Islamic Charity 2.0

The excellent Read/Write Web have published a guide to websites that allow people to support various charities and causes. It is interesting to see the extent to which Web 2.0 technologies are being used for charitable purposes. For example, there are now donation aggregation services, such as this one, that allow people and groups to donate to a large number of charities at once (a form of “distributed giving”). Then there are sites, such as Kiva, that work to offer microfinance loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world.

As is well known, charity plays a pivotal role in the faith of every Muslim — being, as it is, zakat, one of the five pillars of our faith — so it is surprising to see that there hasn’t been a similar innovation in terms of how we give charity. In Australia, for example, most Muslims would donate via an organisation such as Human Appeal International which then funds projects abroad, such as orphan sponsorship or well building.

However, I wonder if some of these models couldn’t also be extended or adapted to provide Muslims with an innovative service as well. For example, a number of the sites identified by Read/Write Web focus on ‘direct charity’ in which people post details of the project they wish to find and then others donate to it, using the site as an intermediary. DonorsChoose is an example of that, with the site allowing teachers at public schools in the United States to post their needs, such as funding for trips or materials, and others can choose to donate.

A variation on the DonorsChoose model might work well for Muslims. Organisastions could register projects with the site and then, once approved by the administrators as a bone fide project with appropriate documentation and controls, the project would be listed for others to donate to. For example, people in a particular community might be fund raising for a mosque or a Muslim school might want to take some underprivileged kids on a trip to the zoo. Projects could be classified based on whether they qualify for zakat, geography or the nature of the project.

Of course, there would need to be some controls to prevent the site becoming a vehicle for scammers but that could be addressed by controlling the organisations that are allowed to post projects and requiring them to provide some sort of documentary evidence of how the money has been used. Once a project is completed, these artifacts could be made available online so any future donor could check the history of the organisation they are considering supporting. Likewise, if a project failed to eventuate or if the organisation failed to provide the agreed documentation, that would also be recorded against the organisation.

A service such as this would provide Islamic organisations with an alternative to government funding for their projects and it would be appealing to many Muslims who would prefer some visibility over their charitable donations rather than just dropping some money in a tin at the local mosque.