Building Bridges

Dowie, after spending time together, one thing became very clear.

You've got a mission that you genuinely believe in. You want ordinary British people to understand Islam better, break down misconceptions and reduce the hatred and division we see in society.

You've already spent years doing this. You've built relationships, earned people's respect and reached audiences that many Muslims struggle to reach.

Our job isn't to change who you are. It's to help you do what you're already doing, but on a much bigger scale.

And most importantly, to help you build something that can support itself financially so you can dedicate more of your time to the work that matters.

During our meeting, we identified some of your greatest strengths:

Relatability

You're an ordinary working-class English bloke. You understand the people you're speaking to because you've lived among them your whole life.

Experience

You've been Muslim for 29 years. You've seen the challenges from both sides.

Common sense

You explain complicated subjects in a way ordinary people understand.

Empathy

You genuinely care about people, even those who disagree with you.

Credibility

You're willing to sit opposite people with difficult views and have respectful conversations.

These are the strengths we want to build around.

We don't want to make you into somebody else. We want more people to discover the person you already are.

The biggest problem we identified is time.

You're travelling long distances for podcasts, creating content for other organisations and trying to build your own work in whatever time you've got left.

That's exhausting.

And while the work you're doing is valuable, the current setup makes it difficult to grow.

We want to change that.

The aim is to give you back your time, build a reliable income around your mission and help you become less dependent on other organisations.

We believe in what you're trying to achieve and we'd genuinely love to help.

Our advice, mentorship and general support are not something we want to charge you for.

We can help you think through the organisation, solve problems, plan your next steps and share what we've learned from building Criterion Group.

Where things are different is when we put a dedicated production and marketing team behind your online fundraising.

That involves people doing real work, including scripting, filming, editing, design, campaign setup and advertising.

Rather than charging you an upfront agency fee, we'd like to explore a partnership where the cost of that support is covered through an agreed percentage of the online fundraising we help generate.

Anything you raise independently through your own talks, mosque visits, personal contacts or other activities remains entirely yours.

The aim is to make this affordable from the start and give both sides a reason to work towards making the campaign successful.

Any contribution received by Criterion through this arrangement would go towards supporting Criterion's charitable work and the people, equipment and resources needed to deliver that support.

We'd agree the exact arrangement together before beginning the campaign.

Our first target is to get you properly set up and ready for Ramadan.

Then we want to see whether we can build a strong fundraising campaign that brings in both one-off donations and regular monthly supporters.

From there, we can work towards a bigger goal.

An initial ambition could be to raise £100,000 over the first 12 months.

That's a target to work towards, not a promise.

If successful, that funding could help cover a local studio, production costs, training activities, operational support and the resources needed to make your mission sustainable.

We'd put together a proper budget before making commitments.

First, we agree that this is the direction you want to take.

Then we'll work with you to finalise the organisation, the message and the fundraising setup.

Once that's ready, we'll bring you in for a filming session, build the campaign and prepare for launch.

And throughout the process, you'll remain in control of your mission, your message and your organisation.