Background: 

The Muslim community is struggling to facilitate and enable healthy marriages that follow Islamic law for the many well-meaning, well-intentioned, and eligible Muslim men and women here in the DC metro region. We have growing populations of people who have been actively seeking a partner for 5, 10, or even more years with no success, and while our mosques and religious institutions have offered matchmaking services, matrimonial events, and pre-marital counseling, we have still fallen short. At Center DC, we know that not everyone has a platform, close personal relationships with Islamic institutions to work with, or the scholarship necessary to LEAD a change in how we help Muslims get married. However,  that does not mean we don't have good ideas. Allah grants all of us the wisdom of life experiences and unique perspectives, and we as a community bring a BROAD range of skill sets, viewpoints, and areas of expertise that may offer benefit. We want to help YOU help US solve the problem of Muslim marriage in the DC metro region. Best of all, we will pay you up to $3,000 to do it!

We ask that you propose a solution to the Muslim marriage crisis and explain why you think your strategy would truly impact the current state of Muslim marriage in the area. Oftentimes we look around at what exists and limit our solutions to what we think is easy, or obviously possible.We are a hopeful community that knows with the help of Allah, ANYTHING is possible. In your proposal, Center DC is asking you to be bold, innovative, and optimistic.  Please keep the following in mind:

• We ask that you carefully consider not just the most obvious problem, but also the root causes of that problem and the people both influencing it and affected by it — and truly consider how we as a community can best address it. 

• You cannot be so theoretical that your solution relies on resources that do not already exist, but your solution can call for, and include strategies for, developing new and currently non-existent resources. 

• The following question should guide your proposal: If you had the required tools and resources, what would YOU do to make sure all of our incredibly eligible brothers and sisters could find the people that helped them complete half of their religion? 

We ask Allah to inspire you with the best possible ideas, and we ask Allah to make this effort beneficial for you, for everyone looking to get married, and for the entire community. Ameen. Now let's talk about rules.

Instructions: 

• Community members interested in both the blessings of helping Muslims get married AND winning the prize money for having the best solution should submit a proposal detailing their plan and how communities could implement it. 

• The proposal should be no more than 5 typed pages with 12 point font. 

• Muslims with a mailing address in Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland would be eligible to participate, and they must provide their full name and address in the body of their email submission. 

• We will use a blinded scoring process, meaning judges will not know the author of the proposal to ensure there is no bias in the scoring process. Please refrain from including any information in your attached proposal that can lead to you or your organization being easily identified. 

Proposals should be emailed to marriagecontest@centerdc.org by 8/25/2023 at 11:59pm EST. Proposals received after this will not be considered eligible for any prizes. Center DC reserves the sole right to review and select a winning proposal. Submitting a proposal is not a guarantee of winning, even if the number of proposals received is small., nor does it guarantee that your proposal will be implemented at Center DC. 

We will use a blinded scoring process, meaning judges will not know the author of the proposal to ensure there is no bias in the scoring process. Please refrain from including any information in your attached proposal that can lead to you or your organization being easily identified. 

Note about next steps: We cannot guarantee that Center DC can or will implement the winning idea, as we are currently uncertain of what that idea entails. We are however committed to using this as a jumping off point that informs our strategy moving forward. That may mean we implement the idea, we develop programming that centers the idea, or we partner with/share insights from the competition with other organizations that can potentially help the community implement some or all of these ideas. 

EVALUATION CRITERIA: 

A selection committee of 5 judges will review each proposal. Judges will include mental health professionals, Islamic scholars, chaplains, and relationship experts. Each judge will review the proposal using 5 criteria:

• Your understanding of the problem

• The alignment with target audience 

• The feasibility/realism of your solution

• How innovative your solution is

• How well you have accounted for risks that may emerge as a result of your solution

Understanding: The first criteria is that you have demonstrated an understanding of the problem. Whether it’s from personal experience, professional experience, or your thoughtful contemplation of the issue, take some time to describe the problem you’re trying to solve, its causes, the impact it has, and other details. We want to be confident that the people who win have devoted an adequate amount of time to understanding the issue. This is important because when people try to fix problems they don’t understand, they can sometimes do more harm than good. You will receive maximum points for this if you clearly articulate the problem and impress our judges with your understanding of it.

Alignment with target audience: The next criteria involves defining the impacted parties. Is your solution something you think all communities could benefit from, or something that only applies to your specific mosque? Is your solution for all people in the community or for a subset of the community like “divorced men over 35” or “Muslims with a disability?” Some examples of scopes that you may target include, but are not limited to:  

• Divorced Muslims

• Single sisters over 35

• Muslims with disabilities

• Converts

• Black Muslims

• Shia Muslims

• Latino Muslims

• Formerly incarcerated Muslims

• Muslims with children

• Religiously observant Muslims

• Culturally Muslim-Muslims

• 1st Gen American Muslims

• 2nd Gen American Muslims

You don’t have to have knowledge of EVERY community in the country to get a maximum score, nor do you have to try to solve the problems for ALL Muslims. Take the time to consider why even if your solution solves the problem for a specific population, that solution can be applied to EVERYONE with that problem. To receive maximum points for this section, identify all groups impacted by your solution, clarify your understanding of that group’s individual issue, and articulate why you focused on this subset of the population.      

Implementation Feasibility:

We want meaningful and realistic solutions. This means that while we want you to be ambitious and optimistic when proposing solutions, you MUST take the time to consider how a community could actually implement them. You don’t have to have the resources yourself. We don’t expect you to. We DO want you to take the time to consider why your solution would work. What existing resources can be applied to support the implementation of your solution? What investments would a community need in order to make your solution work? What resources should a community put together to make your idea possible? The goal of this section is to draw a clear line between the way the Muslim community looks today, and how it can look with your idea, by carefully showing all of the steps. As an example, don't just suggest “give lectures on healthy Muslim marriage.” Explain what those lectures would be about, what kind of expertise would make those lectures effective, and how we can either acquire that expertise if we don’t have it, or apply that expertise if we already do. Include details around the timeframe it would take to implement your solution. There is no right or wrong timeframe; rather, we want to see that you have thought through the process and can clearly communicate what existing resources are needed, what resources need to be developed, and what implementation looks like. Maximum points for this section will be given if you include all these points, and any other applicable logistical requirements.    

Innovation:

We want all writers to think creatively about the problem and to avoid using the same old, flawed approaches that haven’t worked historically. At the same time, we want the innovation to be truly productive, not simply different without any tangible benefit for being different. There are two ways to get high scores in innovation:

• Come up with a truly unique strategy that has not been tried before and will impress the judges for how different it is from previously attempted strategies; OR

• Put a new twist on an established idea that makes it significantly more effective than it has been historically. So if your recommendation is something like a matrimonial website or new app, you can still get maximum innovation points, even though several of those already exist, if your approach to building this website/app would be significantly different from current options and that difference would address the limitations that exist today.

Risk and Mitigation: 

Every change to the way established things are done can lead to mistakes. If your solution is costly, then the risk might be that the loss of money may limit funding for other Muslim community programs. If your solution is really creative, we may not know what effect it could have. Writers will receive maximum points for Risk/Mitigation if they identify what unintended consequences might occur as a result of their solution and include strategies for addressing those consequences. The more thorough you are in identifying and addressing risks, the higher the score you will receive.

SCORING

Each of our 5 judges will rate the eligible proposals in all 5 of the categories with a score of 1-10. That means each judge can award a maximum of 50 points to a proposal, and the maximum score a proposal can receive is 250 points (5 perfect scores of 50 each). The proposal with the highest score will win the grand prize.

We will use a blinded scoring process, meaning judges will not know the author of the proposal to ensure there is no bias in the scoring process. Please refrain from including any information in your proposal that can lead to you or your organization being easily identified. 

Structure of Responses

The response should be structured as follows: 

The first section should be titled “Executive Summary” and should contain a brief, one (1) paragraph summary of the proposal. The first sentence should explicitly state the idea proposed by the author. Then the author should summarize each of the evaluation criteria very briefly in the format provided in the example below.  

Example Executive Summary:

My idea is to build a marriage app that helps Muslims determine their compatibility.  Understanding: The Muslim community struggles because we match people based on ethnicity, profession, and other traits that don’t actually predict marital success. Alignment with target audience: The app would be beneficial for all Muslim community members who are open to marrying outside of their ethnicity and want to have the most successful marriage possible. Implementation Feasibility: The application would be easy to build, as it would require two software developers (full time), 1 software tester (full time), and a part-time marriage counselor who could help guide the developers in building the marriage compatibility tool.  Innovation: This is innovative because historically we have used general personality tests or biodata, which make a person attractive in general, but don’t actually indicate compatibility with another partner. Risk and Mitigation:  The risk is limited, but the cost would likely be about $450,000. 

After the summary section, writers should provide more detailed explanations of each section to clarify and elaborate on necessary details.

Ways to Win

Q: Can we submit anonymously?

A: We do not encourage anonymous submissions, as that would make it impossible to award the winners. The names of people submitting their proposals will be removed from the proposals themselves for evaluation to ensure objectivity, and we will only feature the names of proposal authors in our announcements and marketing to the extent they are comfortable.

Q: Should we mention lived experiences in our proposals?

A: Absolutely you can and should to the extent that it helps you make your argument or demonstrate your understanding of the issue you are engaging with. We would encourage you to consider two things as you do though. First is that you should try to make your circumstances less specific, as you may want to be cognizant of how much of your information is shared broadly. Secondly, our goal is to have the judges evaluate the proposals blindly and without bias, so we ask that you limit specifics that may lead to you being identified by the judges.

Q: If a person has multiple ideas, can they submit multiple proposals?

A: Yes, a person can submit as many ideas as they have.

Q: If a person submits multiple proposals, does each one have to be a full five pages?

A: No! Proposals do not HAVE to be five pages. Five pages is the limit, not the requirement. If you are able to clearly describe your solution in under five pages and clearly follow the instructions on the website, we would absolutely accept a proposal less than that.

Q: What does Center DC intend to do with the ideas they collect?

A: Our goal is to use the solutions to advance the cause of helping Muslims get married in the DMV, and more broadly in the country if applicable. We cannot commit to implementing a particular solution until we have clearer ideas about what solutions are available. That being said, outcomes may include implementing the ideas proposed, sharing them with other communities who are open to them, publishing the ideas, hosting events and information sessions to share meaningful insights, collaborating with communities to implement ideas, and other activities that hopefully help the Muslim community address the broader marriage issue.

Q: If you submit multiple proposals, can you re-use some of the content across multiple submissions?

A: Absolutely, these are your ideas and your solutions. You are welcome to discuss them however you'd like.

Q: In the instructions, it discusses “target populations.” Can the target population of my proposal just be "muslims?"

A: If your solution is applicable to all Muslims, you are welcome to submit one that would benefit them and that is totally fine. We were simply aware that some solutions might be more applicable to smaller subsets of the community than others, but we welcome ideas that would benefit the entire Muslim community as well.

Q: If you cannot find existing data on the topic you are trying to address, can you perform research and collect the data yourself?

A: Absolutely you can! We encourage any strategy that improves the accuracy and probability of success of your solution.

Q: Can I include appendices, sources, and so on outside of the five pages?

A: Yes! If you want to cite sources, have additional appendices, and so on outside of the five pages, your document should have a clearly marked appendix, and you should ensure that you answer all of the required questions in the initial five pages. Failure to address the core requirements of the competition within the five pages may render your proposal ineligible for award.

Q: Will Center DC protect the intellectual property of people who submit their proposals?

A: No. Our goal with this competition is to collect, apply, and distribute information that will help the community address the marriage issue. If some component of your solution is trademarked or proprietary in a way that would harm existing or planned business efforts, we would recommend limiting the information you submit in your proposal to the portions that you are comfortable being distributed broadly.

Q: Are there formatting requirements?

A:The only formatting we require is that you use the structure provided in the instructions on the website, ensure you address each requirement, and use twelve point font. We are less concerned about specific font types, margins, or other formatting details, but we do ask that you try to make your solution as readable as possible.

Q: If we are addressing systemic issues, how would you define the success of any individual proposal?

A: While it is impossible to perfectly evaluate the viability of solutions that have not already been implemented, our team of expert judges bring backgrounds in community leadership, Islamic scholarship, academia, chaplaincy, counseling, and matchmaking to assess the feasibility and risks associated with each proposed solution.

Q: Can teams or groups of people submit a proposal?

A: Yes! We welcome collaborative efforts from groups and organizations where applicable.

Q: If a team/group already has a strategy or approach they are using today, would that be an eligible submission?

A: Yes, existing strategies and practices can be submitted! Once again, we do intend to share this information, so we would caution against disclosing any element that you would not want to make public.

Q: Do you have specific data that we can review to inform our strategy?

A: We do not have a specific data set to share, but there has been work performed by a broad range of both Muslim and non-muslim organizations around this issue and we would encourage you to take a look at what's out there as you build your solution.

Q: Will judges provide feedback?

A: This competition was not designed to include a feedback and refining period for solutions, so we cannot commit to sharing feedback for proposed recommendations. We may, however, informally offer feedback after the competition itself has concluded.

Q: When will winners be announced?

A: Our current timeline involves notifying winners and participants eligible for the popular vote around the weekend of October 6th, 2023, approximately 6 weeks after proposals are due. We will notify the community if that timeline changes.

Q: Can you incorporate our ideas directly into Center DC programming if they are good enough?

A: We want to give all ideas a fair evaluation and to celebrate you for taking the time to carefully research and submit a proposal. So we will evaluate them all, notify and celebrate winners, and potentially apply some of the ideas, but not during the evaluation period.

Q: Can I cite other works in my response and if so, what's the maximum amount of my proposal response that can be drawn from other publications?

A:There is no specific ratio of wholly original content that must go into your solution. What matters most is that you write a clear, focused response that addresses each of the requirements of the competition and follows our specific instructions.

Q: Who is ineligible to participate?

A: Center DC Board members and their immediate family, Center DC core team members and their immediate family, judges and their immediate families, are all ineligible to participate. Also people who are not residents of DC, Maryland, or Virginia, and people who are below the age of 18.

Q: Will we be notified of the score our proposal received?

A: You may receive a score at the conclusion of the competition, but we cannot commit to specifics related to feedback until we have a clearer idea of the volume of responses we will receive.