Financial Update Letter to the Community
Financial Update Letter to the Community
Asalamualaykum respected ICC community members,
The ICC Board has been committed to a practice of financial transparency to you, our valued stakeholders for our beloved center. To achieve this goal, we have set out to reinvigorate the old tradition of regularly reporting our status to you so that you may be informed and confident in the state of our masjid. One of the actions we would like to achieve is sharing our annual report with every new year, along with fulfilling constitutional responsibilities upon us and getting an audit. We are working on going back to the early 2020s and reporting on all of these years to give you a clearer picture on the state and growth of the organization.
While pursuing this goal, we have run into a few issues. I will list some of them below:
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Back log of information
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- It has been several years since ICC has published an annual report or received a third-party audit. As a result of this, there is a significant amount of transaction data we need to process and ensure is logged in our system. Alhamdulillah, our staff has worked hard to catch up on this and we are nearly up to date due to their diligent efforts.
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Diversity of transactions
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- ICC is a masjid that intakes donations through many different platforms, and while this is a benefit for us in our ability to reach a myriad of donors, it presents some issues in tracking and making sure data doesn't fall through the cracks. The nature of the organizational set up makes it unideal given the financial director changes every one or two years. While this is not an excuse for falling behind in these efforts, it provides some much-needed context in how things like this can happen.
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New Bank
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- As many of you are aware, last Ramadan our long-standing relationship with Chase bank came to an end when they inexplicably closed our accounts, which forced us to find a new bank. This was a huge hurdle that alhamdulillah we overcame but caused us several issues in terms of the ease of tracking and accessing records from our days with Chase bank. Alhamdulillah all is well with our current bank, Arizona Bank and Trust.
Despite these bumps in the road, the hard work of our team of staff members and volunteers is closely coming to a conclusion with catching up on the finances of the masjid. By early summer, we will have reporting on several years of ICC financial history accessible to the public. We are working hard on ensuring all of this is ready to go soon insha'Allah, so please continue to keep us in your dua.
In the meantime, I want to assure everyone that the financial state of ICC is in good shape alhamdulillah. We far surpassed our expectations for fundraising this Ramadan through Allah's grace. We raised over $300,000 for the masjid expenses alone, allowing us to cover the Ramadan expenses along with expenses throughout the year. Alhamdulillah we were also able to secure a new tenant for the commercial space, which will bring tremendous benefit to the Arizona Muslim community, along with ICC itself. Before and throughout Ramadan, our Operations Director and staff led the charge in renovating the apartments on our property. This development along with the welcoming of a new commercial tenant directly contribute to increased financial security for the masjid.
We thank you all for your generous support throughout the year and ask you to consistently remember us in your dua. We are not able to achieve anything without the mercy of Allah , and part of that mercy is represented in the efforts of you in ensuring that this masjid continues to thrive and serve the Ummah of Muhammad and the wider community around us.
Best regards,
Zain Siddiqi
Finance Director
Islamic Community Center of Tempe
131 E 6th St, Tempe, AZ 85281
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