Muslim Donors: Consider These Facts

Charity has great merits but the present situation of collectors demands that the donor community be more vigilant as the collectors are increasing by the day and the donor community remains the same.

Hereunder are some important points to remember:

Foreign Collectors:

$ Many projects overseas are small madâris and hifz classes whose needs can be fulfilled locally in their respective countries.

$ Donations without due investigations encourages unnecessary institutions, which becomes a source of income for a few executives of the new institutions.

$ It has been discovered that some foreign collectors are printing their own separate receipt books after arrival whilst they have the receipt books from their institution. In the past some were caught writing the large amounts in their own receipt books and the smaller amounts in the institutions book.

$ Consider the estimated expenses of a typical overseas collector over two months:
 

Don’t forget the major portion of this money is Zakâh.
Is the Zakâh of the donor fulfilled?

Local Collectors:

$ There are sufficient welfare organizations in existence in the Gauteng area that are well constituted, accountable where in most cases the executive render voluntary service with a necessary force of paid workers.

$ Now the new organisations have the Amîr, collectors and executors as paid workers. Who decides the salaries?

$ Many have welfare numbers (which is easy to obtain) but in reality ±50% of the collection goes in administration and executors’ wages.

$ Many of these new organisations are doing once or twice a week feeding or soup kitchens, give out parcels in Ramadan and meat during Qurbani time, which is most adequately done all these years by established organisations.

$ Many of them claim to run madarîs in squatter camps and amongst indigenous people. Why should a small madrasah with 20 or 30 pupils and a foreign Ustâdh be made to run when better constituted organisations are working and monitoring many madâris with less costs and better standards.

$ In 2003 our investigation into a few organizations and madâris around Lenasia produced the following results:

a. In one case a person was fraudulently collecting money for a madrasah, which was under our jurisdiction. He collected R70,000.00. Later, he admitted that the reason he did this was because he could not find a job.

b. Many small organisations have 20 to 30 students with a foreign Ustâdh being paid a small salary and the organisation has a collector on the road collecting fund.

c. Many organisations take photos of established madâris and then portray them as their own projects.

d. In many cases the executives are people who have no previous community involvement but suddenly they are opening madâris and soup kitchens. What can it be other than self-enrichment.

e. A few were known to have previous records of embezzlement of funds at other organizations.

f. In some cases family members had took loans from the collected funds and it became an issue in the community.

g. Many new organisations are placing adverts in local newspapers and radio stations to prove their credibility but the media cannot refuse, therefore they have to accept any advert.

It is for you the donor to decide where your charity should be spent and what criteria you will set to decide on the bona fide of collectors and projects.

THE JAMIAT HAS PUBLISHED THESE GUIDELINES FOR YOUR PROTECTION