California · Nonprofit
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 226 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,495,668 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,632,067). 99 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 226
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $19M
What Middle East Children's Alliance does
Mission
Founded in 1988, the Middle East Children's Alliance is a registered nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well being of children in the middle east. Meca sends shipments of aid to palestine, iraq and lebanon, and supports projects that make life better for the children. We educate north americans about children in the region. Meca welcomes the support of all people who care about children and their future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Support for children's projectsmeca has long-term partnerships with grassroots organizations in palestine and lebanon that address children's basic needs and offer them opportunities to play, learn, and envision a better future. We provide financial support and professional assistance for their programs, responding to requests for what is needed in each of their communities.in fy 2024-2025 meca: made grants to 12 community organizations to run arts, literacy, media, sports, and leadership programming for palestinian children meca made grants to 4 community organizations to run psychosocial support projects for traumatized children in gaza
$11,105,672 spentof which $10,366,106 as grants$552,545 earned by the program88% of program spendingHumanitarian aidsince meca was founded in 1988, we have sent or delivered more than 54 million dollars in aid to children in palestine, iraq, and lebanon to alleviate the suffering caused by war, sanctions, and occupation. We deliver food parcels, warm winter clothes, medical equipment and supplies, as well as provide clothes, books, toys, and school supplies.in fy 2024-2025 meca continued to respond to the dire situation in gaza. Every day, the Middle East Children's Alliance remarkable and courageous team on the ground staff, volunteers, and our partner organizationsare responding to the urgent needs of children and families with emergency aid.hot meals & food parcels meca partnered with world central kitchen to operate community kitchens with solar-powered stoves meca made grants to operate 5 kitchens that cooked and distributed 5,176,781 hot meals and provided 287,832 loaves of pita bread to displaced families meca made grants to buy and distribute food parcels to tens of thousands of families in gaza, the west bank and lebanon including to distribute food parcels that we received as in-kind donations. The food parcels include essential food staples and fresh produce. Each…
$965,394 spentof which $755,733 as grants8% of program spendingThe maia project:the maia project to provide clean water to children in gaza began at the request of schoolchildren in gaza. Since october 2023, the maia project has shifted focus to build water purification units that can serve displaced families and to buy and distribute clean water by truck to different areas where families have no source of clean drinking water.in fy 2024-2025 meca: installed 3 new or refurbished water purification units to provide safe, clean water to displaced families in gaza installed 2 new water purification units to provide safe, clean water to hospitals in gaza and the displaced families sheltering in the areas around the hospitals made grants to 4 community organizations to buy and distribute 14,254,372 gallons of clean drinking water to displaced families throughout gaza contracted with an environmental engineer to conduct regular monitoring of the water quality, oversee the repairs and maintenance on all the water units we have installed across gaza, and oversee the distribution of emergency trucked water to displaced families.meca also provided other forms of emergency aid, made grants to palestinian universities for scholarships, supported…
$310,219 spentof which $127,894 as grants2% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$296,121 spentof which $216,677 as grants2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,677,406.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $5.8M to $14M (+140%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 0% · 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Zeiad Shamrouch
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 107 funders, grant income rose $250k → $3.5M.
51 of 226 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 226 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
75% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 26% · 2019 31% · 2020 30% · 2021 17% · 2022 20% · 2023 47% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
61% of MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
65% of MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $6.3M that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from funders outside California, across 35 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 22 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 190 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 190 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Alliance Graphics · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE?
- MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 226 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,495,668 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,632,067). 99 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 226 organizations giving $18,495,668 in grants to MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE, 99 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,632,067 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 226 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing