The Strategic Planning and Development Execution Team, guided by Islamic teachings and values, seeks to establish a resource at the University of Pennsylvania that serves as an academic, cultural, and religious center for Islam and Muslims. We aspire to enhance the Muslim community, strengthen our partnership with the University, and collaborate with communities on and off campus to build a richer and more diverse experience for the broader Penn community. The SPADE Team seeks to achieve this vision by:

• Building a sustainable, volunteer-driven committee led by Penn alumni that continue to champion the organizational vision for many years in the future
• Actively soliciting input from constituents (alumni, students, administrators) to ensure we prioritize the most impactful initiatives
• Partnering with key University personnel (e.g., Chaplin, Endowment office) to build important and lasting relationships, and create an avenue to share our views on matters of concern to the Penn Muslim Community
• Raising funds by developing a long-term fund raising strategy to raise money to support our organizational aspirations

To date, we have succeeded, alhamdulillah, in establishing an MSA endowment earmark within the broader Penn endowment (that is shari’ah compliant). We hope to build upon this success by working on the long-term goals and aspirations of our supporting members. The team intends to consistently reach out to our supporters to solicit feedback and share our progress. We look forward to building something remarkable, inshaAllah. Please contact Khalid Usmani to learn more about Project SPADE

PMAN’s first and most enduring initiative has been the MSA Advisory Board, which was launched in 2005.

The Advisory Board is composed of 7-10 volunteers – typically past Penn MSA officers – who choose to give back by sharing their advice and assistance with the MSA. The Board meets via conference call at least monthly with the current student leadership of the MSA to discuss progress on a range of issues, including campus outreach, religious programming, social events, and community service projects.

Because the MSA is a predominantly undergraduate organization, there tends to be a high turnover in its campus leadership. The Advisory Board provides some stability in this respect, allowing it to work with the MSA on issues that may stretch on over the course of years, such as the MSA’s relationship with Masjid al-Jamia. Advisory Board members have used their past MSA experiences to assist the MSA with issues such as budget management, engaging stakeholders, and re-crafting the MSA’s Constitution, which was completed in 2006. While the Advisory Board does not set MSA policy, it does facilitate that process by providing an outside perspective.

The MSA and the Advisory Board have found their relationship to be both productive and rewarding. As might be expected, Advisory Board members have recently been drawn increasingly from the ranks of younger alumni who had the experience as undergraduates of working with the Advisory Board.