Submitted by Paula Chrin

With today marking the first day of Ramadan, a month traditionally associated with fasting and charitable giving for Muslims, any interest in exploring how Muslims in the U.S. are increasingly turning to online philanthropy to give back to their community and satisfy the tenets of Ramadan?

The tradition of giving during Ramadan — one’s zakat and sadaqah — is rooted in the belief of selfless compassion and a redistribution of wealth. Unfortunately, many Muslims in the U.S. struggle with giving money safely, with the assurance that it is going to the right place. For example, Saima Zaman and her friends wrestled with this issue for years. They started “giving circles” in college, during which they would share giving ideas; but this was a limited solution, based personal knowledge rather than a broad, well researched resource.

Inspired to develop a better solution for her community, Saima started working with GlobalGiving in 2006 to create a safe, online Ramadan initiative. Through GlobalGiving, the first online marketplace for philanthropy, Muslim donors can scroll through and select projects run by reputable organizations that satisfy IRS guidelines for international grant making, meet tax-deductible requirements, and follow anti-terrorism laws. GlobalGiving also provides a zakat calculator so donors can determine how much to give during Ramadan. And over the last 2 years, online giving during Ramadan has increased over 80%.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.