give 1% and become part of the 1%
A new methodology on donation management
By Masjid Bilal
primer
Today, it's no surprise that Masjids and Islamic Centers Across the United States face a paradox around Donation Management. On the outskirts, it might seem as if financially these institutions are succeeding, especially given the abundance of worshipers attending the Friday and daily prayers offered — one would naturally think "well if all of these people are at the mosque, surely everyone's doing their part to contribute", vernacularly speaking, that would be, for a lack of a better word, the "lazy" way to think about the issue. Unfortunately, our research suggests that the complete opposite is happening.
Now we can't speak for all Masajid in the country; however, our due diligence indicates that this pattern of donation misalignment is rather noticeable in mid-sized Masajid like Masjid Bilal. So, what seems to be the issue? Well, simply put, the allocation of capital in the form of donations is what is causing Masajid like Masjid Bilal to continuously wrestle with the idea of putting resources to cover pertinent costs vs expanding to meet the demands of the community.
There is also a lot of psychology at play; a segment of the community understands that supporting the mosque is vital in order to maintain its operational efficiency; however, they struggle with knowing where to begin and often times hesitate in reaching for their wallets or clicking the donate button.
Solution
The "Give 1% and become part of the 1%" is a new initiative by Masjid Bilal in encouraging the community to think about the idea of supporting the mosque in a much more methodical way. We take a top-down approach to donation management — one that is transparent and healthy in allowing for a prosperous organization. As the title suggests, by giving just 1% of your salary inshallah, Allah (SWT) will have made you among the 1% in paradise.
Impact
Let's talk numbers! Currently, they are a total of 93,018 residents in Canton, of which 3.6% identify as Muslim — that's a whopping 3,348 community members! Now let's just say for the sake of calculation that just 20 percent of them attend the mosque (these are conservative estimations), and with each member having an average income of $78,251 — that would mean by following the 1% methodology the Masjid would generate a total of $523,499 per year which is Alhumdulillah more than enough to support our operations! So the capital is there — we as a community just need to figure out how we can get people excited about giving and supporting their local mosque!