Country Report 2018: Jordan

In accordance to Articles 3 and 8 of the Law of Societies (2008), in order to provide services or to carry out activities on a voluntary basis without profit, any group of individuals no less than seven – except for “closed societies” whose membership is limited to one person or more – shall register in the National Registry of Societies, established in the Ministry of Social Development. The law requires that the founding member(s) of an society to be of Jordanian nationality, not less than 18 years of age, and not be sentenced to a breach of honor or any crime

Country Report 2018: Kuwait

The main law governing the formation of charitable organizations and institutions in Kuwait is the Public Benefit Associations Law. In accordance to Article 4 of the Public Benefit Associations Law, any group of no less than 50 persons may apply for the formation of a public benefit association to provide services or carry out social, cultural, religious, or sports activities on a voluntary basis without profit, and to manage charitable societies established in 2002. The founding member of the association is required to be a Kuwaiti citizen not less than 21 years of age and not have committed a breach of honor or any crime

Country Report 2020: Kuwait

There is great encouragement from the Kuwaiti government to give outside the State of Kuwait, which is also the case in domestic giving. This encouragement by the state has helped to give Kuwaiti charitable work its signature creativity, as it differs from the policy of other countries; this is evidenced by many societies that determine their scope of work and activities abroad, such as The International Islamic Charity Organization and Mercy International. These societies are operating in addition to the Kuwaiti embassies’ support for Philanthropic work, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ representation as a member of grant committees in some charitable bodies

Public perceptions of and trust in associations and volunteers

This chapter summarizes and categorizes findings from research on perceptions of volunteers and of membership associations (MAs) among actors in three types of positions vis-à-vis nonprofit organizations (NPOs): members of the general public, actors in government, and actors in the corporate world of business. A fairly stable core of these perceptions depends on individual characteristics of these stakeholders. Three failures of NPOs threaten perceptions of MAs: (1) amateurism, (2) over-exclusion, and (3) asymmetry of information - lack of transparency, the potential for fraud, and violations of the non-distribution constraint in NPOs. MAs and other NPOs can influence perceptions by changing their behavior in interactions with stakeholders and in their communication strategies. Finally, the chapter summarizes findings from research on perceptions of MAs in four specific world regions

A Proposed Pedagogical Mobile Application for Learning Sign Language

A handheld device system, such as cellular phone or a PDA, can be used in acquiring Sign Language (SL). The developed system uses graphic applications. The user uses the graphical system to view and to acquire knowledge about sign grammar and syntax based on the local vernacular particular to the country. This paper explores and exploits the possibility of the development of a mobile system to help the deaf and other people to communicate and learn using handheld devices. The pedagogical assessment of the prototype application that uses a recognition-based interface e.g., images and videos, gave evidence that the mobile application is memorable and learnable. Additionally, considering primary and recency effects in the interface design will improve memorability and learnability

Repeat and Non-returning Volunteers: The Promise of Episodic Events for Volunteer Recruitment and Retention

In this article, we are concerned with the recruitment potential of one-off episodic events for attracting and retaining volunteers. Our specific focus is on the neglected pool of non-returning volunteers. These are one-off event participants who are unwilling to volunteer again in future. Many studies generally document an overwhelming willingness of people to repeat volunteering after participating in a one-off event, either due to reasons of social desirability or because they had a good volunteering experience. The positive participant reaction at most one-off events leads to the assumption that such events are useful arenas in which to generate a pool of potential repeat volunteers. Yet, scant attention is given to those people at the events who have no inclination for further volunteering. This article addresses that gap. It is part of a special issue on episodic volunteering from an international perspective and uses data from nineteen countries across the world. Our statistical analyses, which compares returning and non-returning volunteers, finds that on average, 7.42% of episodic event participants do not want to volunteer again in future. The results reveal that younger, less educated, novices who participate on their own are more likely to report unwillingness to repeat volunteering. Non-repeat volunteers unexpectedly had higher levels of altruistic motivation, and as expected, a less satisfactory one-off volunteer experience. The article concludes with implications and recommendations for organizers of events employing episodic volunteers

You Thought That This Would Be Easy? Seeking an Understanding of Episodic Volunteering

This article is intended as the leading article in a Special Issue of Voluntas devoted to episodic volunteering from a cross-cultural perspective. This article focuses on summarizing and distilling knowledge about episodic volunteering. Based on a thorough literature review, the authors present state-of-the-art knowledge about episodic volunteering divided into key subsections that include: (1) is episodic volunteering a new area or a new era in volunteering? (2) Defining the concept of episodic volunteering, (3) the singularity of episodic volunteering, (4) assessment of the domains where episodic volunteering is most prevalent, (5) the impact of episodic volunteering on the participating individuals, (6) new parties in volunteer organizations, and (7) managing episodic volunteers. Finally, we present current gaps in our knowledge of episodic volunteers, some of which will be covered in this Special Issue, especially understanding episodic volunteering in non-English-speaking countries