الجمعيات الأهلية.. من منطق التوسع إلى منطق التعمق

According to the latest update from the National Center for the Development of the Non-Profit Sector, our country hosts (6,286) charitable associations, with a leap of 44% over the past two years.

No one disagrees on the importance of the increasing number of associations, especially specialized associations that fill precise developmental gaps in society.

I believe that at this stage, we should pause the establishment of new charitable associations; the goal is not in quantity but in quality. What we observe on the ground today is that most new charitable associations suffer from three recurring challenges:

First: A lack of financial resources; many were established with enthusiasm for an idea without a realistic study for financial sustainability.

Second: Weak human competencies; work has become an industry that requires project management, impact measurement, marketing, and governance. Most nascent associations are managed by volunteer efforts that lack specialization.

Third: Associations without premises or activities; there are newly licensed associations that have no headquarters and have not started their actual activities, which empties the concept of the association of its substance and turns it into just a number in the registry of associations.

Perhaps the continuation of this situation will inevitably affect the reputation of the sector as a whole. Those who see a struggling association will not judge it alone but will generalize their judgment to the entire sector, eroding the trust that the National Center has built with great effort over the past years through governance and transparency.

Therefore, I believe that the next phase requires a shift from the "logic of expansion" to the "logic of depth and quality" through two pathways:

First: Reviewing the standards and regulations for establishing new associations, with the goal of ensuring the minimum readiness.

Second: A serious study for merging similar associations operating in the same city, field, and target group. Merging will achieve higher quality in performance, significant reductions in operational and administrative costs, better negotiating power, and a broader and more focused community impact.