A new Jummah Grants fund is launching this week grants of between £250 and £1,000 each week for small mosques based in the UK with an annual turnover of under £250,000 who are struggling during lockdown.
The grants have been made possible through the support of charity sponsors Penny Appeal UK and Mercy Mission UK, alongside individual donors to the #SupportOurMosques campaign, an initiative of LaunchGood.com and the Muslim Council of Britain.
The #SupportOurMosques campaign was started in April 2020 to help UK mosques raise funds online as many saw a sharp drop in donations due to lockdown. The campaign has so far helped over 130 participating mosques around the UK raise over £440,000, as well as providing free webinars, coaching and online tools on how to fundraise effectively online.
The Jummah Grants fund will be a continuation of this campaign of helping small mosques fundraise online and incentivise community giving. Each Friday, there will be a daily competition for small mosques to garner the highest number of individual donors on their online fundraising page, with the most successful at mobilising local community support receiving a support grant of between £250 and £1,000 on top of their amount fundraised.
Harris Iqbal, Interim CEO of Penny Appeal, said “We are honoured to be partnering with the #SupportOurMosques campaign to provide grants to small mosques here in the UK every Friday to help them get through lockdown. Our mosques are there for us when we are young, as we grow older, when we get married and even when we pass away. Just as these institutions are here for us, we must be there for our mosques in their time in need.”
Zain Miah, Europe Director of LaunchGood said “The SupportOurMosques initiative is a genuine effort to support masjids find their way through the everchanging landscape that coronavirus presents. Masajid have adapted, they have stepped up. Now, with the help of our grant sponsors via Jummah Grants, we can help masjids further cover their costs, sustain themselves and most importantly, incorporate forward-thinking changes in their fundraising as they begin to look towards the future.”
Small UK mosques with an annual turnover of under £250,000 can register for the Jummah Grants programme online at SupportOurMosques.com/JummahGrants.
Any participating mosque is able to benefit from the campaign’s free webinars, coaching and online tools on how to fundraise effectively online as well.
