Finance
The finance aspect of any organisation is deemed as critical in the manner it assist with the running and managing of an institute – The NJM is no different. Over the past three (3) years the NJM as an institute has done much to ensure that there is good governance, transparency and accountability in all financial matters. In this regard the Institute has received clean audits and accounted to the community through, newsletters, Annual General Meetings (AGM`s) and community meetings. The NJM leadership has developed a Finance Policy that governs fiscal spending, as well as ensure administrative prudence is exercised.
The NJM is a long cry from being financially independent. Thus is largely still dependent on external donors for economic sustainability. At least 80% of all revenue generated come from donors outside of the Newclare community. The biggest financial drivers have been the Ramadaan collection and the Golf day. Collectors spend the entire month of Ramadaan traveling to collect much needed funds to sustain the Institute. Our annual golf day is also very popular and has been running for the past 19 years with much success. We have players who support the event from as far as Rustenburg and its patrons have always been generous and unstinting. Other initiatives like the annual dinner and high tea and weekly Jumuah collections also go a long way to ensure economic sustainability.
What we find is that there is a growing gap between what the NJM collect versus our expenditure. The budget has increased by R600, 000-00 from 2013 to 2017, an increase of almost 55%. Initiatives such as monthly home collections are not taking off because we do not have enough community members that have volunteered, even when payment was offered (in the form of a percentage of the collections) on a monthly basis.
School Fees is another stream of potential income that has not been as successful as anticipated. Debit Orders too, have not been as successful as originally anticipated – however we will not give up as the NJM leadership and hope to re-launch these projects in the near future – with a more positive response from the community. Only as a collective can we move towards economic independence and not rely on two streams of income to sustain the NJM. With the current economic climate, funding and sponsors are becoming fewer plus we are competing with other masajeeds from the same donors. It has become imperative that we start thinking out of the box and we as the NJM leadership are of the view that our properties could provide that lifeline for the institute. The Ramadaan collection and the Golf day must merely augment our income not sustain it.
Collectors
Collectors are the unsung heroes of the NJM as an institute because it is profoundly reliant on collectors to assist in ensuring its sustainability. The collectors that the institute currently have are the Committee members and two or three outsiders. The current group of collectors give their time without any remuneration. The challenge is that there are no new collectors coming forward from the community. To site an example – the NJM has three collectors that are currently are over the age of 70 years. This in itself is admirable, however, it poses as a major problem, firstly from a physical perspective and secondly from a succession perspective. Two of those collectors have been involved in the Newclare Masjid and community for over 35 years and there contribution to the community must be acknowledged and admired. The collectors procure approximately 80% of the funds from donors outside of the Newclare community and that is primarily during the Ramadaan collection drive.
As an institute we even undertook to employ collectors where they would collect on behalf of the institute and earn a commission. This initiative failed utterly because not a single person came forward to take up this offer, yet the unemployment rate in the community is extremely high. It is imperative that new collectors are recruited – thus an appeal goes out to you the community to assist in this regard – failure to heed the call will impact severely on potential initiatives and projects that we envisage for the community. Furthermore, this complacency will impact on the transformation journey. We speak about transformation, however we cannot transform without financial backing and the playing grounds are getting smaller because the economy is not growing and is not as not as resilient as one would have expected - thus donors are not as generous as they were historically. This ultimately impacts on the maintenance and deliverables of certain initiatives. Not-withstanding the rising operational costs of the NJM.
The current group of collectors venture as far as Rustenburg, Lichtenburg, Mpumalanga and Carletonville secure funds for the NJM. Sometimes at great risk – only last year one of are teams were caught-up in an attempted robbery – Luckily with the grace of the Almighty they were not injured, but were clearly shaken.
As a committee we would like to take this opportunity to thank the collectors. We make dua that the institute is continually blessed with donors and patrons and that the collectors remain pivotal as a life-line for the NJM. Furthermore, to remain loyal and to continuously collect for the NJM, albeit under trying circumstances.