Introduction
King Khalid Foundation (KKF) is a non-profit organization based in Saudi Arabia. According to Arab Foundation’s Forum (2012), this foundation operates towards improving the social and economic status of citizens of Saudi Arabia. This organization bears the idea that people can bring change to their own lives if they are guided and empowered towards set goals and objectives.
King Khalid Foundation (n.d.), highlights that this organization is involved in a number of activities: funding community development projects, providing emergency relief services, conducting and also publishing research and awarding other non-profit organizations, corporations and individuals who have achieved much towards social and economic growth within Saudi Arabia.
The foundation as non-government organization has the following mission: “to always use their resources and knowledge for the sake of positive impact in people’s life with a result of providing solutions to both social and economical problems within Saudi Arabia” (King Khalid Foundation, n.d., p. 1).
Organization’s History
According to Interactive Saudi Arabia (2010), King Khalid Foundation was established in 2001 after King Khalid’s death. It was established by his family members in his remembrance. King Khalid had ruled Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 1982; his regime came to an end as he died in 1982. This organization is controlled by several people: nine board of trustees and 11 members.
The board of trustee leads this organization and it is responsible of making policies in which the organization follows to achieve their set objectives. Its main aim is to lead people in achievement of better social and economic production through engaging themselves in activities that would enable the citizens towards realizing their vision. According to Saudi Arabia Competitiveness Index (2008), King Khalid Foundation has a vision of strengthening and encouraging community and organization development work in Saud Arabia; this is to improve the lives of the citizens
Beneficiaries
King Khalid Foundation is devoted in training non profit organization leaders to acquire knowledge that can later be disseminated to the community in their programmes, hence resulting to high production in the society. They offer funds directed to capacity building trainings, partnership-building and resource mobilization, database management, coaching and consulting areas. All these areas are administered to the leaders in non-profit organizations in Saudi Arabia (King Khalid Foundation, n.d.).
According to Columbia Business School (2008), King Khalid Foundations funds Columbia University to offer courses related to non-profit management, leading senior team, strategic analysis, decision making and resource allocation. This is meant for equipping leaders from all the Saudi Arabia’s non-profit organizations and business people.
Its main aim is to empower them with the relevant skills and knowledge that is necessary in serving the citizens and building their capacity towards self reliance (Columbia Business School, 2008).
The key areas that King Khalid Foundation is much concerned with while funding Columbia Business School are situational and strategic analysis which includes how to cope-up with any eventuality that may arise in the organization, fundamentals of non-profit management, decision making, negotiating effectively, managing change, acquiring and allocation of resources which involves; how to write quality proposals that can qualify for funding (Columbia Business School, 2008).
The goal of this program is significant: “get knowledge on how to allocate financial resources effectively, understanding the skills to take an organization through effective change, apply key ideas meant for organizational management, enhance leadership skills and be aware of how to deal with conflicts” (Columbia Business School, 2008, p. 1). Through these programs, the leaders benefit with the knowledge and in the long run the citizens benefit through the services such non-profit organizations provide.
Through awarding of business people who have shown outstanding achievement, people in the business arena benefits from this foundation. According to Saudi Arabia Competitiveness Index (2008), King Khalid Foundation started this program of awarding individuals, non-profit organizations and companies as a way of recognizing their efforts in competing for higher productivity in their field.
This was also meant to motivate people to work hard and the more they put more effort as they compete for the awards the more productive they become. Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Index (SARCI) is concerned in weighing which individuals, organizations or companies does well and qualify for the awards.
This encourages individuals and companies contributions to the society and acts as a better way of ensuring efficient businesses with great positive impact in the society (Saudi Arabia Competitiveness Index, 2008). Responsible competitiveness was a strategy to ensure that Saudi Arabia becomes one among the 10 competitive economies in the whole world, this is the reason why the government of Saudi Arabia started Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Index though funded by King Khalid Foundation.
King Khalid Award for Responsible Competitiveness was established in 2009. Every year this program awards three strongest companies and individuals from all areas so long as they qualify for this competition. This award is offered to companies that strengthen dependency between prosperous communities and competitive businesses (Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Index, 2011). With motivation, individual and companies can compete and achieve a lot in terms of productivity without realizing. This was a recommendable move for King Khalid Foundation and it encourages the working culture among people.
According to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009), Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz was awarded the King Khalid prize for national achievement in 2009. His achievement in improving higher learning and establishment of university was recognized by the foundation by being awarded the best individual who had worked towards liberating people from ignorance and promoting empowerment.
