Mailchimp CEO named Outstanding Arab American Philanthropist of the Year

Rania Succar is the CEO of Intuit Mailchimp. She’s also the co-founder and board member of Jusoor, a global nonprofit which bridged education gaps for 15,000 Syrian youth and refugees since 2011.

Succar was awarded the Outstanding Arab American Philanthropist of the Year by the Center for Arab American Philanthropy or CAAP at the Threads of Giving Gala held Friday in California for her work with Jusoor.

“Through these efforts, we’ve educated 15,000 young people. And we’ve helped those young people in much bigger ways through the indirect effect that we’ve had, through our programs,” she said.

Succar, who is a Syrian American, cofounded this organization after the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. The nonprofit provides scholarships to students and provides entrepreneur workshop programs around the world.

“The thing it reinforces for me is that we can take the most entrenched problems in our society today. And that we as individuals have an opportunity to shape those outcomes by getting involved and making a difference,” she said.

Succar says spending her summers in Damascus as a kid inspired and informed her philanthropy work. She said she realized the youth have limited opportunities due to the Syrian civil war which began in 2011.

“I became obsessed with that, at that point, with closing the opportunity gap, and creating hope for young people.”

She says she’s honored to be awarded for her work.

“It is a great source of pride to be recognized by this organization for the work that Jusoor has collectively done, for the work this group of people around the world has done to make a big difference for Syrian youth.”

Succar hopes people are inspired to also give back.

“I hope what it does is encourage other people to form organizations lectures or to take action and recognize that by doing so they will have a significant impact on some of our society’s most entrenched challenges.”

To learn more about jusoor, visit jusoor.ngo.