Thank you for sharing your organization or personal details with MCC.

If you are a Bay Area-based nonprofit organization, we welcome you to table with us on a Friday. Here is that request form.

Important: This page is only for Bay Area nonprofits. If you are a non-Bay Area nonprofit asking for an exception to this policy, please directly contact the MCC Board of Directors and ask why your organization requests an exception. Please do not submit a request on this page.

The MCC is a regional masjid with a large and vibrant congregation focused daily on finding faith through the community and service. Each day, we open our doors wider and become a welcoming space for everyone who enters our facility, allowing them to experience what community should feel like.

The MCC has longstanding specific guidelines on how our organization supports a nonprofit or for-profit organization:

1. We positively do not allow appeals from the mimbar. No Khutbah at MCC will advertise or promote an organization’s work, causes, or programs during the sermon. We dedicate this beautiful spiritual time for our congregation each Friday so that the worshiper can access a comforting, spiritual, and practical message from the pulpit without promoting an organization or cause. While we regularly co-host events on pertinent community issues, we do not host programming that directly promotes a nonprofit or a business. The Jumu’ah at MCC is a sacred time for the hundreds of our congregants to find faith through the community. MCC does not have an open-door policy for Khateebs. Our community event suggestion form explains our approach and the vetting process for any new Khateeb.
2. Our support is restricted to Bay Area nonprofit organizations. Each Friday, hundreds of worshipers visit for our Jumu’ah prayer services. Up to two nonprofits (headquartered or actively operating in the Bay Area) may table in the foyer. An MCC representative announces the presence of this organization, and the organization engages in passive marketing of their organization. We do not allow flyering at facility doors or on cars in our parking lot while an organization tables. Our tabling request form explains our policy in greater detail. 
3. During Ramadan, the community center focuses on spirituality and MCC facility projects. Each Ramadan, the MCC focuses on replenishing its Zakat Fund and raising funds for facility improvements for our congregation. Therefore, the MCC institutes an annual Ramadan moratorium. This moratorium includes no Taraweeh, Jumu’ah, Iftar, or Eid appeals and no Jumu’ah tabling during the holy month. Bay Area nonprofits only: Please plan on tabling before or following each Ramadan.
4. Community sponsorship requests. We appreciate the many causes, banquets, and invitations to sponsor events. Except for our community strategic partners (organizations that provide unique community support to the MCC congregation, like community mental health services and MCC reciprocates), MCC does not support events, fundraisers, or crowdfunding campaigns. Please ask individuals to apply directly with us for financial assistance, food, burial assistance, or an in-house scholarship. For community members requesting to campaign for organ donation at MCC, we ask that the community member or friends/family of that person looking for a live donor (i.e., organ like a kidney or part of liver, eye & tissue) connect with our congregation during our weekly Friday services via a nonprofit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) who work closely with hospitals and transplant centers to facilitate the organ donation and transplantation process (see here and here). Those nonprofit organizations can then request to table on behalf of this individual and/or in general to increase awareness about becoming a Living Organ Donor. Please also submit a community dua request here.
5. Zakat/Sadaqa: Our Zakat and Sadaqa funds are reserved only for families in the East Bay (generally Alameda and Contra Costa counties), and the MCC Zakat/Sadaqa Committee stewards each fund. We do not reallocate or transfer our congregation’s donations to other organizations.
6. The MCC facility is available for rental. Nonprofit organizations receive a 20 percent discount on facility rentals for approved programming – generally hosting a speaker without a fundraising element. The nonprofit may also ask for MCC to cosponsor their event, and if approved, MCC would not charge a facility fee. Please use our suggestion form to make that co-sponsored event request. A nonprofit may not rent any portion of the MCC for a fundraiser or to perform fundraising during a private event. Approval of a nonprofit event for private event facility use is subject to the Board of Directors’ approval. Please contact the MCC Board of Directors directly at this link for those requests before submitting the event facility form.
7. The MCC newsletter & social media channels are reserved for MCC programming. Brimming with activities for our subscribers, our weekly events newsletter (subscribe at https://mcceastbay.org/newsletter) is sent out at 5 p.m. each Thursday. We hold back internal events at MCC each week to prevent overwhelming our subscribers or clipping in their inboxes. We do not have a Community Events section for our Bay Area nonprofits to promote other events (please request that from SRVIC’s newsletter team). We are also not accepting posts or event flyers for our Community Bulletin Board, formerly in the MCC foyer.
8. Political engagement MCC is a 501(c)3 religious community benefit nonprofit. Our political participation policy is strictly aligned with the Internal Revenue Code (IRS)’s rules, which allows for no direct or indirect participation in, or intervention in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. As a nonprofit deeply vested in our community, we enthusiastically participate in sanctioned non-partisan political activities, such as congregation letter-writing campaigns, facilitating and participating in annual Muslim Appreciation Proclamations, hosting youth civic engagement workshops, voter education activities (including hosting bi-annual all-candidate forums and sharing voter CAIR education guides), voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, being a county voting site with Alameda County Voter of Registrars, and more. MCC does not support individual candidates in any way, nor do we rent out the community space to individual political candidates. For our political involvement on a local or city level, MCC has limited resources, and we work in the trusted direction of our friends at CAIR San Francisco. We encourage community members concerned about political issues on a local, regional, national, or international initiative or stance to reach out to CAIR-SFBA, which has the staff and resources to, in turn, contact local masjids and Islamic centers in the Bay Area like MCC for action.
9. Business support MCC does not promote or collaborate with for-profit businesses. As a nonprofit organization entrenched in service to the community, our services are congregation-focused without the tint for selling a product or service to the congregation. Businesses have proposed and provided services when MCC sees the business provide support. For example, at our quarterly American Red Cross blood drives, a local restaurant offers a voucher to all our 30+ individual blood donors. MCC acknowledges their consistent support of giving back to the community. Please propose such a business sponsorship to us here. Businesses may also propose programming to our Events Committee in collaboration with MCC using this form. Businesses may also request to rent space for a private business event (subject to Board of Directors approval) using this form.
10. For East Bay restaurants Each Friday, hundreds of worshipers visit for our Jumu’ah prayer services. Since its founding in 2010 at its present location, the MCC lunch team has ordered about 150 takeout lunch boxes weekly so that Jumu’ah worshipers to its weekly three have a convenient avenue to get lunch as they head back to work or school. A restaurant or caterer must have a business license and insurance. We do not order home-cooked food. The volunteer team will take care of selling the food items. The MCC East Bay is a green masjid, so we ask vendors not to send food in styrofoam (only compostable food takeout containers). Please message our programming team at operations@mcceastbay.org to be considered for this program. For non-restaurant food establishments, like food trucks and bakeries, please message us and ask to be added to our community vendor list for consideration during our carnivals, bazaars, Iftars, and other community socials.

Questions? contact@mcceastbay.org

Can a 501(c)(3) organization like MCC East Bay conduct voter registration and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) drives?

Yes, if they are conducted in a neutral, non-partisan manner, for example, without reference to any candidate or political party. However, voter education or registration activities performed in a biased manner that favors (or opposes) one or more candidates are prohibited. In addition, a private foundation is subject to tax if it expends funds for a voter registration drive that does not meet the requirements listed in Section 4945(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. Reference: IRS Website