Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — The charity sector in the Kingdom says it lacks human resources, with 92 percent of them in pressing need of voluntary help.



The head of the Center for the Development of Non-Profit Establishments at King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, Salem Al-Dini, said 20 percent of the budget of charity associations is covered by pro bono help that is provided through cooperation with the private sector.



Al-Dini, also the founder of Ghadan Consultation Company, talked about his organization’s pro bono initiative where corporate social responsibility departments in private companies play a major role in providing needed human resources for non-profit organizations.



This is either usually by providing volunteers or qualified employees and retired professionals who will be paid at minimal rates.



The different human resources that can be provided to these organizations include human resources, marketing, IT, finance and accounting professionals.



The nature of the volunteering services can be general or specific in nature, such as providing training or by being members of the charities’ boards.



While the private sector companies can provide aid in filling the human resources gaps that charities suffer from, they can also play a part in evaluating these establishments’ status and specifying their needs such as specific experiences, specializations and skills, said Al-Dini.



His presentation was part of different meetings organized by the Sulaiman Al-Rajhi Charitable Foundation to gather different charity organizations to develop the so-called “third sector” and introduce best practices to increase awareness of societies working in this field.



Meanwhile, 28 members of 15 non-profit organizations in Jeddah, Makkah and Taif gathered in the first meeting that will help them on how to use social media to communicate efficiently with the public.



Riyad Al-Furaiji, general supervisor of Riyad Media Company, said non-profit organizations lack communication skills and how to take full advantage of social media channels to understand their audience.



Hilal Al-Qurashi, supervisor of an initiative to improve charity content on the Internet, said they aim to help these establishments reach 500,000 users on social media in the Kingdom and to hit 50 million visits on their accounts and pages.



This initiative is a collaborative effort between the charity Communication and Information Technology for Meaningful Content and Salem Bin Mahfouz Charitable Foundation.