Mr. Makhzoumi devotes much of his time and resources to charitable deeds. In 1997, he founded the Makhzoumi Foundation, a private Lebanese non-profit organization that contributes through its vocational training, health care and micro-credit programs, to Lebanese civil society development. The Foundation is currently chaired by Mrs. May Naamani Makhzoumi, out of a strong desire to help empower fellow citizens to achieve self-dependence and improved career prospects. In 1998, a sister Foundation, “Makhzoumi Foundation (USA) Inc.”, was set up to give a wider support to the Lebanese Foundation.
Makhzoumi Foundation developed departments, programs and units to address the needs of the Lebanese community and that of its residents. It does that through improving their socioeconomic status by extending loans, developing skills through informal and formal vocational trainings, providing health awareness while supplying core relief items to the most vulnerable communities, making good value healthcare available, preserving and raising awareness on agro‐environmental issues, empowering youth potentials, and orienting them to achieve self-sustainability and independence.
The Foundation’s vision is summarized as follows:
- Economic, social and cultural evolution of the Lebanese civil society,
- Empowerment of the potentials of Lebanese human resources to meet future challenges,
- Working to disseminate the responsibility bearing spirit, quest for knowledge and self-support,
- Emphasizing the importance of environmental preservation and protection of the nature against threatening risks,
- Encouraging the quest for education,
- Securing good Health Care.
To achieve this, the Foundation seeks to empower, through Capacity Building, Micro Finance, Health Care, Community Development and the following programs and units associated with them:
- Health Care Program
- Vocational Training Program
- Micro Credit Program
- Development Program
- Relief and Humanitarian Services Unit
- Citizenry Unit
- Volunteers Unit
Mr. Makhzoumi has also knit strong relationships with a number of leading educational institutions and has established a number of endowments, including: at the University of Alberta, Canada, the “Makhzoumi Lebanese Studies Endowment” (2009); at the American University of Beirut, the “Rami Makhzoumi Chair in Corporate Governance” (2011) and at the International College in Beirut, yearly awards for Leadership and Excellence (2012); and at the American University of Sharjah, UAE, where “The Makhzoumi Foundation Scholarship for Entrepreneurship in Industry” was set up in 2014. He is a supporter of the Lebanese American University (LAU), in Lebanon, at which the “Fouad Makhzoumi Center for Innovation” is set up (2016).