About Balad Community

~CREATING OPPORTUNITY~

balad is an Arabic word meaning the Land.

Be like the Honey Bee, anything it eats it eats is clean, anything it drops is sweet, and the branch it sits upon does not break.
-Imam Ali (AS) 

Traditional societies lived in balance with each other and their environment. Structures were inclusive through every stage of human life.

The aim of balad is to:
i) Create opportunity and wealth through investment and trade and;
ii) Re-invest to empower communities through sustainable development and supporting institutions.

Balance and fair distribution of wealth is key to sustainable development, where communities can flourish and the balad ecosystem for creating sustainable communities is as follows:

1. Charity

Charity is the foundation of our community. It purifies our wealth and brings blessing to the individual and the community.

In a world where charity has become big business, balad aims to rediscover the Purpose of Charity, where 100% of your donations are spent directly on the Charitable Projects In’sha Allah (God Willing).

How can this be achieved?

The first step was to establish a charity, the Balad Foundation, registered in the United Kingdom (Charity number 1192626), which collects donations and manages charitable development projects. Two of the Trustees are experienced Project Managers (Chartered Surveyor and Building Surveyor) with 20 years of experience each. Their contribution is on a purely voluntary basis leading to huge cost savings. In time we will be looking for other volunteers to help with the charity’s work In’sha Allah.

The second step is for all operation expenses to be deducted from donations made by the Trustees or their associated companies, so expense is deducted from your donations.

Please Note: Charity operating expenses are separate from Charity project expenses. We responsible for absorbing only the operating expenses, in order that 100% of your donations can be spent on the project expenses. There are third party costs like payment gateway, crowd funding platform costs, bank fees etc., which are deducted before some donations reach the Balad Foundation. Our 100% donation policy is related to net funds we receive. We are working hard to to build our community of donors who send funds by direct bank transfer or standing order to reduce some of these third party costs.

2. Investment

In order to implement our 100% donation policy for our Charity, the Balad Foundation, we need to generate income through creating investments. We already have a UK company, Balad Ltd, and have established an Egyptian Company, Balad (Import & Export) which will focus on Africa Trade In’sha Allah.

Prior to those entities becoming profitable, we will continue to be responsible for absorbing the operating expenses of the Balad Foundation.

3. Development

Once our commercial entities become profitable In’sha Allah, profits will go back into sustainable development projects through the Balad Foundation and partnering with other Charities and NGOs.

This follows the model of establishing a Waqf or endowment to manage the operational costs of your charitable activities.

Outcome – Community Building

We cannot solve the insecurity a majority of the world’s population living from hand to mouth with no assets or pension , but we believe our model will play its small part in being part of the solution In’sha Allah.

When we can create wealth from communities for communities, we hope those communities can once again thrive and restore the balance In’sha Allah.

CREATING OPPORTUNITY