Unlike many in the dot-com world, the year 2000 was a success for mideastinfo.com.
While this site officially began in 1998 as a one page reference index, 1999 was our undeclared beta year as we tested various designs and ideas. We originally began as the pet project of two graduating college students. We were tired of having to try and find comprehensive sites for information about the Middle East. The concept was to bring together what we thought were the "best of the best" of the reference sites we had used in school. One page grew into five, which continued to expand into what you see today. The ideas keep coming and we keep expanding to offer more.
During 2000, we finalized a look for the site, worked on marketing the site to educators and students globally, and began the process of expanding our offerings.
Events & Additions for the Year 2000
In addition to the links we offer for information, we began to expand our offerings by having writers contribute their works to expand on the areas of their expertise, and to provide more comprehensive information on topics important to the region. Our contributing authors joining us in 2000 were Dr. Cyril Widdershoven, a Middle East consultant based in Cairo, Dr. Denis Sullivan, a professor of Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston, who has also been a visiting instructor and researcher at Cairo University, Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, and the American University in Cairo. Dr. Sullivan was instrumental in the original formation of this organization and serves as an advisor to our activities. Finally, we were joined by Jason Barry, an archeologist and Middle East traveler.
To maintain our accuracy in reporting and to advise us in continuing our non-partisan mission, the organization has established a Board of Advisors to assist us. The Board is composed of Dr. Sullivan, Dr. Daniel Tschirgi of the American University in Cairo, and Dr. Akel Ismail Kahera of the University of Texas at Austin. Invitations have been extended to other educators and writers across the Middle East, Europe and the United States and we hope to add more advisors to our Board in 2001.
In regards to the website itself, our offerings have been greatly expanded. We launched a Travel section, to provide information for the growing interest in tourism in the Middle East. This section offers information on destinations from the Tourism ministries of each country. Through our partnership with Travelscape.com we provide airline and hotel information and allow travelers to arrange for and purchase what they need for their trips. Through our continued affiliation with Amazon.com we are also able to offer the best in travel guides for people interested in or traveling to the Middle East.
With the addition of our calendar section, we can offer information about classes, lectures, meetings and other events going on around the world where you can go to learn more about the Middle East. So far, the calendar has been limited to events we know about on our own. This year we intend to have the people responsible for these events inform us in advance so we can place the information on our calendar. We hope this feature will expand to cover schedules and meetings all over the world.
We also added a map room for the individual countries in the region. This year will allow us to add more comprehensive maps of the individual countries, cities and areas in the Middle East.
The year 2000 allowed us to greatly expand and refine our offerings. As the internet becomes more accepted throughout the Middle East, better sites are created and new sites are added where few existed before. This has been the case especially in Syria and Libya where internet service providers (ISPs) have finally been allowed to begin offering web access to their citizens. Expansion has been allowed in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and even Iraq is considering allowing freer access to the internet. As these freedoms and opportunities expand, we are, in turn, able to provide higher quality and more informative sources.
Religious websites have expanded greatly in the last few years, and as a result our religion-centered pages have grown as well. Our Baha'i and Zoroastrian pages have expanded to become comprehensive in their offerings. Our Druze page has been separated from the Islam page after numerous requests and suggestions from the Druze community. 2001 will allow us greater opportunities to expand these offerings as well as our other religion pages.
Overall, we have expanded our offerings in the Library, the Document Room, our bookstore and to individual pages too. Our traffic has increased 128% over one year, the challenge for 2001 is to continue to grow both the amount of information available to our readers and the amount of people who are able to satisfy their curiosity about the Middle East.
Being Non-profit and our 501(c)(3) Status
Behind the website, the Middle East Information Network is a public charity. During 2000, we were granted our tax-exempt status from the IRS. This meant we were allowed to begin fund-raising from the general public. To comply with state and local laws, the organization completed its Unified Registration Statement (URS) procedure, which completed the required public registration for 38 states. Both of these registrations allow for governmental oversight of the organization and our continued compliance with the laws for non-profit organizations. Both our federal and state compliance is on file for public examination. We have also registered ourselves with Guidestar.com, a national organization which, through their website, allows the general public to review non-profit organizations' tax filings and public reports. These registrations are important because they show the honesty and integrity behind complying organizations, two factors that are very important when trying to solicit money from the public.
