Please note: Sections from each magazine are posted separately as they become available.

1/4/17

Issue no. 7, September 1925: National Baha’i Fund

The following summary has been prepared from the fully itemized and complete Annual Report presented by Mrs. Florence Morton, Treasurer, to the 1925 Convention.

This Annual Report covered the period from April 1, 1924, to March 31, 1925, as in the case of all previous financial statements.

The National Baha’i Fund represents several different funds, the records of which are kept as separate accounts in the office of the Treasurer, disbursements from each fund being according to the nature of the fund itself. In the current Annual Report, the records include: Central Fund, Teaching Fund, Temple Fund, Publishing Fund, and Special Fund for relief of the Nayriz flood sufferers.

On April 1, 1924, the then Treasurer, Mr. W.H. Randall, had on hand the following amounts: Central Fund, $1,483.17; Teaching Fund, $386.00; Temple Fund, $1,191.23; Publishing Fund, $1,033.65. These sums were turned over to Mrs. Florence Morton after her election to the office of Treasurer by the National Spiritual Assembly established at the 1924 Convention.

From April 1, 1924, to March 31, 1925, the contributions received were as follows:

Central Fund, $11,977.21; Teaching Fund, $589.95; Temple Fund, $20,179.62; Publishing Fund, $497.63; Special Nayriz Fund, $3,818.11.
The total of all contributions received during the year was $37,062.52. Adding the amounts on hand, April 1, 1924, or $4,094.05, the National Baha’i Fund in 1924-1925 held a total of $41,156.57.

Disbursements were as follows: Central Fund, $7,278.89, plus $3,674.05 to meet a deficit in the Teaching Fund, or a total of $11,052.94. The Central Fund disbursements included an item of $2,000.00 voted for the needs of the Temple. Teaching Fund, $4,650.00. Temple Fund, $18,564.54. These payments included $7,000.00 to reduce notes held by the bank, $3,000.00 paid to the architect under the terms of the contract approved by the 1921 Convention, $2,222.79 for running expenses, $472.87 interest on notes, and something over $3,000.00 for improvements in the Foundation Hall. The printed Report of the Temple Committee, a copy of which is being placed in the hands of every recognized believer, will show these transactions in exact detail. The Publishing Fund will be published as an itemized report in an early number of the News Letter. This Fund operates on the sale of the literature and only incidentally on contributions, and its disbursements are in the nature of the normal expenses incurred in the publishing business.

The disbursements of the Central Fund also included $1,559.43 to make up deficits in the receipts of the Baha’i Magazine, Star of the West; $760.00 paid to the International Baha’i Fund; $250.00 appropriated for the Library and Archives Committees; $400.00 donated for the Baha’i Assembly of Punjab, India, and $1,036.71 representing the cost of printing and distributing the News Letter, the Will and Testament of Abdu’l Baha, and of postage and stationery supplies used by the National Secretary. Another expense was of $282.45 for the 1924 Annual Congress and Convention.

The Teaching Fund originated several years ago from the desire of many believers to promote teaching activities which could not be supported from funds given for the Temple. As the Central Fund is now capable of carrying on teaching activities, the Teaching Fund as a separate account will not appear in the 1925-1926 financial records, having been merged with the Central Fund at the suggestion of those who have contributed to the Teaching Fund during the past year.

With the removal of all outstanding obligations by pledges received at the 1925 Convention, the National Baha’i Fund enters a new phase of development. As long as expenditures were predetermined by reason of outstanding indebtedness of any nature whatsoever, the National Fund could not express the free deliberation and mature decision of the National Spiritual Assembly. Now this burden is removed, and the National Spiritual Assembly for the first time can (with the faithful adherence of the local Assemblies and isolated believers) bring into being (even though at first only on a small scale) those significant functions and responsibilities so clearly outlined in the letters of the Guardian of the Cause.

