Overview

Mansour Group is highly committed to responsible business practices. It undertakes many activities to promote the welfare and socio-economic development of Egyptian society, deploying to this end a variety of methods. One of these is the Mansour Foundation for Development, which is highly dedicated to the eradication of illiteracy, poverty, and disease, by way of effectively contributing to the development of Egyptian society.

The approach and structure that the group deploys to these ends witnessed immense evolution since the formation of Mansour Group. The following section briefly highlights some of the milestones with regards to our community development related work.

Historical Milestones on Mansour Community-Related Work

Mansour Group and its companies have been investing in the advancement of Egyptian society and the welfare of their direct communities since their inception. Significant as their early initiatives were, they were never the less carried out on a case-by-case basis. Early initiatives lacked the strategy, efficient organization, and focus needed to ensure their long-term impact, albeit they stemmed from a strong desire to improve the communities that we live in. In the late1990s the group began to rethink its community work, restructuring along the lines of better management and planning, and the delivery of more sustainable outputs. In doing so, the group shifted from its philanthropic approach to adopt a more sustainable development approach.

In January 2001 the Group moved to organize its society related activities more professionally, establishing what the group named the Mansour Foundation for Development (MFD). MFD was, at that time, the first donor NGO to be fully funded by an Egyptian family business.

The establishment of MFD not only organized the group’s diverse efforts under one umbrella, it also led the group to engage with its community stakeholders in determining its social outlook for the first time. The stakeholders that the group engaged in this process were at the time limited to civil society consultants and charity organizations.

The key milestone in this process of shifting from philanthropy to development came in the year 2007 when the Mansour Foundation finally formulated a new position in relation to growth and recognition in the Egyptian society. This meant that taking the Foundation through several mandatory enhancement processes including:

1- Expand & diversify its scope of programs; sharing the country efforts to overcome the world economic crisis that deeply affected the development sector at that time.

2- Moderate & maximize the Corporate Social Responsibility contributions made by Mansour Corporation; transforming it into stakeholder model where the company responds to the needs of stakeholders – customers, employees, and communities.

3- Fund & execute numerous development activities; demonstrating new role model in administrating development programs through implementing

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Consequently, the foundation re-registered itself as the Mansour Foundation for Development (MFD), currently registered at the Ministry of Social Solidarity under no. 489.

The development of MFD thus drove the group to new, more sustainable initiatives and operations. Furthermore, it allowed the group to expand the type of community stakeholders that it involved in determining its approach and activities, to include more than just philanthropic organizations and charity NGOs.

Our Approach

The Mansour Foundation for Development currently manages the bulk of the CSR and development activities of the companies comprising Mansour Group, including MHCFI. In this manner it tries to centralize the society-related efforts of all our companies in order to maximize their output.

Having said so, the different companies that belong to the group also engage on a number of independent society- related activities in their local communities, be it the bulk of our work is carried out under the umbrella of our central MFD.

Main Areas of Interest

Our strategic planning efforts and engagement with our stakeholders led us identify three high priority areas in the field of human development, on which we now try to focus our developmental activities. Identified high priority areas are:

1. Education,

2. Health, and

3. Capacity Building

We have also identified four priority segments that we want to focus on, which are as follows:

1. Youth,

2. Women and girls,

3. Children with special needs, and

4. Inhabitants of informal housing and squatter areas.

Vision, Mission, and Values of Mansour Foundation for Development

Social responsibility is built on passion, commitment, and duty. MFD is determined to not just assist community development, but also advance and build society by offering individuals and institutions the widest possible range of development programs, mainly in our priority areas: education, health, and capacity building.

MFD’s vision is to become the ultimate role model for a foundation that lives up to its promises, and takes pride that funding comes from Egyptian corporations. In doing so we actually seek two intertwined strategic goals: to maximize the outputs of our developmental activities for our direct recipients and to establish a successful model that would convince other businesses to invest in their communities, with the aim of increasing the resources available to social development at large.

