SiSR. Yes to Humanity!

I am John Khoury from Lebanon, holding a bachelor degree in BA from USJ Beirut. Having 19 years of experience in management, marketing, branding and media communications; I started my career in Saudi Arabia, after 7 years with multinational agencies planning for many flagship brands i moved to the corporate side as the media manager of Zain Telecom. In 2009 i joined Qatar National Bank (QNB) as Branding & advertising director leading the rebranding project so QNB later brand has been ranked as the most valuable banking brand in MEA (Band Finance).

In 2012 I relocated to Erbil/Iraq to launch my first entrepreneurial venture in F&B, our restaurant chain reached 6 branches in 2 years! Despite the great success i had to sell the whole operation due to the security crisis (ISIS attacks).

Early 2015 back to homeland to establish a digital marketing agency catering for Lebanon & Iraq.  

Our vulnerable globe is full of misery; poverty numbers would rise to 720M (World Bank) plus 70M forcibly displaced people worldwide (unhcr.org). Humanitarian organizations are facing massive demands on aids however their funds will be drastically impacted by the current crisis.

Our startup concept "SiSR" is a digital platform aiming to secure funds for humanitarian initiatives either directly through incentivized donations or indirectly from corporate’s customers through CSR partnerships. The platform can be the bridge between donors and social programs to fill the funding gap through a digitized raffle draw attracting more donors via incentives and that can make the fundraising process more interesting and more vivid. Also the concept can engage corporate by deducting tiny amounts from customers' bills.

Sisr can be duplicated in all markets and having a great potential to be a global fundraising platform making the fundraising process as a part of the economic cycle.

We live in a vulnerable area called Middle East which has always been the place of military conflicts, political instability and corrupted systems especially Lebanon that has been hosting the largest number of refugees per capita (UNHRC) for 9 years and recently suffering from a severe economic crisis topped by the current pandemic that has even worsened the situation, leading to many social issues and mainly the “poverty” reaching more than 30% of the Lebanese population (around 2M people) as per World Bank which estimates also that Covid-19 will be pushing around 100 million worldwide into extreme poverty rising the total number to 720 million.

With the lockdown and all measures taken to fight the current pandemic, the impact could cause equivalent of 195 million job losses (ILO chief/UN News) leading to lack of resources and more social issues!

Furthermore the NGOs and charities that have been fighting poverty will be facing huge demands for aids versus a drastic drop in resources and funds due to the impact of the economic crisis (Webforum.org)

SiSR is a digital concept answering the above challenge with a platform for crowdfunding and corporate social responsibilities.

In crowdfunding, the digital platform makes the donation process easier through couples of clicks mobile App. It is a one dollar concept enabling more reach and engagement; it offers incentives to donors giving them the chance to be rewarded through an automated certified online raffle draw making the donation process more vivid and more interesting for more people to participate more.
For CSR, it deducted one credit from corporate customers bills (Ex. Mobile bill) so one the target is achieved the system runs automatically the raffle draw to select one customer to be rewarded with the predefined prize, hence it will be a CSR activity to the business and an added value to customer.
SiSR will increase the donations probability using the rewarding system, engaging influencers on social media platforms to adopt campaigns and invite their fans to contribute. It features the mission of the campaign then it shows the deliverables to gain more credibility hence more donations.
The long term aim to be able to help more social causes and to engage the economic cycle with the social responsibilities

Sisr concept aims to contribute to any social cause by refreshing the solidarity spirit “One for all and all for one”; means we try to deal with any social issue that can be solved with money (food to hungry, medicine to ills, tuition to students…). Therefore our outreach is all needy people in our community and around the globe in the future. Our mission is to have our platform as a bridge deploying funds between social classes so to minimize the huge gap in between and to seek some fairness in resources allocation! We are not an innovative solution to improve the life of needy people yet we are digitizing the traditional raffle draw to add some spices to the fundraising process and make more appealing to more potential donors. Knowing that resources/funds can help most of the social causes, we are thriving to apply an effective advocacy to make donations part of the economy cycle and part of people lives in order to optimize the social impact and help more and more unfortunate people.

It all started in Erbil City where I have had a restaurant chain having most of the employees among the Syrian refugees in Iraq. One day I was chatting with one employee and I came to know that his family and the staff families are living a huge refugee’s camp! So I suggested catering some fresh food to the camp and it became my daily mission filling my soul with a great joy and those moments are still part of the proud memories in my journey.

At the same time, I received a newsletter from a business magazine with an attractive title related to the acquisition of King (developed of Cundy Crush mobile game) for an amount of $5.9B!!! So after reading the details and knowing about the huge amounts spent on mobile games & Apps, I start thinking about an idea linking all digital businesses with a fundraising platform and gradually the puzzle got clearer, however it took me a lot time efforts and research to reach the current concept “SiSr” offering incentives against small amounts donated to specific causes. 

There is a quote for Winston Churchill “we make a living by what we get, and we make a life by what we give”. I strongly believe in it because I have tried the joy of giving and that is what made me passionate about social impact. I have witnessed many cases with friends or relatives who got sudden incidents that left them in a shock due to the huge loads and lack of resources (Ex. A cancer patient being asked for an amount of $30K cost of treatment when having nothing!), and we could solve the issues by uniting and spread the load on as many volunteers as possible in order to make it more affordable and feasible. Therefore helping is an ultimate joy, it was part of my beliefs and now it is part of my passion my plans and my goals. 

