‘Made by Many’: Arab Creative Events and Festivals Fund-raising Challenge

Zoomaal, in partnership with the British Council and Hivos, has launched a “Made by Many” challenge to support creative and culture events across the region:

Sixteen projects from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia have been qualified for the final round of the challenge, which began June 15.

Each of these projects have a month to garner support, and the British Council and Hivos will match community funding. “This gives the participants a better chance of reaching their set goals and a better opportunity for making their pioneering ventures come true,” a Zoomaal news release said.

Zoomaal also recently launched a “milestones” feature, which allows project owners to create several, tiered funding goals. Projects are allowed to collect all funds that match or exceed their first milestone.

Projects include Lebanon’s “Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran Festival,” a free cultural festival set to take place at the end of August, organized by Collectif Kahraba. The program promises to “include over 40 artists, amateurs, and volunteers from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, who will come together to turn stairs, balconies, windows, rooftops and gardens into stages for theatre, puppetry, storytelling, visual arts, music and contemporary dance.”

The projects are certainly a mixed bag, with one about a beard and screening comics to refugee children that doesn’t seem fully thought out. “Nehna wel Amar wel Jiran” is one of the most successful projects thus far, having raised $5,084, or more than half of the funding required for its first milestone. Several projects — including promising ones, like a second Egypt Comix Week — haven’t yet raised anything.

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way to fund events and to determine which events have popular support. However, it also priveleges campaigns that may have a more middle-class fan base able and willing to donate.

Find out more:

At Zoomaal’s “Made by Many” page