Philanthropic Work
A concept of belonging underlies my philanthropic work.
The causes I have worked on over the years all tie into one central idea: to pursue happiness, an individual needs a secure sense of belonging.
Belonging needs to exist across a human’s physical safety, physical health, mental, emotional, and spiritual connectedness, access to education and opportunities to achieve upward socio-economic mobility, and food security.
My family's model of giving centres on direct aid; alongside that, I have tried to understand what "Western" models of philanthropy look like — what prompts people without religious or cultural ties to a cause to give, and where does it flow.
I maintain three approaches toward fundraising and advocacy: reactive provision of direct aid during times of civil strife, war, and natural disaster; personal feelings of connectedness to a people; causes I relate to through shared identity. Finally, the lived experiences of my friends and family, and first-hand accounts from aid recipients.
I am working to add nuance to these approaches by recognising my reactivity, balancing my focus on absolute utility (lives touched) versus 'inefficient' giving (niche causes or individual giving), and bias redressal by researching ways of giving outside of what I am familiar with.
Socratic questions
Where does philanthropic capital come from? Who controls it, and how is it put to work?
What does the modern philanthropic model look like worldwide?
Has philanthrocapitalism succeeded in addressing the symptoms of systemic exclusion for the most vulnerable?
Professional career
I work at a nonpartisan think tank where I fundraise for research in healthcare, financial mobility, and strategic philanthropy.
Prior to this I had a short role as a founder’s associate at a food-tech startup and started my career at Hakluyt, a strategic advisory working on complex-commercial decision making processes.
Third sector roles
Mental health charity trustee: UK/Europe’s only organisation providing free at point of use clinical interventions for the mental health of Children and Young People of Muslim-heritage
Global Majority Giving Initiative (GMGI)’s philanthropy advisor
The Reflection Project
I sit on the board of The Reflection Project, a London charity providing faith- and culturally sensitive clinical interventions for children and young people of Muslim heritage. The work has sharpened my understanding of the demand for — and chronic underfunding of — niche, high-impact local welfare providers: who funds and researches this kind of work remains an open question.
(Young) people of Muslim heritage in Britain predominantly come from highly socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
My path to this work began with witnessing the Grenfell fire and how disproportionately it affected London's worst-off. How can something like this happen in the most ‘developed’ nation in the world?
Reading and Inspirations
Philosophical foundations
Peter Singer's "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" asks what obligation looks like across distance: what we owe to suffering we did not cause and cannot see. John Rawls's A Theory of Justice and its veil of ignorance give one account of fairness in resource distribution. Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia challenges what role a state can or should play. Broader and surface readings by thinkers such as Sartre, Camus, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Hobbes, Kant inspired me as young thinker but I am lately interested in combining it with readings from the Islamic Golden Age, and South Indian classics.
Selected modern readings
Anand Girihardas’ Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,
Erica Kohl-Arenas’
Self-Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty
Badr Jafar’s The Business of Philanthropy
Badr Jafar’s The Business of Philanthropy
Practitioners and philanthropists
BS Abdurrahman for his autodidactic practice of philanthropy focused on education and community building.
Marlene Engelhorn's Guter Rat on taxation.
Sheikh Zayed and Lee Kuan Yew on Modern Statecraft.
Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr on tying popular culture to awareness raising.
Charities and causes I have worked on/with
Ajyal Foundation for Education: education and rebuilding in Gaza Ar Rahman Academy: mosque and Islamic school where I live Believers Bail Out: paying bail for people in need and pretrial justice reform Bosnia Trust: humanitarian and community support, post-conflict recovery Broadway Movement: free exercise classes near where I live Dubai Cares: education in developing countries The Felix Trust: food security Free the Bears: animal rescue, Frontline: social work leadership development; Hackney Central Mosque Heads On: mental healt; India Direct Aid: personal fundraising project for debt alleviation, hospital bills, educational scholarships, accidents and emergencies Institute of Mental Health Singapore Palestine Direct Aid: direct humanitarian relief The Reflection Project Scottish Refugee Council Seven Hills: sport as rehabilitation in Amman, Jordan Skateistan: skateboarding-for-empowerment SkatePal Skilled Youth Professionals Association: youth skills and employability Steel Warriors: tackling knife crime and youth violence