photo: I believe this is old city Damascus (Suk Hamidiya entrance).
I have already been to few fund raising programs and have been thinking deeply about the fundraising experience from an average “Abdullah”’s perspective. The American Muslim community fund raising experience is really unique. I do not know anything remotely resembling these programs in the East. I think till we figure out a better way to raise money for Muslim institutions, this is our main option. No doubt the credit goes to the organizers and board members in building prayer centers and schools, but how can we improve this experience collectively?
For this reason, I have my own list of recommendations for organizers/speakers. However, before I put my post up, I wanted to hear your recommendations and comments on fundraising dinners (please don’t mention any names).
chime in!
5 Responses
AA,
Ask the audience to go back to their family/friends and ask them for money also. Many people want to donate but have other commitments and don’t make to the actual events. Maybe save 5-10 mins and have people take out their cell phones during the actual fund raiser and ask them to call someone right now and ask for a donation.
WS
Posted on September 17th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I think that we need a totally different way to fundraise….no fundraising dinners to beg for money. People should want to give without coaxing them to do it. How about fundraising throughout the year without anyone knowing?
1. Selling foods and items throughout the year at the masjid
2. holding a number of HIGH QUALITY events for the “community” in which tickets and food proceeds all go towards the masjid.
3. having occassional khutbahs set to be done once a month or every two months that explains the importance of donations, etc. (without asking for donations)
4. asking the kids and the youth to go on candy selling / cookie selling / catalog selling drives (like we did in school) in which they get high quality prizes for raising money.
and finally
5….using masjid funds to buy some kind of place that will generate revenue (ie shopping stores, restaurants, etc) and then we wont have to ask for anything
Salaam
Posted on September 17th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Salaams
1) Masjids with parking lots (like ISCJ) should give tickets to persons parking in a haram manner. the masjid collects the fee, the muslim who does not pay his/her info is forwarded to the local police for an official police ticket.
2) Sell advertisisng space outside the masjid
3) official membership at a fee with privilidges
4) Have monthly entertainment and charge people
5) start a little shop at the masjid
Salahudeen Nausrudeen
TSM Media
Posted on September 18th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Some more thoughts on this topic:
The other suggestions are very good and valid, however fund raising and operational costs for masjid/islamic school are two different things. Regardless there’s room for improvement in terms of maximizing revenues. Good thing is that some of these things are already happening in some places along with the other suggestions made by others on this posting from brother faraz. We just need to focus more on them to ensure they happen with consistency.
To cover normal operational costs/budgets, few suggestions:
Jumah/Ramadan/Eid – Collect money at all entrances and exits. Have officially approved people stand with boxes to solicit and collect the money. Having a physical person/presence is more effective than having a stationary box located in one place. To enhance this idea even further during high profile events like Eid, Laitul Qadr, etc…have high profile local people hold these collection boxes. It’s more impactful when the imam, scholars, board type people are performing this function as people are entering and exiting the premises.
Mutual Funds/Stocks – Each institution should have a brokerage account and let’s get our muslim brothers/sisters who do this professionally for a living manage this money and ask them to grow it in halal mutual funds/stocks.
As masjds/centers grow and develop, a multi-purpose hall and professional kitchen is an absolute must. This allows for revenue to be generated from hall rental and hot food sales.
As we build new structures or enhance existing ones, we should be looking at eco-friendly designs that will save us money in energy costs.
We have so many muslims that don’t come to masjid, this is key..somehow we have to find them and get to start coming to the masjid on a regular consistent basis. This is a vast untapped resource not only for dollars but the vitality that sheer numbers can provide to a masjid. Bottomline more people that come to masjid on regular basis for all activities means more money will come in.
Have an annual set date for fund raisers, make it an event that everyone looks forward to each year. For example for ISCJ, There should be 3 separate set dates annually for example for ISCJ. One for School, one for masjid, and one during Ramadan. That way people don’t feel overwhelmed with the donation requests if it is spaced out from calendar perspective.
Credit card kiosks in main hallways along where cash boxes are. Self-service credit card machines like at the gas stations or supermarkets. Get them installed, we are moving to cashless society especially the younger generation never carries checks or cash on them. We lose alot of revenue just because people don’t carry or forget to bring cash or checks with them.
Advertisements in muslim businesses – the masjids are quick to take flyers and have them at shoe racks or exit/entrance areas for our brothers/sisters to advertise their business or service. The masjids should do the same, there should be flyers/pamplets talking about the latest masjid activities/news in every single muslim business from halal meat shops, restaurants, etc…
Zakat and Donation difference. I am not a scholar but I think there is some confusion over zakat and sadaqah. I believe there is a difference and it needs to be explained properly. Some people might assume zakat can be used for expansion projects or it cant be used for expansion projects. Regardless, it needs to be explained properly based on sharia/rulings.
Capital Fund Raiser scenario:
Ask people to provide their donations right at the beginning of event, dont’ wait till all speakers have concluded to ask for money. Count up that total and announce it after speakers are done and then start soliciting again. You increase the odds of people donating a 2nd time in one night. The reason I say this is people generally come to an event with a dollar amount they will donate already in their minds or written out.
Get 50 finanacially sound people and ask for $50, 000, yep that’s right but that’s 2.5 million dollars by my calculations, offer a stipulation to them that they wont be asked for money for the next 3-5 years. It allows us to collect a big chunk of money right away and a big project/expansion can take place sooner rather than later. Treat it like a business meeting and not a fund raiser. Have some type of contract or waiver saying this will only proceed or work if each of you agree to do this. Kind of like peer pressure…we won’t collect this money if only 35 agree to it, we need all 50 to agree to this. 50 is a random number I chose, but it can work similarly with 25 people, 75 people, or 100 people.
Grants/Foundations, this is an area where we are lacking knowledge and research. Federal, state, county, local governments have all type of grants, we just are not aware of it so we don’t apply for them. Especially if we don’t call our place a masjid and we are calling it a community center.
Sorry, this is probably much more than you asked for, but it was all in my head and i needed to get it out.
Wailkum Salaam
Posted on September 22nd, 2007 at 10:06 am
wasSalam,
I just want to say thank you to everyone who contributed/ing to this post on how to improve the fundraising experience. There are many great suggestions that I will definitely pass it to people who are organizing events in central jersey.
Again, thank you for you input and keep contributing your ideas…
Posted on September 26th, 2007 at 7:31 am
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