Nayla Zreik Fahed

Co-founder and Executive Director

October 17, 2026

As the head of an organization, some of the hardest decisions I face are not about what to do, but about what to refuse.

This reflection grew out of the Arab Impact Summit, which I recently attended. On stage, I listened to leaders who had said no: people who turned down funding or partnerships that didn’t fit their values, and who then courageously found alternative paths to keep going.

There are moments when a project comes with conditions that don’t align with our values. Moments when we feel colonized by what others believe is best for us or by the amount of reporting and justification we have to complete. Moments when the number of people reached matters more than the quality of what we actually offer them. In those moments, we should be able to say no or at least stand our ground.

And yet, too often, we don’t. Not because we lack conviction, but because we depend on the funding.

This is why I have come to see financial independence not as a matter of comfort or growth, but as a matter of sovereignty. I don’t want my organization to live inside a box shaped by the criteria of large donors. I want it to be free to act, even when that action serves only a small community, because I believe it is through quality, not quantity, that we take real steps toward transforming the world.

I once argued with my son about this. I asked him what difference my small gesture for the environment could possibly make. He answered that it is the sum of these small gestures that changes the world. My gesture alone is nothing. But added to millions of others, it can shift things.

He was right. The question is: how do you convince a donor of the value of small gestures that won’t add numbers to their dashboard? By being many to do so…

Fortunately, not all donors work the same way. Interestingly, the ones who do things differently are often family or small foundations. They don’t come with a mold we must squeeze into. They listen, because in working with us, they are learning too. And that is what makes the relationship meaningful: a partnership in which each side learns from the other. I would like to thank these foundations for giving us something more valuable than funding: the freedom to do what is right, the way we see it is right.

In the end, this is about more than our organizations. Sovereignty begins with the freedom to define our own priorities, and to say no when they are not respected. A country cannot be sovereign if those who serve its communities are not free to decide what those communities truly need. The day we learn to say no, and to find our own paths forward, is the day we will truly begin to change our country.