There’s no feeling more fulfilling than contributing to someone in need, be it in the form of a donation, a service or a step up to a better life. But it can be difficult to know how, where and why. That is where Neya enters the picture, with a website offering information on worthwhile causes, and a means of contributing. NEYA is officially launching its application before Ramadan. Users will be able to track their activities and donations, as well as share it with friends.
The Beginning of Neya
CEO and Founder Hana El Sadat got the idea for Neya when she was in college in Boston when she wanted to volunteer somewhere but was frustrated that there wasn’t an online tool to help her. This was 10 years ago.
When she moved back to Egypt she started fundraising, collecting in-kind donations for the homeless and creating a pop-up shop called The Street Store. She was doing the work manually herself and decided to create Neya officially due to the large number of charities with little to no online presence and the lack of volunteering opportunities to participate in. Neya is a facilitator that can work with any entity or cause. Bringing charity into the 21st century.
Neya’s Primary Objectives and How they are Met
Neya’s purpose is to bring together a community of individuals whose aim is to give back and create a sustainable ecosystem. It is a platform made to facilitate volunteering, donating, sponsoring, supporting, and creating awareness for a cause or initiative. This tool allows the development community, whether it’s individuals, small groups, corporate organizations, non-governmental or social service agencies to enhance their activities.
Any members, organizations, entities, and corporations are pre-approved by Neya in accordance with respective government authorities to ensure the legitimization of the platform members. Neya enables set participants to jumpstart their initiatives by first creating awareness towards a cause and second, by supporting their activities with a call to action for donation or volunteering.
The landscape of charitable giving has been transformed by the digital era and an application like Neya allows for a new tech savvy generation to give back in an effective way. By modernizing philanthropic activities, Neya engages millennial and Gen X users to communicate and collaborate for worthy causes by simplifying the process and bringing key agents of change together for collective sustainable development.
- To facilitate and promote sustainable development activities and collaboration
- To ensure harmonious synergy and thus worthy driven efforts
What Neya Does:
- Fundraising:
Through the online platform, they create campaigns to collect online donations – of monetary value or in-kind donations for any respective NGO to serve their needs. In-kind donations include clothing, kitchen supplies, toys and stationary supplies as well as books.
- Marketplace:
An online marketplace sells NGO merchandise and handcrafts by local artisans who need support. Through Neya’s marketplace, businesses will benefit from awareness, reaching a wider audience and increasing their sales. Moreover, being a partner on the marketplace guarantees you an invitation to all bazaars they sponsor and host.
- CSR:
Because it is important to give back, Neya offers CSR services to all private sector companies and corporations, to encourage them to be socially responsible. They handle and manage all their CSR campaigns, and link companies with philanthropic needs that can benefit from their professional expertise.
- Volunteering:
Through the platform, the community can stay up to date with all volunteering opportunities in different projects that Neya is a part of. Neya also creates volunteering opportunities for those interested as well as volunteering for companies. Corporate volunteering opportunities are crucial for companies and their employee development. Neya as an entity has two to three events per month, all year round they rotate to different places in need and will be in Hassan Sabry St., in Zamalek every Friday and Saturday during Ramadan, and Alexandria as well.
- Educational toolkits on development:
Neya contributes to the educational system by raising awareness of important causes and SDGs, to raise a generation that is aware and well educated on the development field. It enables millennials to take part in contributing to community services. Covering all development composed of individuals, small groups, business and corporate organization, and NGO’s in a platform for the development community.
Neya’s community ecosystem is non-governmental organizations and social service agencies. The purpose of this tool for awareness is volunteering, donating, sponsoring and supporting a cause or initiative. Neya is here to facilitate charitable and development needs and to support their efforts.
- Up-to-date news on development and charity:
Neya’s website is always up-to-date with all the news on development and charity, they want to increase awareness and build a well-informed community in addition to their social media outlets on Facebook and Instagram.
Neya’s Team
The team consists of tech experts, logistics whizzes and people who really believe in making a difference. They go the extra mile to make sure things are done the right way and that we introduce something new to the market. The business development team and volunteering team are the busiest since they have their own volunteering events several times a month which they organize from start to finish, and offer logistics to volunteers. The majority of the team is women.
Neya’s Challenges and Solutions
More and more people now realize how much easier Neya has made their lives. It took time for people to realize the power of collaboration and a new generation of ideas. This took a lot of pushing from Neya’s part just to get their work out there and they are proud to show people how they can use technology as a tool to do good.
Getting Support from within the Community
CEO and Founder Hana El Sadat tells us how she’s proud of being Egyptian and humbled by her people and community. Neya was launched a year ago with zero marketing. Their work did the talking and the amount of support they have gotten from the community to this day is what keeps them going. People want their help or want to help them because they are encouraged by the initiative. They document all their work and share it. Transparency is what they give people and they like it, they respect it.
Young people looking to set up an initiative that benefits the community, listen up:
Age is just a number, if you have the experience and the knowledge, fight for what you think is right, fight for your idea and your work will speak for you. That will be the echo of your success.
Shared Story:
Last week we had a volunteering event and we received a message on social media from a mother who bakes. She generously donated homemade cupcakes to orphans at one of our events because she saw our work. We communicated back and to my surprise we received customized cupcakes in different flavors for each child and volunteer that day. To me, really there aren’t people like Egyptians, “kheir Masr fe Na-sha” as they say, and this is why Neya continues to fight.
We have a project called the Zero Waste Initiative. Through it, we provide CSR for local designers by taking their left-over waste and we provide it to women who reuse the material, turning it into new products and selling them. This helps provide income to support their households.
Contact Information:
Facebook/ Instagram: @Neyaplatform
Website: www.elneya.org
