Muslim Donors Embrace New Technology, Giving Methods During Ramadan

Every year during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world fast, pray, and give to charity — often referred to as zakat giving. While traditional giving methods continue, modern technology and new giving vehicles are growing in popularity among Islamic givers this year.

Donor-advised funds, which are tax-advantaged charitable investment accounts, have become more widely used by Muslim givers during Ramadan, says Sarah Alfaham, executive director of the American Muslim Community Foundation. The foundation administers DAFs for community members, and leaders note that account holders increase their giving more than 10-fold during Ramadan.

“We see a huge jump,” Alfaham says. “Normally, our regular distributions are between 40 and 50 a month. During Ramadan last year, there were a little upwards of 400. This year, we expect there to be even more: between 400 and 600 donations processed.”

Zakat, which is mandatory annual giving, is one of the key pillars of Islam. Many Muslims choose to do their zakat during Ramadan for two reasons. First, as a practical matter, it helps them track that they’ve met the annual requirement. Second, the Quran states blessings are multiplied during this time, says Halil Demir, executive director of the Zakat Foundation of America.

“The teaching of Islam says during the month of Ramadan, because it’s a holy month, everything that you do will [multiply] 70-fold,” he says. “You get rewarded much more than if you do it during the normal days or months.”

Demir explains that Muslims, who fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, tend to be more empathetic this time of year.

“During Ramadan, we all remember what it means to be hungry,” he says. “So it makes me more compassionate. All day long when you don’t eat, you know what that means. You know what it’s like for the single mom when she cannot bring food home, what that means for them. So you are more merciful.”

Demir says his group has been busy responding to emergencies — including the Turkey-Syria earthquake — but has noticed givers are trying different things. “Crowdfunding is still very, very active,” he says. “Donor-advised funds are active, but we are just at the beginning of moving forward with the modern and more progressive ways of giving.”

Donors Get Social With DAFs

During Ramadan, Muslim givers have been getting creative as they contribute money from their DAFs on the platform Daffy, says its CEO, Adam Nash. Daffy has a Venmo-like ethos, letting donors write public notes about why they gave. They can also follow other users to see where they contribute and why.

“We had a member come in and contribute to their fund with the intention of giving to a different Islamic charity every day of Ramadan,” Nash says. “I don’t think that’s the common case, but it was a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday and the tradition.”

Nash says Daffy users often discover new charities when they see which organizations their friends support or read notes about why someone has given to a particular charity.

“The people who give love feeling like their donation may inspire others to give,” Nash says. “People leave public notes with their donations that explain not just that they gave but why they gave. It’s not about dollar amounts, and you see these beautiful notes that people leave.”

GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that lets donors give cash directly to people in need, is hoping to bring charity to Yemen during Ramadan through a special fund. After eight years of conflict, Unicef says Yemen’s socioeconomic system is on the “edge of total collapse,” and the nation is experiencing “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.”

Many Muslims, including his own family, like to send money back home to a relative who would pass it on to a person in need, says Walid Herzallah, senior manager of growth at GiveDirectly.

“That way, [the recipient is] empowered to make their own decisions about what they need the most,” he says. “This was a practice that was already pretty well established in the Muslim space. And we just wanted to give our Muslim donors the option to do it — to give directly.”

Herzallah says the organization picked Yemen because it is 99 percent Muslim, and many Muslims want to donate to other Muslims with their zakat goals. The campaign to send money to Yemeni people has an “ambitious” goal of $1 million, which will provide direct cash payments of $150 for four months to people in Yemen. In the past, people who received the funds used them to help get back on their feet, according to Herzallah.

Herzallah offered the example of an elderly man who had been unable to work because he couldn’t afford his medicine. When he began receiving direct payments, he used the money for medication. “That helped him get better,” he says. “And by getting better, he was able to re-enter the work force.”