As the board sat down and reflected on our purpose, we were able to translate our vision and focus into the following set of priorities for the next 3 to 5 years and the specific investments planned for the coming year.  

• Growth: This is about addressing and fulfilling the needs of our growing community. Our programs are seeing attendance grow by 2X to 4X per year Alhumdulillah. We have to plan for scale and facilitate this growth. In addition, our community is spreading not only on the eastside but across the region, where they have been requesting us to offer and extend our services. Hence, we will have to expand our reach and impact beyond Redmond. As you know, we have done so last year by opening MAPS Seattle, but now we are seeing demands from other suburbs. In 2023, we will be focusing on the following investments:  
  • Support 2X-4X growth of religious & education programs, e.g. Youth seminary, doubling up Weekend school on Saturdays or Sunday afternoon, increasing visiting-scholars series, MAPS-MCRC’s growing needs, etc. 
  • Promote Precious Hearts to Precious Hearts Montessori Co-Op Preschool with a vision to have the first Islamic School with a Montessori accreditation. 
  • Establish a new branch in Snohomish County/Marysville applying MAPS Seattle’s learnings and success patterns.  
• Youths & Young Professionals: As we usher into the 3rd phase of this MAPS journey (with Vision 3.0), it is becoming very clear that we must repivot all our programs to cater to the youth and young professionals. Our future success lies in them owning all programs and affairs of our institution. We must keep pace with technological advancement and upgrade our programs as with advancement in technologies like ChatGPT, all human knowledge is at our fingertips. Conversely, there is risk for much confusion as well. It is important for us to focus on tarbiyyah, that we successfully inculcate our principles, teachings, love for our deen into their hearts and minds of the coming generation. In 2023, we are setting the following goals towards this priority:  
  • Hire a full-time Imam to attract the youth & young professionals to our daily prayer and other activities  
  • Increase youth scholarships to attend national seminaries (aka MAPS Scholars Program) to four (4) students this year 
  • Introduce summer internship to nurture and groom our youths in multiple program areas 
• Institutionalization: MAPS operation and programs cannot rely on heroics of our volunteers, with lack of clear policies/processes, or frequent ca. We need to institutionalize MCRC, AMEN, NOW, TAG, CDEI, MCOC, IOC, etc. for sustained growth and long-term success. This would also help us achieve operational excellence and predictable execution. To this end, we are taking on following goals in 2023:  
  • Work towards financial self-sufficiency of MAPS operations/programs by launching a True Endowment program 
  • Hire professional staff for key programs/initiatives, e.g. MCRC-Clinic, Funeral Director, etc. 
• Modernization of Facilities & Expansions: Our neighborhood is undergoing major changes, transforming from a semi-industrial zoning to a full-fledged multi-use zone, where apartments, condominiums, commercial shops and a commuter rail station are being developed.  We have to invest in space optimization in our Redmond facility and seek a permanent facility in Seattle. We need to think about longer-term expansion for MAPS Redmond. We will also have to invest in our own cemetery and funeral services as current options aren’t ideal due to costs & location.
  We are taking the following steps towards this priority for 2023:
  • Focus on lease to buy for MAPS branches 
  • Launch a MAPS cemetery project to search for land & improve our funeral services 
• Pacific Northwest Seminary: We will need a local center for higher education and Islamic studies to help develop the next generation of scholars, Imams, and community leaders. Fiqh, Quranic and Hadith sciences, Shariah and Law, etc. can all be degrees offered by a local seminary. In 2023, we are not taking any specific goal other than developing a better understanding of what will be required to achieve this vision. 

I would like to highlight two key initiatives I mentioned above in some further details. I am very excited to share the launch of the following:  

1. MAPS Snohomish County/Marysville: After the learning and success of MAPS Seattle (please do see their update report), we are starting our second branch in the city of Marysville as “MAPS-Snohomish County”. We have found a good team that is passionate and excited about establishing all the prayer, educational, social, and youth related programs and services under the supervision of MAPS Redmond. 
2. Launching Endowment Initiative: The Arabic word for endowment is Waqf, which is an age-old Islamic concept and has been highly regarded throughout our history. Muslim communities throughout the world and through time have benefitted tremendously through the establishment of a waqf system. We have a similar idea for our own community here in the Pacific Northwest. We plan to establish an institution to own assets and real estate whose returns will fund all the good causes (fee sabeelillah). We are planning to take the following steps to formalize a true endowment.  
    
   • Kick-off Quasi-Endowment by creating a Cash Reserve account approved by MAPS BoD  
   • Fund raise to get to over $1M in this account 
   • Learn from other Islamic organizations, who have established an endowment, to iron out investment and donation seeking strategies 
   • MAPS General Body to approve the creation of the “True Endowment” as follows:  
     
     1. Separate 501.c3 (MAPS-WAQF) 
     2. $1M-$1.5M Principal 
     3. Separate Board of Directors 
     4. Dedicated Donor Relations Manage