Special attention to the specific topics of Charity made the Ala Foundation follow an approach called “Lasting Charity” which takes a step towards the strategic management of Charity knowledge. These special topics include: attitude reform, culture creation and promotion, motivation creation, management reform, training and skill development, human capital development, interaction and synergy, management and institutionalization and support of charity behavior, management and support of ideas and creativity, removing obstacles to the growth of charity sector, as well as increasing discussions and networking in the area of charity. For this purpose, Lasting Charity plans and operates in four areas: 1- knowledge management of charity affairs; 2- Management of monitoring and optimization of charity affairs; 3- Educating the public and promotion of charity and philanthropy; 4- training of human capital for charity. In this way and with this approach, the foundation has tried to move in the direction of achieving the ideal of a philanthropic society, in accordance with the values ​​of the Qur’an and Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them. What is meant by the strategic management of Charity knowledge is creating and promoting positive action and optimization in the field of charity affairs.

In other words, we strive to use the limited resources of charities and philanthropists wisely and optimally by producing and applying knowledge in the field of charity. Moreover, instead of having a limited number of philanthropists, by creating a culture of philanthropy, every Iranian can be a philanthropist so that we can solve the problems of the society more efficiently. In order to achieve the intended goals, three centers have been set up so far, namely Ala Research Institute, Philanthropy Development Center and Philanthropy Culture Center.

1. Ala Research Institute

For the first time in Iran, a research center in the field of new studies of endowment and charitable affairs was founded in Isfahan University in 2016 with the cooperation of the Ala Foundation and University of Isfahan. The main mission of this research institute is to motivate research in the neglected field of charitable affairs and to expand discourse creation in this knowledge domain for the scientific communities. This research institute consists of four distinct research groups, namely i) Economic & Management Studies of Charitable Affairs, ii) Historical & Civilization Studies of Charitable Affairs, iii) Religious & Legal Studies of Charitable Affairs, iv) Cultural & Social Studies of Charitable Affairs.

Accordingly, Ala Research Institute has put some plans on the agenda, the most important of which are as follows:

1.Holding national conferences titled “Kheyr e Mandegar” (Lasting Charity);

2.Holding a series of specialized meetings titled “Kheyr e Mandegar” (new discussions on charitable affairs);

3.Publication of specialized books in the field of charity and philanthropy;

4.Conducting problem-oriented research in the field of endowment and charity;

5.Preparation of a scientific journal titled “Research Journal of Endowment & Charitable Affairs”.

2.Philanthropy Development Center

The existing concerns over realizing the efficient management and the knowledge-based development of the charitable activities led to the formation of the Philanthropy Development Center. The nature of the activities of this center is facilitation and regulation in the field of charity and philanthropy. Put differently, the missions of this center are to modify the management methods adopted by the charities, collect and make available the information for the charity activists, and develop innovative methods of philanthropy. In this regard, this center plans to implement the following programs:

2-1) Philanthropy Clinic

Philanthropy Clinic is a center dedicated to providing the social and charity activists with the consulting and empowerment services. It includes three units as follows:

1.Kheyr e Mandegar Counseling Center: This center has been set up to provide expert, skill-oriented, and subject-based counseling services on the endowment and charitable affairs for the activists in this field;

2.Social Accelerator: This accelerator has been envisaged to be launched with the aim of solving the social issues, creating discourse, and streaming the social entrepreneurship;

3.Kheyr e Mandgar Specialized School: To cultivate the specialized human resources for the charity and philanthropy affairs, the establishment of the Kheyr e Mandgar Specialized School was put on the agenda to allow training the required specialized skills in this field. To date, a number of short-term skill-enhancement workshops have been held on miscellaneous subjects. These workshops are being held as needed and based on the gained experiences seasonally and regularly. Moreover, assisting in the launch of the academic courses pertaining to the charity and endowment field accounts for another main function of this school.

2-2) Kheyr e Mandegar Total System

Focusing on creating Iran’s philanthropy atlas, this system has been designed to serve the activists of this field through facilitating the availability of information on charity and philanthropy. Needless to say, this system is being completed over time with the inclusion of extra sections.  These sections are being designed to cover different items such as ‘attracting grant funding from donors’, ‘active charities’, ‘charity projects in process’, and ‘charity validation’.

3.Philanthropy Culture Center

Building a culture of philanthropy in the society in line with the realization of the slogan of ‘Making every Iranian a philanthropist’ served as the main motivator for the formation of the “Philanthropy Culture Center” under the Kheyr e Mandegar Institute. The major mission of this center is to produce ideas and cultural content, realize discourse-creation, and stream and promote charity. In this regard, the following programs are in process:

1.‘Avay e Kheyr e Mandegar’ Quarterly

As the first dedicated quarterly published in the field of philanthropy and charitable affairs, this quarterly strives to address the respective topics in a specialized and case-wise manner.

2.Philanthropy Events

As a sub-division of the Philanthropy Culture Center, the main mission of this section is to build a culture of holding national events in the field of charitable affairs. To do so, it seeks to hold two events:

a) Kheyr e Mandgar Festival: The purpose of this festival is to identify the successful models and provide a gathering to introduce and appreciate the successful activists in the field of charity and philanthropy.

b)Charities National Exhibition: This exhibition is being designed and implemented with the aim of creating two-way interactions, networking, and familiarizing people and officials with the capabilities of the charity and philanthropy field.

3.Charity Analytical News Site

To allow discourse-creation on charity, the inauguration of this specialized database for the third-party organizations and charitable events is underway.

4.Multimedia Department

The mission of this department is twofold: to produce multimedia content (including text, audio, video clip, animations, and other media formats) focused on charity affairs so as to promote charitable affairs.