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MAPS 2024 – Grand Expansion Update, Highlights, and Donation Appeal

Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS)
MasjidPlus AI
5 months ago

MAPS 2024 – Grand Expansion Update, Highlights, and Donation Appeal 

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu, 

I pray this message reaches you in the best of health and the highest of Imaan 

Expansion Update 

As we approach the end of the year, we are filled with gratitude and excitement to share a significant milestone for MAPS: Alhamdulillah, we have signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) and deposited $1 million into escrow, which remains refundable pending due diligence, for our new campus. 

While we encountered some delays primarily due to multiple offers with the seller and the sale of our current MAPS —by the grace of Allah SWT, we have been able to realign the process in our favor. 

Additionally, we are pleased to share that we are now collaborating with Medina Academy to offer them one of the buildings for purchase, subject to their diligence and approval process. 

We anticipate completing due diligence by February 10, 2025, and moving toward closing by April 2025. 

This is a highly complex deal with many moving parts, and despite our best efforts, there remains a significant possibility that we may not be able to close. 

Important: Your support and prayers are truly invaluable as we advance this meaningful project. To achieve this significant milestone and create a lasting impact for generations to come, we kindly seek your financial support. Please connect with potential donors and inspire them to join us in this mission. Additionally, we encourage you to actively participate in our upcoming fundraising events. Together, we can make this vision a reality. Online: Visit our donation page here  to make a secure online donation. 

2024 Highlights 

The MAPS board along with both branch committees, held a day long planning offsite last Sunday to strategize for 2025. We are excited to share many new programs that are planned as we kick off our campaign for 2025 Insha’Allah. In the meantime, let us reflect on the past year’s six priorities that we shared earlier and what we been able to achieve under each:  

Growth & Scale 

  • We are now seeing on average, ~2600 people coming to MAPS-Redmond and 800 people coming to MAPS-Seattle every Friday. All three locations are offering multiple jummahs that are very well attended 

  • Our growing attendance in Ramadan required a tent outside and for this upcoming Ramadan, we’re planning to have tents both in Redmond and Snohomish County  

  • MAPS-MCRC expanded their office hours offering meal vouchers in MAPS Seattle. We also did a medical clinic in the summer in Seattle, which was a big success 

  • MAPS-Seattle has expanded to its 2nd floor after seeing growing attendance in Ramadan.  

Youth and Young Professionals 

  • Started a partnership with inPairs for matchmaking and we have one of the highest participation rates of any masjid on this digital platform so far. 

  • Established daily evening halaqa, Fajr Club for youth on Sundays in Redmond, brothers’ Suhbah after Fajr on Saturdays in Seattle 

  • Created 20s, 30s, and Sports group – all these groups are attracting many youth and young professionals to the masjid  

  • MAPS Youth continued to grow and flourish with our two new Youth directors, Br. Rayyan and Sr. Gowaria who are now in the driving seat after br. Ahsen’s long tenure with us.  

  • MAPS Seattle: Our hifz and tajweed classes have close to 30 students, all young professionals 

  • MAPS Seattle: Started Sunday school and Quranic Arabic programs  

  • MAPS Seattle: We have weekly halaqahs with Imam Akram, tafseer with br. Alaa Badr, sisters halaqa with Ustadha Nada Azmy, and brothers Suhbah after Fajr on Saturdays 

  • MAPS Snohomish County: We started regular Qura’n Study weekly, Community Q&A monthly, and Stories of the Prophets monthly by Sh. Sharief 

Institutionalization & Sustainability 

  • Our yearly budget has been consistently growing, and we are expected to see exponential growth with the purchase of our new campus. Hence, we have launched a major migration project to transition our finance systems to an external vendor to handle this growing scale with three branches for better systems, processes, and controls. We’ll be sharing more details during our fundraising campaign and our annual banquet. 

  • Hired a full-time paid director for MAPS Montessori school and offered paid training for Montessori certification of teachers  

  • As we embarked on the aforementioned expansion and Finance transition projects, we decided to postpone hiring a full-time Execution Director of Operations role to contain costs. We do intend to resume this hiring once we finish these two major projects in early 2025 

Facilities Modernization & Expansion 

  • As described above, many of the projects related to A/V, partition, gym flooring, etc. were intentionally put on hold after our decision to buy a new campus 

  • MAPS Seattle’s permanent facility purchase is also one of our priorities, however, we’ll sequence it after successfully closing on MAPS Redmond and evaluating our financial obligations afterwards. Meanwhile, we have extended the lease for MAPS Seattle until March 2027.  

Community Culture & Excellence 

  • Our social programming including Eid bazaars, monthly potlucks, summer picnics in the park, summer family camp, Ramadan food trucks, fall festival, etc. all have been consistently held, welcoming many new families moving to our area. 

  • We continued to have an interfaith iftar, which is our biggest gathering inviting non-Muslims to our masjid and have them experience what Ramadan and fasting is all about  

PNW Seminary 

  • Alhamdulillah, we launched PNW seminary and have concluded our very first semester with 100 paid registrations. This surpassed our goal of 40 students by 250%. Due to the considerable interest, we are re-evaluating our options to further accelerate our plans to expand our Seminary offerings.  

Pledge Completion 

We just have 10 days left for the year, if you have not completed your pledges, please do so and take advantage of tax deductions. Alhamdulillah, your donations are enabling us to support all our programs across all the branches. If you have not pledged or donated, please consider doing it. You can also mark donations to go towards “Capex”, where it would be only used towards the purchase of our new home.  

How to Donate: 

  • Online: Visit our donation page here to make a secure online donation 

  • Text Message: Text “Give to 425-654-2989 (Store number in your contacts as “Give MAPS”) 

  • Paypal or Zelle: Send to donations@mapsredmond.org 

  • Stock and ACH: Contact treasurer@mapsredmond.org 

  • Check: Mail to: P.O. BOX 2976 Redmond, WA 98073 

  • Via Fidelity Charitable Trust (Donor Advised Fund): Specify “Muslim Association of Puget Sound 

We express our sincere gratitude to each member of our community for their unwavering support. May Allah (SWT) accept your contributions and shower you with His abundant blessings. May your generosity be rewarded manifold, and may the coming year bring even more blessings and prosperity to you and your loved ones. 

JazakumAllah Khairan for your continued support. 

Wassalam, 

Mohammad Vakil 

MAPS President 

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Muslim Association Of Puget Sound (MAPS) | 17550 NE 67th Ct | Redmond, WA 98052 US