New Effort Seeks to Help Fundraisers Understand Muslim Giving

Indiana University has announced a new program to help Muslim-American nonprofits expand their fundraising and other capabilities and help other nonprofits better understand the practice and tradition of philanthropy in Islam.

The new Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Indiana’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy will bring together scholars and foundation and nonprofit leaders. The program will host conferences and seminars and lead research and training efforts focused on contemporary and traditional aspects of Muslim philanthropy.

Shariq Siddiqui, a philanthropy scholar and nonprofit executive, has been appointed director of the new program. Siddiqui currently serves as executive director of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, an international group that connects scholars, teachers, and charity leaders interested in research on nonprofit organizations, volunteerism, philanthropy, and civil society

Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly School, said the new program was started with more than $500,000 raised from members of the program’s advisory council and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

Pasic said the council and Lilly School officials are in the process of deciding how much money they will need to raise to endow the new program’s directorship.

Donor Motivations

Pasic said that in addition to helping fundraisers and other nonprofit leaders at Muslim-American charities thrive and expand their organizations, the new program aims to demystify Islamic giving, especially for mainstream fundraisers. The effort will try to educate them about the charitable motivations of Muslims and interact with those donors in a more culturally aware way.

The program also aims to shed light on the work of Muslim-American nonprofits for those both inside and outside the philanthropy world who may view such organizations with suspicion. It also hopes to help Muslim-American nonprofit leaders, especially those leading mosques and religious charities, improve their fundraising skills.

“Many of these leaders live modest lifestyles so it can be embarrassing or hard to raise money from donors both inside their own congregations and from outsiders,” said Pasic. “There’s an assumption that the community is taking care of its own, but that’s not always the case.”

The new program is part of the university’s Lake Institute on Faith and Giving. Muslim Philanthropy Initiative scholars will collaborate with their counterparts at Lake and the university’s Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy to study the relationship between religion and philanthropy and the motivations of diverse donors.

Corrections: Due to mistaken information provided by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, this article previously cited the Ford Foundation among donors to the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative. The foundation did not give to the initiative.