Gurughar Becoming A Charity

[Classicsingh1]

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa

Waheguru ji ki Fathe

My local gurdwara is holding a meeting in regards to registering the gurdwara as a charity.

Personally I think this is wrong.

What is is the sangat's views.

(I don't want to mention the Gurdwara Sahibs name yet)

[Tera]

I thought most of them were registered charities anyway. I know our local Gurdwaras are.

There are many benefits including tax/rate relief. Gift Aid on donations. Increased chances of funding for social/community projects. More power to sangat. Over viewed by the Charity commision etc etc...

Only negative (if you want to think of it as one) I can think of is that under Charity Commision rules, there must clear management in terms of an elected committee with regular meetings, AGM etc. Democratically speaking however, this is a big plus, pity its not generally seen like that by us though.

Why do you think it is wrong?

[osingh]

First and foremost, the main objective of a Gurdwara is parchar of Gurmat and a place where Gursikhs can do kirtan and naam abhiyaas.

A Gurdwara is already a charity in that it provides langar for free to people from all backgrounds everyday of the week.

Personally, I do not like when Gurdawara's try to expand and open community halls and whatnot. Some of these 'community halls' have become a place for anti-gurmat activities.

First of all we need to get back to the basics. Kirtan, katha and naam abhiyaas.

Gurdwara's should be a place where one can learn kirtan, paath etc.

Gurdwara are NOT community centres and they never have been. Gurdwara has a darbar for Guru Granth Sahib ji and a kitchen for langar. Lets keep our Gurdawara's simple. Satguru Mehar Karan!

Rabb Rakhe

[Classicsingh1]

I thought it was wrong because a gurdwara provides for people, not the other way round.

[S1ngh]

Not really works that way.. People donate 10% (more or less) of their income to non-profit institutions. Gurdwara should have non-profit status because this is the only way that they don't need to pay taxes on the donated amount. This also helps people to take a look at the books if in case management is eating away sangat's money. Having non-profit org will force management to post monthly/quarterly/yearly books/balance to public and filed with Revenue department. On the other hand, private held corp is not required to post their financial statements to public.

Though spiritually, yes we are not donating anything to gurudwara sahib because all $$ we have is of waheguru jee anyway.. By sandesh of guru gobind singh jee, we should give 10% of our income to gurughar.