Ramadan drives donations, memberships to giving circles
As Muslims mark the end of Ramadan with a celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the American Muslim Community Foundation reached a new record
May 15, 2021, 5:30 AM
7 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articlePeople participate in an Eid al-Fitr ceremony in Overpeck County Park in Ridgefield Park, N.J., Thursday, May 13, 2021. Millions of Muslims across the world are marking a muted and gloomy holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan - a usually joyous three-day celebration that has been significantly toned down as coronavirus cases soar. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Sahina Islam can still recall the day when she heard an elderly Pakistani couple got kicked out of their New York City home by their son-in-law and were sitting near John F. Kennedy International Airport, stranded and with nowhere to go. The incident led Islam and five friends to help the couple find a place to stay and more generosity followed.
The episode sparked a realization among the group — all mothers -- that they can make a difference in their local community, Islam said. They started pooling $20 monthly to donate to charity, and organically, Ummah Giving Circle was born.
Giving circles are groups of people who pool their resources and collectively decide how to spend their money or time. This grassroots, and very democratic, form of philanthropy has exploded in popularity during the past two decades, making it difficult to know how many truly exist, experts say. However, some estimate there are more than 2,000 in the United States alone.
For giving circles that focus on the American Muslim community, Ramadan, which ended this week, is a time when they collect donations, expand their membership, and aid charities they support.
As Muslims mark the end of Ramadan with a celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the American Muslim Community Foundation, which experts say is the only foundation hosting giving circles that focus on the American Muslim community, reached a new record. The group distributed nearly $1.3 million, the largest it has ever raised during Ramadan, to over 150 charities.
Muhi Khwaja, the co-founder of the foundation, notes the foundation saw a bump in donations this year because more families joined giving circles that it hosts or opened donor-advised funds, which are like charitable investment accounts.
“The pandemic has influenced the way people want to give,” Khwaja said. “And giving circles are a part of that.”
Most of the donations are coming from donor-advised funds opened by Muslim families, while about $111,000 was raised by two of the giving circles hosted by the foundation: Ummah and Bay Area Collective Giving.
The American Muslim Community Foundation hosts six other giving circles and all of them, except the new American Muslim Women’s Giving Circle, existed prior to joining the foundation. The giving circles join the foundation for help vetting the organizations they want to donate to, and other administrative issues. Others, like the Florida-based 200 Muslim Women Who Care, also operate outside of the foundation, which charges a 5% fee for its services.
The California-based foundation, Khwaja says, attempts to make Ramadan central to the giving circles because many Muslim families choose to give Zakat, the mandatory Islamic donation to charity, and Sadaqah, voluntary giving, during the Muslim holy month.
“Giving is an integral component and indeed a pillar of Islam,” said Khalil Abdur-Rashid, a Muslim chaplain at Harvard University. “This is because the well-being of others is tied to our spiritual cultivation. We cannot grow and develop spiritually nor attain the highest level of faith and righteousness unless we engage in giving.”
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan offers a chance for various forms of giving “so that we are not consumed by consumption and that we allow others to share in the blessings we have received,” he added.
For the Bay Area Collective Giving in San Francisco, California, the giving circle was born out of a desire to have greater impact. Since 2018, It has pooled together $5,000 Zakat contributions from local families, who then vote on organizations they want to fund. And the process has shown a clear preference to giving locally or in the state, said Rabea Chaudhry, the founder of the giving circle.