As a corporate foundation, MFD’s core values stem from business ethics. By this we mean that we seek to apply business thinking, models, and disciplines to our development programs to ensure that the best aspects of the private sector are applied to civil society.

Strategies

MFD’s approach is highly based and a strong spirit to developing the human element in society, and is therefore based on community-driven projects. The foundation seeks not only to apply Mansour’s business management model in its community development activities but also to transfer them to our recipients. Thus, we seek development projects that fulfill our social responsibility whilst also abiding to the business principles that govern our social activities.

MFD wants to excel in particular in transferring management know-how to other civil society partners, being involved in the planning, execution and evaluation of activities in order to maximize project outputs. That is what sets us apart from other traditional donors—as we believe that our role must extend beyond awarding grants.

In the final part, the foundation cannot fulfill these goals without adopting standard policies and procedures that ensure the delivery of utmost quality and trustworthiness throughout the lifecycle of the projects that it engages in.

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Our Objectives

MFD came to adopt the approach above after engaging in long discussions with its stakeholders. Good as it is, the approach alone cannot work without translating the goals discussed above into more concrete formulations. Undertaking this exercise led us to set the following objectives for our work:

Upgrade public educational facilities and buildings
Support poor and/or unable students
Provide educational scholarships at home and abroad
Prevent girls from dropping out of schools
Combating illiteracy
Developing the health facilities that cater to underprivileged people
Support health activities in deprived hospitals
Provide medical treatment for unable people
Provide technical support for NGOs’ staff
Provide educational, technical, and economic support to marginalized sectors
Support people with special needs in the field of sports

Projects and Programs

MFD engaged in many projects since its inception, with programs in the areas of: health, education, relief, awareness, employment, capacity building, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism. MFD’s programs in each of these areas are highlighted below.

Mansour

Portfolio of Programs

I. Health

1. Vaccination against Hepatitis A convoys – orphans and underserved groups.

2. Technical grant to the Eye hospital.

3. Renovation of the Diagnostic Radiation Section Cancer Institute Kasr Al Ainy Hospital.

4. Contribution to Children Cancer Hospital.

5. Establishment of Al Ziniya Medical Unit Luxor.

6. Regular blood donation drives with volunteers.

II. Education

1. Mansour Sustainable Development Scholarships.

2. The “We Will Learn” Initiative – Literacy innovative classes.

3. I am a good Citizen –enforcing value system in kids.

4. Improving Pre-school Nurseries & Orphanages in rural areas

5. Back-to-School program.

6. Youth for Peace School camp.

III. Relief Convoys & Awareness Campaigns

1. “Best volunteered employee” Competition.

2. Participation in “Million Blankets” campaign.

3. Sponsorship of the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF).

4. Stand up against Poverty Campaign.

5. 12local/regional food and medical convoys to underserved areas since revolution.

6. Alexandria Special Needs Marathon and Relay Event.

IV. Research and Development Grants:

1. Corporate Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship: Mapping out Trends in the Arab Region.

2. UNDP 2nd Edition Business Solutions Report.

3. The John Gerhart Center for Philanthropic studies AUC.

4. Takaful 2012- Arab Philanthropy and Civic Engagement.

5. Arab Foundation Forum – Arab grant makers’ union.

V. Vocational Training, Employment & SME’s

1. Lead Program for Microfinance.

2. Stock house agent training Faculty of Economics students.

3. Hotel & tourism internships.

4. First Employment Forum for Handicapped at El Sakya Cultural Wheel.

5. Third Employment Forum for Graduates at Cairo University.

6. NGO’s Capacity-Building Courses.

7. Retail interns and academy.

VI. Vulnerable Groups Capacity Building

1. Hand in Hand initiative for sponsoring athletics handicapped children and youth.

2. Bridges crossed…Dreams Fulfilled for empowering venerable girls and Women.

3. Annual orphanage support.

4. Annual therapeutic cure/surgeries.

5. Microfinance Program for women / handicapped.

VII. Youth, Entrepreneurship and Volunteerism

1. Mansour Young Business Awards for fresh graduates

2. Annual Youth Volunteerism Program