Following our IRS approval and our state registrations, we arranged to begin accepting donations through our website. This was accomplished with the assistance of Helping.org, a charitable and nonprofit resource maintained by the AOL Foundation. In addition to their regular business of providing information about nonprofit groups to the public and providing business resources to nonprofits, Helping.org allows charities' websites to collect donations from contributors at no additional cost to the charity. Unlike the traditional credit card acceptance software, there is no transaction fee charged to the contributor or the charity and Helping.org keeps none of the donation for itself. Thus, 100% of the donation is received by the charity.
While we received our 501(c)(3) status in May 2000, we did not complete our state registration process (a lengthy and expensive process for a group our size...) until late October of 2000. Thus, we have no information as to how the public and our regular visitors will respond to our charitable status or how successful fund-raising from our general clientele will be. In addition to public donations, the organization is now eligible to receive foundation grants from organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, etc. The research and preparation necessary, such as drafting of grant proposals, will be critical to the continued success of this organization, and therefore a priority for our administration in 2001.
Our 2000 Form 990-EZ is available here.
Our own Charitable Concerns
While the organization remains a non-partisan venture, in the past we have advocated for and/or sponsored certain endeavors we believed were important. This has included fundraising and "awareness raising" for the refugees of the situation in Kosovo and for the aid of the victims of the 1999 earthquake in Turkey.
We intend to continue these efforts and will attempt to maintain a "well-rounded" basis of support so our assistance does not appear too one-sided. The charitable works of our members should in no way be considered the overwhelming factor in how the organization will continue its charitable mission in the future. Any donative or investment projects by the organization in the future will be only after careful deliberation by and approval of both the officers and advisors of the Network. No sense of favoritism or bias should be construed because one proposal or project was chosen over another.
The charitable donations of the organization or its members for the year 2000 included:
--The Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development to help rebuild power stations in Lebanon destroyed by Israeli air raids.
--The United Palestinian Appeal for medical and humanitarian supplies to the Occupied Territories.
--Northeastern University for its Annual Appeal.
--The American University in Cairo for Current Faculty Development
--The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for membership and support
--The Holy Land Foundation to provide religious services during Ramadan
--The Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition for general support (via the United Way).
The Year 2001 and Beyond
The hardest part of starting any company, especially a not-for-profit venture, is behind us. We have our foundation of users, representing 68 countries. We have been recognized as a legitimate non-profit organization by public and private bodies, and have completed our legal registration procedures. The best part, trying to fulfill the visions and dreams behind this organization, is what we'll be focusing on in 2001. The most difficult part of being between the creation and the dream is surviving. Through vigorous fund-raising campaigns, coupled with new and innovative income generating projects, this organization will survive to live out the dreams of the founders.
Ideally the year 2001 will allow the company enough economic independence to begin compensating the officers who maintain it, all of whom now work solely as volunteers. This is not, however, the priority for the year. Since 1999 we have discussed an academic scholarship fund, a small way we can benefit students who are interested in studying the Middle East. We hope to have this fund in place by the fall of 2001 to benefit a few continuing university students for their fall semesters. This fund will eventually expand to be offered to incoming college students, but will begin by focusing on those students who have already decided that study and research of the region is part of their academic future.
Both to supplement this fund, and the general operations of the organization (as well as future endeavors) the organization will actively begin to seek sponsors for its website operations. While we would ideally like to receive offers only from silent or magnanimous sponsors, we are considering the idea of accepting paid advertisements from companies and organizations interested in the region and its people. The organization will not accept advertisements or sponsorship from any person or organization attempting to alter or control the future of the organization or its mission. Total control of the corporation will remain with the officers and advisors of the Middle East Information Network, Inc.
Creativity and originality will be a hallmark of operations during the year 2001. The Network will continue to expand its offerings in the field of websites and online information, foremost among this, the contributions of outside authors to the Library. We will continue to solicit original works from our authors, as well as seeking out new authors and contributors. Part of the operating budget of organization may include reimbursement of some authors who have expressed interest in contributing, but seek some sort of payment for their works to be published. These authors and their works will only be accepted and/or reimbursed at the express interest and approval of the Board of Advisors and the officers of the corporation.
If you are interested in contributing to any of the above projects, or are seeking information about any of the projects detailed above or about the Organization itself, please feel free to contact us.
We thank our supporters for a successful year 2000.
Edward Graham
President, Middle East Information Network, Inc.
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