By: Adeb bin Mohammed Al-Muheithif

Youth Empowerment Association for Community Development

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through its Vision 2030, aims to create a competitive society in all government, private, and charitable sectors with tools and means that align with its developmental projects based on creativity and innovation, and to find efficient and effective community solutions to address current and future problems and challenges.

Community and developmental work has its fair share in Saudi Vision 2030, as it included a set of indicators and initiatives that enhance the importance of developmental work and the establishment of non-profit entities.

The vision aimed to increase the contribution of the non-profit sector from the gross domestic product to 5% and to reach one million volunteers by 2030.

The National Transformation Program of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development also included the goal of establishing 2000 new associations covering all approved classifications of civil associations in the Kingdom, which number 87 classifications by 2020.

The role of the charitable and developmental sector increases as people's needs diversify, and new needs and areas arise, with either no one seeking to address these emerging needs due to lack of interest, capability, or a shortage of qualified personnel capable of addressing these new needs.

The Organizational Reality of Civil Associations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

Civil associations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are established by a founding association that previously required 20 members, but now, following recent amendments to the system, they can be established by at least 10 founders.

The founding association is also obliged to nominate a group of its members, not exceeding 50%, to be members of the association’s board of directors.

Thus, the civil association structurally consists of a general assembly, a board of directors, and an executive management; so, any association must have at least 15 to 20 people to be managed within the current system.

Moreover, members of the boards of directors are volunteers who oversee, follow up, develop plans, foresee the future, and solve problems faced by executive management.

Here I pose a set of questions:

- Does the current structure of associations help us establish agile, quickly achieved, and low-risk associations?

- Does the community have enough human resources capable of producing and establishing thousands of specialized associations across all classifications of civil associations?

- Is the economic situation capable of accommodating thousands of civil associations adhering to the same organizational structure, which is often costly due to the multiple levels of supervision?

- How can we establish civil associations covering all classifications with the least amount of human and financial resources?

- Why can't civil associations be one of the cornerstones contributing to reducing unemployment rates more efficiently and effectively?

Through field research and questioning colleagues responsible for civil associations, a set of challenges emerges that they face in achieving their associations' goals. The most important and largest challenge relates to capable human resources and financial resource development, in addition to the fact that 25%-35% of the association's revenues go to general administrative and operational expenses.

The question now is: How can we establish civil associations that contribute to achieving Vision 2030 for the non-profit sector and cover all sub-classifications of the ministry, totaling 87 categories?

The answer is what I present to you in discussing micro-associations, which I see will solve several issues currently facing the non-profit sector.

An example that gives a picture of micro-associations is limited liability companies; these companies do not have a board of directors but the founders are employees who work to implement its plans and achieve its goals.

Can we replicate this example and apply it to a new model for civil associations to be micro-associations founded and managed by a group consisting of 3 to 5 members? And does not require the ministry to have a general assembly or a board of directors?

Is this model available but under different names, and are there global experiences for micro-associations?

The answer is yes; we occasionally see a range of community initiatives with significant social impact, some of which win local awards like the King Khalid Award for Development Partners.

Initiatives such as: Hasalah, Adam Campaign, and My Book Club won the King Khalid Award, Development Partners branch in 2018.

In 2019, three other community initiatives won: Wateen, Ehayah, and My Saudi Bike.

These are personal initiatives led by a group of young men and women, and I believe in the possibility of transforming them into micro-associations managed and supervised by their founders, having an official license and bank accounts in their name, to be more sustainable and growth-oriented.

Another example of micro-associations, but in Britain, was mentioned by my friend Mr. Amin Al-Dakhil in his tweets on Twitter, quoting (John Pournell), a non-profit organization consultant, about the existence of British charities with an annual income of £10,000, which is approximately 50,000 Saudi Riyals. If a scientific and field study were conducted on these associations, we might reach a clear and applicable model for micro-associations.

In my view, one of the establishment challenges for civil associations is that the idea and initiative owner (the main founder) bears a large burden of establishment and then faces the quandary of whether to be the chairman of the board or a member of the board. Consequently, according to the system, he must appoint an executive management team to oversee the work of the association he established, falling into a crisis of differing ideas and methods between him and the executive director, or he may nominate himself as the executive director of the association and then face a crisis of authority and decisions between himself and the board of directors, of which he is an employee.

Thus, there might be a system allowing the establishment of micro civil associations run and operated by the founders, providing a good exit from these dilemmas.

What do we benefit from such a system?

Innovation and maximizing community impact are generally associated with several factors, the most important being agility in the non-profit organization, where founders are relieved of many financial and human obligations and lengthy, tedious work procedures, helping them focus on achievement, work, and productivity.

This system also opens job opportunities for initiative owners by establishing civil associations and non-profit entities, allowing them to benefit financially from their community output, which isn't fully available to them under the current systems.

Additionally, we benefit from this system by establishing small associations addressing specific community challenges in a narrow geographical scope, reflecting positively on their work results and focusing on outputs and targets. I believe we will not reach this level of focus according to the current systems, which require three administrative levels, each with its own powers and administrative procedures.

Moreover, one of the benefits of this system is the reduction of risks among these associations, as they rely on limited financial resources and do not need to employ human resources; thus, their primary expenses are based on projects and operations, which are variable costs, not fixed costs that the association must bear regardless of activities' presence or absence.

How does the model of (micro civil associations) succeed?

As I mentioned earlier, the goal of this model is to create civil associations that address a specific challenge or meet a defined need, and thus they require a set of enablers to succeed and fulfill their community role, among these enablers are:

1- Providing fixed headquarters with suitable sizes for each association, which can be achieved by renting a large office space and then dividing it into units of various sizes, which these associations share in terms of rental and administrative expenses, or through social responsibility companies hosting these associations based on their capabilities and resources.

2- Supporting these associations by providing supporting, administrative, financial, and marketing services either from a specialized entity or supportive and cooperative associations or socially responsible companies, allowing micro-association administrations to focus on achieving the impact for which the association was established.

3- Establishing a logical framework for the governance of these associations that allows flexibility in their administrative procedures while preserving the rights of the association and its capital assets.

4- Establishing community think tanks that study, discover, and foresee community challenges and needs, contributing to designing and innovating solutions for them, and guiding community entrepreneurs in establishing specialized associations addressing these challenges and meeting the needs.

5- Motivating and training these associations on innovation tools and methods which help maximize impact and reduce operational costs.

What is needed now?

In my view, this type of association requires a comprehensive system to serve it in the establishment and operation phases.

The system clarifies the general standards that determine the number of founders and their level of specialization for the association's activity, and the mechanisms for transitioning a micro-association to a regular association adhering to the requirements of a general assembly, a board of directors, and other standards.

This type of association also needs external entities to manage governance, audit accounts, and ensure the integrity of internal procedures, and the like.

In conclusion:

This is a preliminary proposal explaining a new type of civil associations, open for study, development, and improvement until we, God willing, achieve the required qualifications for the non-profit sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And God knows best, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad