Ideas Beyond Borders

Charity Profile

Ideas Beyond Borders

🇺🇸Workforce Development#1 last 12 months
Donations
$0
All time
Reach
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No locations filed yet
Entries
24
Logged on Charity Journal

Giving over time

Monthly giving from the ledger
Giving and impact by month, last 12 months
MonthGivenImpact bandActivities logged
Nov 2025$0Not rated0
Dec 2025$0Not rated0
Jan 2026$0Not rated0
Feb 2026$0Substantial2
Mar 2026$0Moderate1
Apr 2026$0Not rated0
May 2026$0Not rated0
Jun 2026$0Not rated0
Jul 2026$0Not rated0
Aug 2026$0Not rated0
Sep 2026$0Moderate1
Oct 2026$0Not rated0

Cause breakdown

Education$0 · 0%
Human Rights$0 · 0%
Innovation$0 · 0%
Welfare$0 · 0%
Ideas Beyond BordersVerified
Workforce DevelopmentUnited StatesEst. 2017Faisal Saeed Al Mutar

About

Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB) is a nonprofit organisation founded in 2017 by Faisal Saeed Al Mutar to expand access to knowledge, promote critical thinking, and advance human rights across the Middle East and North Africa. Headquartered in New York, United States, the organisation works to make educational resources and ideas accessible to people living in communities where information may be restricted by censorship, authoritarianism, or extremist ideologies. Its work focuses on empowering individuals, particularly young people, with the knowledge and opportunities needed to shape their own futures.

The organisation’s mission is to make knowledge accessible, encourage independent thinking, and create opportunities for positive social and economic change. Ideas Beyond Borders believes that access to diverse perspectives, scientific knowledge, and open discussion can help individuals challenge harmful beliefs, resist extremism, and contribute to more inclusive societies. It promotes freedom of expression, civil rights, pluralism, and education while supporting local communities to develop solutions to their own challenges.

Ideas Beyond Borders implements its mission through educational programmes, translation initiatives, entrepreneurship support, and advocacy. Its House of Wisdom 2.0 programme translates books, articles, videos, and other educational materials into languages such as Arabic, Dari, Pashto, and Kurdish. The organisation also supports girls' education in Afghanistan through underground schools, provides funding and resources to entrepreneurs and community innovators, and promotes independent reporting and discussion on social, political, and economic issues. These initiatives help expand access to information, strengthen local leadership, and create new opportunities for learning and employment.

Through its programmes and partnerships, Ideas Beyond Borders aims to build a more informed, tolerant, and prosperous future for communities across the Middle East and Afghanistan. By investing in education, innovation, and local leadership, the organisation seeks to empower individuals to make informed decisions, challenge discrimination, and contribute to sustainable development. Its approach emphasises intellectual freedom, human dignity, entrepreneurship, and community-led change, with the ultimate goal of helping people access the knowledge and resources they need to create meaningful improvements in their societies.

Activity feed

Ideas Beyond Borders published reporting on people expanding access to knowledge and creating opportunities across the Middle East and Afghanistan, highlighting local initiatives supported by IBB on 2026-09-21. Cause: Education.
Educationpublished reporting on people expanding access to knowledge and creating opportunities across the Middle East and Afghanistan, highlighting local initiatives supported by IBB
Ideas Beyond Borders profiled women working across the region, including underground teachers and other women advancing education, entrepreneurship and public participation despite restrictions on 2026-03-09. Cause: Human Rights.
Human Rightsprofiled women working across the region, including underground teachers and other women advancing education, entrepreneurship and public participation despite restrictions
Ideas Beyond Borders documented business-registration reforms in Iraqi Kurdistan that reduced processing time from months to as little as 24 hours, with more than 7,000 companies formally registered after the online system launched on 2026-02-13. Cause: Innovation.
Innovationdocumented business-registration reforms in Iraqi Kurdistan that reduced processing time from months to as little as 24 hours, with more than 7,000 companies formally registered after the online system launched
Ideas Beyond Borders published a review of House of Wisdom 2.0’s 2025 work translating and discussing classical liberal ideas in Arabic, expanding access to material that supports critical thinking on 2026-02-06. Cause: Education.
Educationpublished a review of House of Wisdom 2.0’s 2025 work translating and discussing classical liberal ideas in Arabic, expanding access to material that supports critical thinking
Ideas Beyond Borders reported on an Innovation Hub grant supporting Artijaan, an Afghan women-led craft initiative helping more than 1,000 women preserve cultural heritage and rebuild livelihoods on 2025-10-22. Cause: Welfare.
Welfarereported on an Innovation Hub grant supporting Artijaan, an Afghan women-led craft initiative helping more than 1,000 women preserve cultural heritage and rebuild livelihoods
Ideas Beyond Borders documented Afghan entrepreneurs building startups under Taliban rule, highlighting local business activity and the challenges founders face in accessing capital and operating in a restrictive environment on 2025-07-12. Cause: Innovation.
Innovationdocumented Afghan entrepreneurs building startups under Taliban rule, highlighting local business activity and the challenges founders face in accessing capital and operating in a restrictive environment
Ideas Beyond Borders profiled a volunteer English teacher helping Afghan girls continue learning through underground education programmes on 2025-05-19. Cause: Education.
Educationprofiled a volunteer English teacher helping Afghan girls continue learning through underground education programmes
Ideas Beyond Borders published reporting on underground classrooms in Afghanistan, documenting how women teachers continued educating girls despite restrictions and risks of punishment on 2025-04-07. Cause: Education.
Educationpublished reporting on underground classrooms in Afghanistan, documenting how women teachers continued educating girls despite restrictions and risks of punishment
Ideas Beyond Borders reported on online education providing Afghan women with an alternative way to continue learning under restrictions imposed by the Taliban on 2025-01-03. Cause: Education.
Educationreported on online education providing Afghan women with an alternative way to continue learning under restrictions imposed by the Taliban
Ideas Beyond Borders reported on an Innovation Hub grant that enabled an Afghan women-led art centre to expand its operations and employ female teachers and art students who had lost access to university education on 2024-11-15. Cause: Education.
Educationreported on an Innovation Hub grant that enabled an Afghan women-led art centre to expand its operations and employ female teachers and art students who had lost access to university education
Ideas Beyond Borders documented the impact of Taliban restrictions on Afghan women’s employment and education, including the closure of women-led art and handicraft centres on 2024-08-15. Cause: Human Rights.
Human Rightsdocumented the impact of Taliban restrictions on Afghan women’s employment and education, including the closure of women-led art and handicraft centres
Ideas Beyond Borders highlighted the work of women translators and educators in the Middle East, including women supporting underground education in Afghanistan and expanding access to knowledge on 2024-03-08. Cause: Education.
Educationhighlighted the work of women translators and educators in the Middle East, including women supporting underground education in Afghanistan and expanding access to knowledge
Ideas Beyond Borders documented the work of Afghan women volunteers in The Bookies, a reading initiative encouraging children to develop literacy and a reading culture despite restrictions on women’s education on 2024-02-27. Cause: Education.
Educationdocumented the work of Afghan women volunteers in The Bookies, a reading initiative encouraging children to develop literacy and a reading culture despite restrictions on women’s education
Ideas Beyond Borders secured Arabic translation rights for Tim Urban’s What’s Our Problem? and highlighted the work of a local initiative building a library of more than 6,000 books in Sinjar on 2023-05-19. Cause: Education.
Educationsecured Arabic translation rights for Tim Urban’s What’s Our Problem? and highlighted the work of a local initiative building a library of more than 6,000 books in Sinjar
Ideas Beyond Borders reported that House of Wisdom 2.0 had translated more than 600,000 words across eight books during the first half of 2022, while its social-media content reached nearly 30 million people on 2022-07-01. Cause: Education.
Educationreported that House of Wisdom 2.0 had translated more than 600,000 words across eight books during the first half of 2022, while its social-media content reached nearly 30 million people
Ideas Beyond Borders profiled a Syrian translator supported by IBB who continued producing information and countering misinformation while pursuing her education in Germany on 2022-05-09. Cause: Education.
Educationprofiled a Syrian translator supported by IBB who continued producing information and countering misinformation while pursuing her education in Germany
Ideas Beyond Borders continued training student translators at five Iraqi universities, including the University of Mosul and Babylon University, with awards recognising top-performing participants on 2022-05-05. Cause: Education.
Educationcontinued training student translators at five Iraqi universities, including the University of Mosul and Babylon University, with awards recognising top-performing participants
Ideas Beyond Borders documented the expansion of its Innovation Hub, which had launched in 2021 to provide small grants to regional innovators working on locally led projects on 2022-02-28. Cause: Innovation.
Innovationdocumented the expansion of its Innovation Hub, which had launched in 2021 to provide small grants to regional innovators working on locally led projects
Ideas Beyond Borders showcased books translated by IBB at the Iraq International Book Fair in Baghdad, increasing public access to translated works and ideas on 2021-12-09. Cause: Education.
Educationshowcased books translated by IBB at the Iraq International Book Fair in Baghdad, increasing public access to translated works and ideas
Ideas Beyond Borders celebrated graduates of its Wikipedia-backed University Student Translator Program, which trained university students to translate online information into Arabic on 2021-11-15. Cause: Education.
Educationcelebrated graduates of its Wikipedia-backed University Student Translator Program, which trained university students to translate online information into Arabic

Board

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar
Founder & President

He is a social entrepreneur and media executive focused on critical thinking and economic opportunity in the Middle East.

Sam Hershey
Chairman of the Board

He is a partner at White & Case.

Melissa Chen
Board Member

She is a technology and media executive and has served as a leader at Ideas Beyond Borders.

Steven Pinker
Board Member

He is a professor of psychology at Harvard University and an author known for work on language and human nature.

Nick Gillespie
Board Member

He is an editor-at-large at Reason magazine.

Brady Forrest
Board Member

He is an entrepreneur and founder of Ignite Talks.

Gerry Ohrstrom
Board Member

He is a private investor and former chairman of the Ohrstrom Foundation.