Zakat I specifically donated almost entirely to people I know personally. Most other donations went to the same too as I stopped trusting all institutions. This mistrust was the result of a two year stint at the Accountability and Transparency Committee of our local masjid. This stint opened my eyes and ears to the blatant disregard these institutions have for the ahkam of Allah SWT as well as how shamelessly they violate their own written policies. A wonderful zakat policy is nothing in the face of fancy accounting and shameless greed..
Apr 20, 2023·edited Apr 20, 2023Liked by Ahmed Shaikh
I've been donating to my local mosque for a couple of years, the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB). After doing a lot of research (thanks to what I've learned from Brother Ahmed Shaikh over the years, starting from his articles in MuslimMatters.org), I currently see ISB as my best option.
I'm proud that my mosque has a zakat policy which targets poor Muslims, and states they have a separate bank account for zakat. They also categorize zakat funds as custodial/liability, and not as Mosque revenue.
Before, I used to donate to the large international organizations...sigh...
3. ISB constitution can be found at: https://isb.org/constitution/. It goes into more detail on how zakat funds are handled (separate bank account, accounting policy, committee, etc).
Your newsletter made me realise the dangers of donating to large and centralized platforms and how little I knew about what and how to look for places to give money. I stopped my weekly giving on Launchgood and for ramadan decided to spend the whole month collecting causes to donate money to towards the last 10 days of Ramadan. It was hard for me to find 10 different charities. But what I ended up donating to were almost exclusively on smaller and more local, grassroots platforms.
Also, as a non-american it was harder for me to apply your research into me selecting my charities. I have to kind of figure out "how to donate" and find places to donate still.
Lastly, I still haven't delved that deeply yet into details about specific charities/orgs because I feel like doing effective research is still too difficult for me. Also the charity i donate to sometimes only has few fundraiser video's organised by a single person with a single paypal account to donate to.
Zakat I specifically donated almost entirely to people I know personally. Most other donations went to the same too as I stopped trusting all institutions. This mistrust was the result of a two year stint at the Accountability and Transparency Committee of our local masjid. This stint opened my eyes and ears to the blatant disregard these institutions have for the ahkam of Allah SWT as well as how shamelessly they violate their own written policies. A wonderful zakat policy is nothing in the face of fancy accounting and shameless greed..
I've been donating to my local mosque for a couple of years, the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB). After doing a lot of research (thanks to what I've learned from Brother Ahmed Shaikh over the years, starting from his articles in MuslimMatters.org), I currently see ISB as my best option.
I'm proud that my mosque has a zakat policy which targets poor Muslims, and states they have a separate bank account for zakat. They also categorize zakat funds as custodial/liability, and not as Mosque revenue.
Before, I used to donate to the large international organizations...sigh...
I live by Islamic Center of Baltimore - do they have an international zakat policy or a local one?
Definitely local. More information can be found here:
1. Zakat policy at https://isb.helpdocs.com/zakat-financial-aid-policy/zakatfinancial-aid-policy (states recipients are local).
2. Zakat application https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6ZyCeU7Rk07OHMzaThtNHJmSnM/view?resourcekey=0-P6Ch6WfM7Kz4jjPNJ1wsbw
3. ISB constitution can be found at: https://isb.org/constitution/. It goes into more detail on how zakat funds are handled (separate bank account, accounting policy, committee, etc).
Looks fantastic
Your newsletter made me realise the dangers of donating to large and centralized platforms and how little I knew about what and how to look for places to give money. I stopped my weekly giving on Launchgood and for ramadan decided to spend the whole month collecting causes to donate money to towards the last 10 days of Ramadan. It was hard for me to find 10 different charities. But what I ended up donating to were almost exclusively on smaller and more local, grassroots platforms.
Also, as a non-american it was harder for me to apply your research into me selecting my charities. I have to kind of figure out "how to donate" and find places to donate still.
Lastly, I still haven't delved that deeply yet into details about specific charities/orgs because I feel like doing effective research is still too difficult for me. Also the charity i donate to sometimes only has few fundraiser video's organised by a single person with a single paypal account to donate to.
Eid Mubarak! Thanks for the comment. Where are you located?
The Netherlands!
We donated to Edhi Relief Foundation.
We specicifically mention how the zakat money should be disbursed.