Such an award to leaders can encourage many more leaders to work hard in the areas that they are entrusted in and at the end they will have worked towards development of the country (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2009).
The King Khalid Foundation is also helping the needy people with emergency relief in areas where people are hungry and cannot access medical services. The foundation provides food, water, clothes and other necessities to the vulnerable groups in the country. King Khalid eye specialist Hospital is one of the hospitals that have been set and funded by king Khalid foundation to help the needy that may have eye problems. This is a program that has been set to uplift people’s dignity through provision of the necessities as well as equipping them with the relevant skills that may help them cope with a similar situation in the future in an effective way (King Khalid Foundation, n.d.).
Scope
King Khalid Foundation operates within a limited scope: across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It has not extended its services to other nations since it was established as an honour of King Khalid who was a leader in this country and in his legacy the foundation was established. Its focus is on the needy citizens and those who contribute towards high production. According to Acumen Fund (2010), King Khalid foundation has been focusing on assisting the grass root people towards contributing to the socio-economic growth of Saudi Arabia.
As the foundation partners with the Acumen Fund, they enable the needy to get knowledge on how to use logical business mind-set towards solving poverty among people in the society. They are also equipped with knowledge on agriculture, housing, water, health and energy. The reason behind this effort is to empower them to be self reliant and be in a position to limit or avoid some calamities like hunger that may befall them (Acumen Fund, 2010).
Reporting
According to Riyadh (2010), without a strategic framework an organization may not know where it is going, the reason as to why it is operating and the way to reach its set goals. It is with this focus that the foundation has come-up with a strategic planning process which helps it in reporting and accounting for all its activities.
The foundation has come-up with six steps that help it to monitor itself: preparation, assessment, envisioning, creating, implementing and evaluation. These six steps help in reporting since an organization through revisiting what happened in each step it is in a position to communicate to all the stakeholders on what has been done and what has been planned to be done.
The stakeholders who may require the report include: clients, community partners and funding partners (Riyadh, 2010). Through reporting it is possible to determine whether it is delivering to the community or not.
Resources Provided
The foundation provides and contributes a lot to the people of Saudi Arabia. It provides relief food and other emergencies to the needy, funds community development projects and offers awards to companies, corporations and individuals who have outstanding achievement towards the country’s economy.
According to Dossal (n.d.), King Khalid Foundation in partnership with the United Nations office is involved in enhancing the strategies laid in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The foundation therefore, works to help Saudi Arabia citizens realize these development goals and improve their living status.
According to Dossal (2011), the foundation has also been holding forums in preparing people to abandon the traditional and charitable approaches and instead learn how to become independent through involving themselves in small investments. The foundation has been in the fore front on issues related to empowerment of citizens since it advocates for people to be empowered financially.
Conclusion
The King Khalid Foundation has initiated many programs since its inception; it has assisted many people in Saudi Arabia to get education and skills in preparation for higher production in the country. This is a challenge to all other non-profit organizations operating across the world. They need to emulate the foundation and work towards helping the target groups rather than misusing the funds as they are directed to projects that they were never intended to.
The issue of giving awards to the best performers is a good accelerator on the speed of production among people. If this is emulated by other non-profit organizations, it can serve as good way of encouraging people to work more and in return the country’s economy will grow at a higher rate.
References
Acumen Fund. (2010). King Khalid Foundation partners with Acumen Fund to promote social entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. King Khalid Foundation. Web.
Arab Foundation’s Forum. (2012). Member Type: Full Members. Arab Foundation’s Forum. Web.
Columbia Business School. (2008). The Executive Education Program for Non-profit Organizations in Saudi Arabia. Columbia Business School. Web.
Dossal, D. (2011). Social Development Forum from Charitable to Sustainable: Effective Partnerships. Global. Web.
Interactive Saudi Arabia. (2010). King Khalid Launches. Interactive Saudi Arabia. Web.
King Khalid Foundation. (n.d.). King Khalid Foundation. Columbia Business School. Web.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2009). King Gets King Khalid Prize for National Achievement. Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Saudi Arabia. Web.
Riyadh, A. (2010). Strategic Planning Manual. King Khalid Foundation. Web.
Saudi Arabia Competitiveness Index. (2008). The Saudi Arabia Competitiveness Index. Accountability. Web.
Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Index. (2011). Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Index. Responsible Competitiveness Index. Web.