A season of transition: Muslim Women For update on fiscal sponsorship
To advance our movement as a Muslim-women led and serving social justice organization, Muslim Women For has transitioned to a new fiscal sponsor. While we remain committed to The Light House Project’s foundational goal of supporting Muslim youth and safe spaces for all Muslims, we have transitioned to a fiscal sponsor more closely aligned with our priorities and values.
We have many fond memories of collaborating for the more than six years that The Light House Project has been our fiscal sponsor. The Light House was an early supporter of our work and was instrumental in helping us get established. In fact, The Light House founder Farris Barakat was our very first donor. But recently, Muslim Women For’s values and mission do not align with The Light House’s current policies. Muslim Women For’s guiding principle is to center the lived experience and collective power of Muslim women in North Carolina through political education, grassroots organizing and cross-solidarity power building, leadership development, and nurturing a political home for historically marginalized community members.
In our last year as a sponsored project with The Light House, we struggled with The Light House’s authoritarian approach to fiscal management and their decision to enact "Islamic guidelines" without consultation or consent from the fiscally-sponsored groups. Among several things, these guidelines made it a requirement for fiscally-sponsored groups to follow pillars of the Sunni sect, made vague references to upholding modesty, and proposed practices that would create harmful spaces for Muslims with different gender expressions, including LGBTQIA+ Muslims. Since our founding, Muslim Women For has prioritized creating and building spaces that honor the lived experiences and safety of all Muslims, and we will continue to uphold this as a key value.
Finally, our partnerships with certain Muslim individuals and groups for our voter mobilization work were used to put us on "probationary status.” The Light House Project suggested that the inclusion and safety of Muslims in their spaces is conditional based on their gender identity. We made an effort to understand these actions and were met with pushback and hostility from The Light House Project’s staff and board. From there, we expedited the process of transitioning to a new fiscal sponsor. Beyond being hurt by the actions of the The Light House Project’s board, we feared that the work and investment we had made to build this organization and our infrastructure would be put in jeopardy. The transition we had to make to a new fiscal sponsor required us to expand our 2024 budget to satisfy administrative and payroll expenses.
We value transparency with our community and we regularly practice this value by releasing our annual reports, establishing open lines of communication on our socials and website, and creating virtual and in-person opportunities to connect with our base. The commitment we have to our people as well as the overwhelming love, support, and enthusiasm we have received fuels us to continue doing this work, against the pushback of misogyny and gendered Islamophobia.
Muslim Women For looks forward to our relationship with our new fiscal partner, Southern Vision Alliance, as we continue our work to promote the rights, dignity and safety of all Muslims. We hope that our feedback to The Light House Project will inspire them to review their policies and practices — and to ensure that they remain true to The Light House Project’s vision of creating safe spaces for all members of our Muslim community.
On this International Women’s Day and ahead of the month of Ramadan, we are asking folks to support us by chipping in as little as $15 to support Muslim Women For through this unexpected fiscal sponsorship transition. The transition we had to make to a new fiscal sponsor required us to expand our 2024 budget by $30,000 in order to satisfy administrative and payroll expenses.
Your contribution will ensure that the infrastructure of women-led community organizing can be sustained and our long-term goal of establishing an independent non-profit organization. Thank you for your continued support.
