About Jeel

JEEL’S MISSION

Through the Jeel Fund, Impact Lebanon Charity aims to build a long-term sustainable solution to support students seeking higher education in Lebanon.

“Investments are needed to ensure that the costs of education do not prevent young people from getting the education and skills they need to eventually find decent work and contribute to the stability and prosperity of Lebanon.”

UNICEF

Jeel’s Story

Impact Lebanon Charity (ILC) was founded in November 2020 and registered in the UK as a charity regulated by the UK Charity Commission — a non-ministerial department for England and Wales.

The founding team, driven by its commitment to supporting education in Lebanon, and its belief in the power of the Lebanese diaspora to rally and support, has since launched the Jeel Education Fund which has been supporting university students tuitions since 2023 with the generous monthly subscriptions of around 50 donors.

Our ambition is to grow the sustainability of fundraising efforts by building an endowment fund. While our current fundraising model relies on monthly subscription of donors, with time, we will be approaching larger donors (grants, corporations) to accelerate building the endowment fund.

Impact Lebanon Charity collaborates closely with Impact Lebanon LTD, an initiative hub for driven Lebanese around the world. While the two organizations have common roots and an ongoing collaboration, they are two separate legal entities that each have their own governing structure and leadership.

The Jeel Fund Model

  • The Jeel Fund is Impact Lebanon Charity’s first fundraising initiative. It aims to rely largely on smaller, recurring donations monthly, and will be complemented by occasional, larger one-off donations. This model requires engagement from a large base of donors, which we believe is more sustainable in the long term, and is in-line with our aspirations to knit a tight diaspora community around one of Lebanon’s most pressing needs.

    We plan to ensure that, over time, no more than 5% of Jeel’s donations will be used for transaction costs and administrative purposes by Impact Lebanon Charity. We currently keep costs low by having a virtual, all-volunteer team.

  • Jeel will will use a two-pronged approach to disbursements:

    1: Over time, Jeel will disburse a portion of the donations raised (our target is around 50% over time) to fund undergraduate scholarships, every academic year, at our selected universities: The American University of Beirut (AUB), the Lebanese American University (LAU) and L’Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth. (You can read more about how we chose these universities under our FAQs.)

    2: The balance of donations received will be used to build an endowment fund. This should enable us to expand our capabilities, and build a long-term mechanism to continue supporting educational opportunities in Lebanon. The funds we invest in the endowment will be invested by Jeel’s parent organization, Impact Lebanon Charity, into a mixture of asset classes which will be managed by a team of volunteer financiers and trustees.

    By setting up a recurring donation with Jeel, you will be helping us serve Lebanon in both the short, and the long term.

  • Jeel aims to take an analytical, comprehensive, and fair approach to selecting our beneficiaries, across both selected students and supported institutions. In 2021, we completed a market assessment of the education landscape in Lebanon, supported pro-bono by a leading global consultancy firm. This helped us devise a clear set of criteria to help Jeel select the students who will most benefit from receiving our support through scholarships. You can view those criteria here.

    We will work solely through our partner universities, and we will not be receiving applications directly from students. Our goal is to continue to update and refresh our understanding of Lebanon’s educational landscape in order to ensure that our funding is used to deliver the best possible impact.