TY - JOUR
T1 - A Conceptual Model of Foundations’ Leadership Capacity in Times of Change
T2 - Lessons From Egypt
AU - Herrold, Catherine E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Traditions of institutionalized philanthropy have deep roots in Egypt. Prior to the mid-20th century, social welfare was largely funded by endowment funds from awqaf (singular, waqf), or Islamic trusts (Cizakca, 1998; Kuran, 2001; Zencirci, 2015). Political and economic elites established awqaf as private pious acts but earmarked endowment proceeds for public purposes. Waqf funds supported the development and maintenance of hospitals, schools, soup kitchens, religious institutions, and infrastructure projects, creating a public welfare system that relied largely on private benevolence. After the Nasser government nationalized awqaf in the early 1950s, it fell out of favor as a vehicle for private philanthropy (Atia, 2013).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - In the wake of the January 25, 2011 Egyptian uprisings, local private and community foundations responded divergently to civil society’s calls for political change. Egypt’s community foundations quickly positioned themselves as leaders of democratic political reforms, while private foundations remained focused on their pre-2011 activities in the economic development realm. To explain the foundations’ different responses to the uprisings, the article draws upon extant literature to develop a conceptual model of foundations’ capacity to lead change. It then applies the model to the Egyptian case, arguing that community foundations’ high levels of political independence and low levels of financial and civic independence facilitated their leadership efforts, while private foundations’ low levels of political and financial independence and high levels of civic independence hampered their ability to lead reform initiatives. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
AB - In the wake of the January 25, 2011 Egyptian uprisings, local private and community foundations responded divergently to civil society’s calls for political change. Egypt’s community foundations quickly positioned themselves as leaders of democratic political reforms, while private foundations remained focused on their pre-2011 activities in the economic development realm. To explain the foundations’ different responses to the uprisings, the article draws upon extant literature to develop a conceptual model of foundations’ capacity to lead change. It then applies the model to the Egyptian case, arguing that community foundations’ high levels of political independence and low levels of financial and civic independence facilitated their leadership efforts, while private foundations’ low levels of political and financial independence and high levels of civic independence hampered their ability to lead reform initiatives. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
KW - Egypt
KW - community foundations
KW - philanthropy
KW - social movements
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U2 - 10.1177/0899764017746020
DO - 10.1177/0899764017746020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041618289
SN - 0899-7640
VL - 47
SP - 286
EP - 303
JO - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
JF - Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -