I agree with the three bullet points—using unrestricted or dedicated non-zakat donations to cover operating costs is likely the best way to do this. Additionally:
Determining who is Muslim is a non-trivial and probably impossible thing to do, which is why I would probably just punt that to whichever external orgs we approach to get the program zakat- certified. They’re likely just going to do what they did when they zakat certified GD’s Yemen program, which is to look at the national or regional demographic data, as you suggested. This also prevents GD from having to ask recipients if they’re muslim or not, which I think would be a bad look for them and probably not be good for their overall trustworthiness amongst donors and non-muslim potential receipts in the future.
You can’t do the after-the-fact or USAID alcohol approach because zakat has to be paid directly to muslim recipients—it’s not got anything to do with whether or not the money is used to pay for halaal/haraam things.
Thanks Ian.
I agree with the three bullet points—using unrestricted or dedicated non-zakat donations to cover operating costs is likely the best way to do this. Additionally:
Determining who is Muslim is a non-trivial and probably impossible thing to do, which is why I would probably just punt that to whichever external orgs we approach to get the program zakat- certified. They’re likely just going to do what they did when they zakat certified GD’s Yemen program, which is to look at the national or regional demographic data, as you suggested. This also prevents GD from having to ask recipients if they’re muslim or not, which I think would be a bad look for them and probably not be good for their overall trustworthiness amongst donors and non-muslim potential receipts in the future.
You can’t do the after-the-fact or USAID alcohol approach because zakat has to be paid directly to muslim recipients—it’s not got anything to do with whether or not the money is used to pay for halaal/haraam things.