Donors, community organisers, and civic leaders gathered at the Courtyard by Marriott on Sunday, October 25, 2026, to celebrate more than two decades of the Olive Tree Foundation's work and to encourage a new generation of givers to plan for the long term.
The foundation started as a small effort funding after-school homework clubs for newcomer families. Today, it manages 37 named endowment funds and has distributed over 60 grants worth $438,740 between 2004 and 2025.
Board Secretary Usman Hameed moderated the afternoon. It opened with a recitation of Surah Al-Fatiha, and a land acknowledgement framed around Islamic principles of justice and caring for the earth.
How a "waqf" works: the olive tree
The foundation creates and maintains named endowment funds for Canadians. It is based on the Islamic concept of a waqf, where endowments of real assets are invested, and returns used to fund charitable projects.
Treasurer Muhammed Haseeb Ali, an MBA, CPA and CA, explained the idea using an olive tree. The roots are the donor's original gift, which is never spent. The trunk is the investments, .and the fruit is the investment income, which funds yearly grants and scholarships.
Ali further explained how paying out 3% to 5% a year means total grants can equal the original donation in roughly 20 years, while the original gift remains in place to keep giving – aligning with the concept of sadaqah jariyah, or continuous charity.
Partners show what long-term funding makes possible
Vice Chair Naeem Siddiqi introduced three organizations that have received support from the foundation's endowments.
Siddiqi described projects the foundation helps fund at York University’s Islamophobia Research Hub – which does critical evidence based research on anti Muslim hatred. In particular, given the recent surge in both anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism, this research seeks to not only find and document this phenomena, but also work with stakeholders on effective ways to address it.
Funded initiatives include a summit for Muslim student leaders which generated data for research on Islamophobia and discussed ways to identify and counter it, annual leadership awards for students conducting anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism, and a 2025 national survey on Muslim student advocacy.
Konul Gurbanova, an advisory committee member at the Azerbaijani Women's Support Centre, spoke about training young leaders of different faiths across the Greater Toronto Area to create better interfaith cooperation. She also gave details on timely and much needed projects run by the organisation such as workshops to identify and deal with domestic violence, as well as creation of new risk-assessment tools, designed with cultural awareness, to help frontline workers support survivors of domestic violence.
Victor Reyes, executive director of Faith and the Common Good, recounted more than ten years of environmental work with the Foundation, from community resilience hubs in 2014 to the Greening Canadian Mosques initiative and ongoing Faiths4Climate conversations. Victor recalled Olive Tree Foundation’s support for his organisation at the early stages, and how the Foundation’s repeated funding of projects is taken as a compliment and a vote of confidence in its activities.
Plant deep roots instead of just scattering seeds
Foundation Chair and Founder Muneeb Nasir delivered the keynote, recalling the Foundation’s humble beginnings, and emphasising its focus on patient long term change making.
"Most charity move fast. A crisis strikes, people respond urgently and generously, and then attention shifts to the next emergency," Nasir said. He described the Foundation's choice, 20 years ago, to take a different path. The Foundation networks relentlessly to find community organisations doing grassroots work to improve the lives of Canadians. It then funds multi-year projects that help the grant recipients think beyond single events, and generate longer term benefits.
"An endowment is fundamentally an act of faith," he said. "It says: I may never meet the person this helps. I may not even be alive to see the full result."
Nasir traced the foundation's growth from homework clubs to work on legal and civil rights issues and academic research. He highlighted partnerships with the National Council of Canadian Muslims to confront white supremacy, research on the experiences of Black Canadian Muslims, and inclusion work for disabled people with the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities and DEEN Support Services. He also pointed to reconciliation efforts alongside the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, whose Spirit Bear Award the foundation has supported.
He paid tribute to late Foundation champions Pervez Nasim and Tauqir Yasin whose continuous support helped the Foundation in its early stages. .
Remembering two community leaders
Nasir honoured two recent leaders who passed away during the past year and whose legacies live on through endowments that were created through legacy gifts. Professor Hind Al-Abadleh, a former atmospheric chemist at Wilfrid Laurier University, established a new fund through her will that will continue her legacy of supporting environmental research, STEM scholarships, and initiatives for underserved communities. Irfan Alli, a longtime community builder who died in late 2025, is remembered through the Irfan Alli and Rukhsana Khan Family Endowment.
"They showed us that a meaningful legacy does not happen by chance—it is built with intention," Nasir said. "What grain of corn will you plant today that will nourish our community tomorrow?"
Director Umar Nasir closed the luncheon with a vote of thanks to donors, partner organizations, and volunteers.