Almost 20 years of rich experience in business management marketing and communications, I have passed in tough phases during my career which started in Saudi Arabia which is not a friendly place to live and work! Despite the hardship I have managed to cope and climb the ladder and most importantly keeping a positive fingerprint wherever I worked. After 12 years of employment, I have proven my entrepreneurial skills when I quitted my position as a director of branding and advertising for QNB (Qatar National Bank) to start my own business in Erbil/Iraq which was a new emerging market at that time, from one branch in September 2012 I sold the whole operation (end of 2014) consisting of 6 branches plus a leisure park and a fitness gym. So after the great success, I was very unfortunate to live a political instability and an economic crisis in Erbil pushing me to sell and leave back to my homeland Lebanon where I launched a digital marketing agency serving Lebanon and Iraq and meanwhile I have developed SiSr concept for the sake of helping others. The concept is ready and I just need the umbrella to adopt it and back it up mainly for credibility purposes.

I have been working the project since 2015 and I will explain what I have been through! I signed the deal mid-January 2016 even I paid 70% in advance so to encourage the development agency to deliver on time (June), also I hired a law consultant holding a PHD in internet law so ensure having the best resources for the project! In September I was chasing the agency to deliver and in October I got an animated design with no back-end, so I had to deal with a new agency and pay the same amount to have the website delivered in Feb 2017 under “clickluck” name. I couldn’t arrange a payment gateway because the project was classified under lottery despite all legal promise and advice!!! Accordingly i decided in 2018 to start from scratch with new branding for “SiSr” and a new development to change the concept according to the legal compliance...I hired a freelance developer based on a friend’s technical recommendations and the 6 weeks delivery turned to 6 months and the code received wasn’t up to the standard after being assessed! So I had to hire a new developer again to have the concept ready end of 2019.

In 2004 I was a media planner with UM agency in Saudi Arabia and I was working on Kingdom Holding account (Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Corporation) when we were briefed for a global advertising campaign and we presented that we are part of a global network (McCann) and having all resources to execute and deliver a global campaign. Or we were shocked by our management telling us that they have issues with the network and we can’t deal with affiliate offices so better to handle only the local and regional campaign and apologize from the Prince for the international part of the campaign! Or we knew that it might jeopardize the whole business with the Prince who deals with us being part of an international network. Accordingly I took the initiative and I started searching the net for international media contacts plus media researches for planning optimization and effective booking…I had to stay late so to deal with Americas and Japans offices and finally it was a great achievement to plan an international campaign by my own, present it to Prince Al Waleed, got his hard approval, and execute it worldwide from my office in Riyadh.

We adopted the traditional "raffle draw" - which is still done manually in most of the countries - and we have made it digital though an innovative RNG (Random Number Generator) certified by iTechLabs Australia for its fairness.

Therefore unlike all fundraising similar platforms, we are adding the raffle draw concept to each social cause so to attract more people to participate and donate while looking for prizes. 

Also we added the corporate part which is essential in the impact process and it will engage businesses to initiate CSR with raffle draws giving added values to their customers. The corporate part will play a major role in scalability.

SiSR is a digital concept answering the above challenge with a platform for crowdfunding and corporate social responsibilities.

In crowdfunding, the digital platform makes the donation process easier through couples of clicks mobile App. It is a one dollar concept enabling more reach and engagement; it offers incentives to donors giving them the chance to be rewarded through an automated certified online raffle draw making the donation process more vivid and more interesting for more people to participate more.
For CSR, it deducted one credit from corporate customers bills (Ex. Mobile bill) so one the target is achieved the system runs automatically the raffle draw to select one customer to be rewarded with the predefined prize, hence it will be a CSR activity to the business and an added value to customer.
SiSR will increase the donations probability using the rewarding system, engaging influencers on social media platforms to adopt campaigns and invite their fans to contribute. It features the mission of the campaign then it shows the deliverables to gain more credibility hence more donations.
The long term aim to be able to help more social causes and to engage the economic cycle with the social responsibilities

Actually it is still a startup concept to be launched. 

We are planning to launch soon and validate it and put it on the right track so it can be duplicated in the Middle East by next year and then to be a global fundraising platform with the next 5 years.

The concept is ready but i cant launch by myself because trust and credibility are the keys to success in fundraising. I am looking for the right entity to adopt the concept and provide the back-up to overcome the only remaining barrier which is "the credibility" that will be gained and enhanced through delivery.

The concept was approved and it was very closed to be adopted by UN Global Compact, yet it was postponed after the revolution and the turmoil that we have witnessed last quarter of 2019 then they had to react to Covid-19 by adding a donation portal to their site! So it means that the concept has the potential to be adopted by a reputable entity again.

N/A

It is the “platform” revolution within the digital era:

• Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles.
• Facebook, the world’s most popular media owners, creates no content.
• Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.
• Sisr, the world’s largest humanitarian organization to be!! Owns no funds.

We are providing a redefining the fundraising process either with the raffle draw or with the corporate engagement that can lead to linking the fundraising with the economic cycle!

We can perceived also as a disruptive of the lottery business that was amounted to $73B in Americas only in 2017 as per CNN Money! Why not directing the lottery to impact the well-being instead of adding profits to some wealthy businessmen!

I use "We" but actually i am alone on this project and i need the umbrella to fly high and impact for more needy people for more joy. 

It takes two to tango and much more for social impact especially on a concept has a potential to be duplicated all over the globe.

So my main goal is to have an incubator and accelerator with all the needed support across all levels to assess and enhance the technical aspect then to validate and launch till reaching the expansion & scale level. 

I have no specific choice!