The Muslim Community Resource Center (MCRC) was constituted in 2009 as a humanitarian platform to bring the Muslim community in the Greater Seattle together to serve individuals in need. Three primary motivational drivers inspired our founder, Nickhath Sheriff, to start MCRC:

1. Increasing Muslim visibility in the Greater Seattle area by working together to give back to the extended community. In her involvement with other non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, Nickhath saw how an organized and coordinated effort brought both sustainable and successful outcomes.
2. To counter the incorrect and negative perceptions of American Muslims in the media by highlighting their charitable good work and generosity. Nickhath deliberately chose to include “Muslim” in the organization’s name to stress that it was followers of Islam that were providing the service.
3. To increase the scope and reach of aid to more communities by building bridges of collaboration and partnerships with other humanitarian service organizations. While many local agencies provided humanitarian services, many in the Muslim community did not know how to reach out and seek help. Rather than reinventing and duplicating services, MCRC intended to leverage existing resources and partner with service providers to amplify the community’s impact.

After conducting a survey, a small team began curating local resources that met the community’s needs. Nickhath, her family and a core group of volunteers, carefully established MCRC, an independent 501c(3) organization. The organization became a unifying platform for doing good, bringing people from various mosques across the Puget Sound to serve those in need— regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity.

MCRC began as a virtual resource center, leveraging space in local mosques, community centers, and coffee shops to meet with clients and provide services. Where there were service gaps, MCRC stepped in to offer service coordination and fulfillment of any unmet needs. The organization was funded exclusively through individual donations from the Muslim community. And in the years that followed, MCRC quickly became the go-to Muslim humanitarian organization in the Puget Sound area with over 200+ volunteers from across the Puget Sound area.

In 2016, MCRC became the social and humanitarian arm of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS), the largest mosque in WA State, and started functioning as MAPS-MCRC. Joining MAPS allowed MCRC to continue to focus on its mission to serve people in need while leveraging MAPS’ infrastructure to meet the increasing administrative and financial accounting aspects of providing its services.

MCRC was founded on the principles of responsiveness, compassion, and individual connections with the people that it serves. From the beginning, our goal has been to embody our prophetic traditions of providing service and support to our communities.

The passion and dedication of its volunteers are what make MCRC unique. They will continue to be a guiding force of MAPS-MCRC through the years to come.