By MAGGIE JARUZEL POTTER
Linda Sarsour’s scarf-framed face is increasingly recognized throughout New York City -– in public schools, community centers and police stations. She says she goes wherever a voice is needed to represent Arab Americans and help dispel common stereotypes.
As acting director of the
Arab American Association of New York, Sarsour meets with immigrants from Egypt, Morocco, Yemen and other Arabic-speaking countries and tells them about the practical help the association provides, including translating written documents -– whether legal papers, medical forms, or teachers’ notes sent home for parents of schoolchildren.
“This is my community. If I can’t help the Arab-American community, then who can?” she said.
Created in 2001, the Brooklyn center captured Sarsour’s interest from the start.
Linda Sarsour |
“An organization like this holds the Arab community together,” she said. We come from different backgrounds -– different Arab countries and different religions -– but we make up the Arab-American community.”
The New York association was one of 16 nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. that recently was given a grant during the first-ever round of grantmaking by the
Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP), the first nationwide philanthropic project that promotes Arab-American giving.
A portion of the $5,000 award pays a grantwriter to secure additional funding sources so the association has a broader financial base. The balance of the grant is covering costs to design and print new marketing brochures that explain the association’s work.
In total, CAAP awarded $73,900 in grants. The
Alif Institute in Atlanta, Ga. –- an Arab-American education, arts, culture and enrichment center named after the first letter of the Arabic alphabet –- received the smallest grant for $1,500. Meanwhile, the
Arab Resource and Organizing Center -– a social justice grassroots group in San Francisco, Calif. that provides legal services, leadership programs and an anti-discrimination hotline -– received the largest grant of $7,500.
Jamie Kim |
The grants are meant to help strengthen Arab-American organizations so they can better serve the communities in which they are located, said Jamie Kim, CAAP Director.
Awarding these grants was a historic step in the life of the organization, she said, adding that it was made possible partly because of donations from members of CAAP’s Leadership Circle, a group of prominent Arab Americans from around the country who support and promote Arab-American philanthropy.
Leadership Circle members have worked together for several years to birth and then build CAAP. Additionally, CAPP conducted ground breaking research focusing on Arab American giving habits, resulting in the publication of
Insights on Arab-American Giving: A Report from the Collaborative of Arab-American Philanthropy.
Here are some conclusions drawn from the 2006 study:
- Arab-American participants broadly agreed that philanthropy is a more strategic approach to giving than simply making contributions to charity.
- Participants said that giving to other institutions in the communities where they live and work -- beyond Arab-American organizations -- is a way for Arab Americans to show their interests on a wide range of issues. (The explicit intention for many was to build a more positive image of the Arab-American community.)
- Participants expressed a strong interest in supporting programs for youth, especially those offering greater educational opportunities and also ways for young Arab Americans to become philanthropists.
- Most potential Arab-American donors were unfamiliar with grassroots organizations currently working to strengthen the Arab-American community.
- There were few, if any, “how to” guides specifically written for the Arab-American community to encourage giving.
Arab American New York ESL class 2008 |
Initially funded in 2005, CAAP operates under the umbrella of the
Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), one of the nation’s oldest and largest Arab-American social service organizations. Both are based in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit and home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation. Although more Arab-Americans live in California, the greater Detroit area has a higher local concentration, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 350,000 people, Kim said.
ACCESS received $357,500 from Mott, through the Foundation’s
Civil Society program, to support the creation and development of CAAP.
CAAP is one of ACCESS’s three national initiatives. The others are the
Arab American National Museum, the only museum in the world devoted to Arab-American history and culture, and the
National Network for Arab American Communities, a network of 19 independent Arab-American social service organizations in 11 states.
Many of the organizations that received CAAP grants belong to the national network, Kim said. By strengthening individual organizations scattered throughout the U.S., CAAP can harness the collective power of Arab-American giving and knowledge, she said.
“When philanthropy is done wisely, then it has the ability to continue to build Arab-American nonprofit organizations so they can serve and represent their communities,” Kim said.
Although Arab Americans have been part of the U.S. since its founding, like many other immigrant communities, specific human service organizations that could help them build a sense of community, such as ACCESS, were not created until the early 1970s, Kim said. She noted that the bulk of Arab-American social service organizations started dotting the nation’s landscape in the 1990s.
Yet, Arab-American philanthropy, as its own category of giving, isn’t as developed as it is for other minority groups because until the past 20 years there were very few Arab-American nonprofit organizations in existence that donors could give to, she said.
“The concept of strategic philanthropy is new in the Arab-American community so we have to first start with education,” Kim said.
This includes hosting workshops on estate planning and explaining the benefits of giving through organizations like CAAP, which acts a lot like a community foundation by handling administrative tasks -– meeting IRS requirements, checking the legitimacy of potential recipient organizations and keeping grant records -– while freeing donors to focus on the “fun part” of giving money away, she said.
CAAP also acts like a community foundation by pooling resources of a specific community -– Arab Americans -– and offering them a variety of giving opportunities, such as donating to scholarships and general, designated or geographic-focused funds.
Additionally, CAAP plays the role of an ethnic philanthropic organization, similar to that of the
National Black United Fund,
Hispanics in Philanthropy,
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy and others, Kim said. It broadens and deepens the field of philanthropy overall by working with Arab-American donors -– whether individuals, families or companies -– who want to give time and/or money to Arab-American organizations and other nonprofit institutions, she said.
“Arab Americans are contributing to this country,” Kim said.
“They are powerful, they are successful, and they are giving back and making an impact –- just like any other community in the country.”