Giving Compass' Take:

• Maysa Kalbout discusses the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation's collaboration and utilization of technology in making higher education attainable for Arab youth.

• How can some of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation's strategies be implemented in other parts of the world?

• Read more about online learning programs.

Four years ago, we set out to establish the Arab world’s largest privately funded education foundation. The mandate that its founder Abdulla Al Ghurair laid out was focused and ambitious: to help 15,000 under-served, high-achieving Arab youth access high-quality education. Despite the seemingly daunting challenge, the foundation is on course to not only achieve but far exceed its original goal – in large part due to its strategy of learning, innovating and working in partnership.

It was only with open communication and close partnership with our university partners that we learned how to support our scholars as they strove to overcome challenges. The foundation’s scholarship model is far from perfect but it has gone a long way to address the barriers underprivileged youth face in higher education and has the potential to become a valuable resource for all those who want to offer life-changing scholarships.

One of the most promising online learning initiatives is a new collaboration between the foundation and the American University of Beirut, which takes the institution online, building on what we and the world have learned from this space while fostering homegrown regional innovation to meet the needs of students. This initiative has the potential to change teaching and learning in universities in the region and make higher education much more accessible.

It is my hope that every organisation will see the value of contributing to building the ecosystem of philanthropy across the region through knowledge-sharing, joint initiatives and encouraging more institutional giving.

Read the full article about the UAE's ecosystem of philanthropy by Maysa Jalbout at The National.