It should be duly noted by every conscientious and loyal believer that the institution of the National Spiritual Assembly is far more than a continuation and enlargement of the functions of the Baha’i Temple Unity, so long and so gloriously the sole central executive body of the Cause in North America. The Baha’i Temple Unity has but one main purpose and responsibility -- the National Spiritual Assembly has as many purposes and responsibilities as there are aspects of the Baha’i Cause.

Let us remember what Shoghi Effendi has written on two occasions: “The various Assemblies, local and national, constitute today the bedrock upon which the strength of the Universal House is in future to be firmly established and raised. Not until these function vigorously and harmoniously can the hope for the termination of this period of transition be realized.” (February 23, 1924.) “It would be impossible at this stage to ignore the indispensability or to overestimate the unique significance of the institution of the National Spiritual Assembly -- the pivot round which revolve the activities of the believers throughout the American continent. Supreme is their position, grave their responsibilities, manifold and arduous their duties.” (June 3, 1925.)

The capacity of the National Spiritual Assembly to serve the Cause throughout the United States and Canada is largely conditioned by the “unlabelled” contributions, those made to the Central Fund. If all other funds were richly endowed, but the Central Fund remained small and insignificant, the institution of the National Spiritual Assembly could not function with adequate power; and if the National Spiritual Assembly could not function except as the passive trustee of certain closed funds, we can be very certain that difficulties would be raised up in the path of every Baha’i activity until that condition was changed. On the other hand, a National Spiritual Assembly able to function with due vigor, conscious of the unshakable confidence of the Baha’i body, would be able to serve each National activity according to the needs of the time, with the result that confirmations would be attracted and all activities moved forward “steadily, like a great sea.”

Perhaps it has been overlooked that contributions made to the Central Fund are not thereby kept from furthering the special activity which the donor has nearest at heart. On the contrary, the Central Fund underlies and supports every activity, but the difference is that its disbursements at any given time reflect the results of consultation and decision on the part of those in the best position to see the work as a whole. It is inconceivable that any National Spiritual Assembly shall ever be elected whose members will feel less loyalty for or responsibility in any National Baha’i activity than is felt by any individual believer or any local Assembly.

To specify the object of one’s contributions is absolutely legitimate and is expressly permitted by the written instructions of Shoghi Effendi. The element of voluntary cooperation is vital in all Baha’i relationships, and nothing should prevent the individual or the local Spiritual Assembly from making their contributions for a particular object if desired. In a voluntary association, obedience to a principle is only useful when it is the result of full understanding. A careful study of Shoghi Effendi’s instructions will show that unspecified contributions are a higher expression of loyalty and a closer approximation to the “ideal standard” of service, but effort should be made to see why this is so.

Perhaps it will throw some light on this subject to itemize the various expenses for which the Central Fund is responsible. These include: the activities of the National Spiritual Assembly itself -- its Central Office, correspondence, meetings, News Letter, etc.; the cost of the annual National Convention; contributions to the International Fund; all activities of National Committees (including, in case of emergency, those of Temple and Publishing), and more especially those of the Teaching Committee, the Star of the West, the Library Committee, Archives, Racial Amity, Legal, etc. It would seem very desirable to adopt a budget system for the Central Fund, in order to plan its disbursements as fully as possible in advance.

The essence of the whole matter is that unspecified contributions betoken absolute confidence in the institution of the National Spiritual Assembly, while contributions limited to one particular fund do not. It is far less a financial problem than one of spiritual unity expressed in the most unmistakable form.

It is to be hoped that the present National Spiritual Assembly will be aided by every local Spiritual Assembly and by every individual believer to bring into visible expression those yet latent active functions of the National Baha’i institution which carry so much greater possibilities of service than the passive functions so far disclosed.

But this note of explanation should not be considered merely as a plea for financial support. With love, with understanding, with the spirit of cooperation implanted in all hearts we can, side by side, produce a single body of service through which the Master can accomplish His universal purposes with the resources of the Divine Treasury itself.