About
The History, the present, and the future
Greensville Trust
A vision of sincerity, excellence and education rooted in practice
Greensville Trust is a UK-based educational charity that aims to nurture holistic faith-based communities that have at their heart educational institutions that impart a broad and relevant traditional Islamic curriculum. This vision is underpinned by the principles of sincerity, excellence and education rooted in practice; binding formal learning to the imperative of action and seeing education as a transformative process and not merely informative.
Felicity House
A service hub for the community
Felicity House is a community hub located in Wavertree, Liverpool. Formally known as St. Mary’s Hall, it was purchased by Greensville Trust in 2009. After renovation and refurbishment, Felicity House was officially opened in 2012. It is a multi-purpose, multifunctional space that houses
- a full-time early years nursery known as Happy Children;
- both full-time and part-time adult education in Arabic language and Islamic studies that
includes the popular educational initiative known as the Micro-Madrasa;
- the primary Rawḍa school;
- the Futuwwa sports initiative
- the Fiṭra Coffee House.
The success and local, regional and national impact of Felicity House along with the initiatives and activities that it houses speaks volumes as to the grounds upon which a more generous space underpinned by an even greater vision is justified. That space and vision is Olive Mount.
Olive Mount
In the old village of Wavertree
The existing Olive Mount estate is centred around a Georgian mansion which stands in its own 2.3 acre grounds, set in the old village of Wavertree. The mansion was built in the early 1790s for the grocer and tea dealer Mr. James Swan. Its name is drawn from the hill upon which it stands, which is one of the highest points in the vicinity of Liverpool. The mansion, typically Georgian in style, and built of local cream sandstone, is a fine example of a Georgian merchant’s residence.
Islam is Built on Five
Our objective is to further our capacity to serve the broader community, as testified by the likes of Felicity House, by building a mosque campus that properly serves the beautiful and broad tradition of designing external and internal sacred space that reflects and compliments the wholeness and order of the heavens.
This is underpinned by five intentions:
1. To raise the Name of God uppermost
2. To Establish a Waqf in His Name
3. To Take Responsibility for the Raising of the Next Generation in accordance with the Prophetic Way. Our Legacy: Their Future
4. To Renew the Prophecy of Space
5. To Provide a Blueprint for Holistic Prophetic Space in the West
The move from private to public, from secrecy to open is a five-year affair.
This is testified to by those initial five years in Mecca, the likes of which can also be argued was the case after the initial five years in Medīna when Islām was thereby unveiled to the world.
Islām is built on five and God willing the Olive Mount Campus will be built in five.
The campus will be designed around five facilities:
(I) The Fatḥ Mosque
(II) The Rawḍa Primary School
(III) The Ṣuffa Residence
(IV) The Futuwwa Sports Centre and Spa
(V) The Fig and the Olive Function and Conference Centre
The primary goal of this fundraising effort will be to establish a viable long-term approach for generating funds. The approach will attempt to establish and maintain lasting, continuous, and reliable channels of funding.
Therefore there will be an approach of ‘Five Years; Five Schemes’, as follows:
(I) Platinum 7: £2,500 per month
(II) Gold 11: £1,000 per month
(III) Silver 40: £500 per month
(IV) Bronze 313: £100 per month
(V) Standard 1,000: One off donation
There will be five planned phases as follows:
(I) Purchase and architectural design of the five facilities to be built on the Olive Mount site
(II) The Building of the Fatḥ Mosque
(III) The Building of the Ṣuffa Residence
(IV) The Refurbishment of the Rawḍa Primary
(V) The Restoration of the Olive Mount Mansion and extension to house the Conference Centre and Sports Centre
Endowment
Addressing the needs of the Muslim community in the UK
The need for bonafide Islamic financial institutions is painfully obvious. Existing efforts are commendable but clearly fail to meet all of the growing needs of the Muslim community in the United Kingdom.
The importance of waqf in Islam is well known. The Arabic word waqf (plural, awqāf) can be loosely translated into English as “religious endowment or trust,” although this term does not convey the sense of religious piety with which awqāf are associated in Islam.
Awqāf are “endowments” in the general sense, in that they are financial gifts made to individuals as well as institutions. Throughout history, such settlements provided for many of the spiritual and temporal wants of Muslims. Funds derived from endowments built and sustained places of worship, established schools and hospitals, supported scholars and teachers, maintained orphanages and soup kitchens, and supported the general and specific needs of the community, both socially and religiously.
A significant amount of finance is required to develop and sustain a multitude of educational and social initiatives that are deemed necessary for the holistic development of the British Muslim community. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the Endowment, fundraising and investment need to be conducted on the basis of a well conceived strategic plan.
The financial goals of these endowments are:
1. To maintain the residual capital base such that all disbursements made for operating activities are recovered.
2. To grow the capital base by maximising an endowment’s return on investment (ROI) such that returns exceed disbursements and by collecting additional proceeds from ongoing fundraising.
The primary goal of this fundraising effort will be to establish a viable long-term approach for generating funds. The approach will attempt to establish and maintain lasting, continuous, and reliable channels of funding. This will be accomplished by careful analysis and assessment of the various funding channels.
Endowment fundraising typically consists of the following two distinct phases:
Phase 1: Capital Drive
During this phase the institution focuses its efforts on raising its initial or target capital base; thus lending long term viability and growth to the endowment. Traditionally, this drive focuses on the key donors and personal solicitations to wealthy individuals – “onetime” fundraising activities.
Phase 2: Ongoing Fundraising
Once an endowment reaches its Capital Drive goals, it begins to use a portion of the funds every year to serve its operating goals. At the same time, it engages in continuous fundraising, which is less oriented toward personal solicitations from big donors. As an endowment benefits the community at large, continuous fundraising appeals to wider audiences of sympathetic peoples. These activities need to be managed for constant refinement and adjustment by experienced marketers.