demonstrates commitment to inclusion and equity.”
Jehangir Malik admired the charity’s model of venture philanthropy over grant funding, which will become increasingly necessary in the current climate of cuts to official aid. “Alfanar’s ability to keep functioning in the face of external shocks is strong.”
CC Reg. no. 1105048
