Muslim Philanthropy: A Tradition of Abundance
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in the Muslim tradition. With zakât as one of the core expressions of Islam, with a history of over 1400 years and 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, there is much nuance in Muslim philanthropy. Growing up in the U.S., I always thought a philanthropist was a rich, white, old man. The more work I do in philanthropy, the more I want to reclaim diverse stories of giving and the impact of this giving, from fundraising at a lemonade stand to walking an elderly person across a crowded street.
In the U.S., where we have over 400 years of Muslim history, the roughly ten percent of enslaved people who were Muslim were able to carry on this Islamic traditions. While enslaved Muslims were not able to give zakât monetarily, there is research done by Dr. Shariq Siddiqui to demonstrate that zakât was practiced within the enslaved population. Enslaved Muslims in Georgia are reported to have saved small quantities of the rice they harvested every day and small quantities of sugar from their rations. Women would then make a saraka cake for the children to eat.
Without money, enslaved Muslims did what they could to continue practicing the charity that their faith asked of them. Their faith and their circumstance influenced the nature of their philanthropy.
When I was a child, the month before Ramadan, my immigrant parents would sit at the kitchen table with my sister and me to discuss how our family could give back. They would tell us about a family relative back in India who could use our help. Maybe it was for something critical, like surgery; or something invaluable, like education; or something practical, like a sewing machine! My working-class family’s support was not extravagant, but we did what we could. This experience taught me that, even as a child, I had the power to make a transformational difference in others’ lives.
My husband and I are fortunate to continue the tradition of sitting at the kitchen table with our two sons to discuss our family values and the organizations that we want to support. As our family focused on serving as strategic donors, we read articles and spoke to community members to better understand how to compare and contrast private foundations and Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). Both are vehicles used by donors to accomplish a philanthropic goal of distributing assets. Our family realized that at the most basic level, a private foundation is its own legal entity, while a DAF is not. The assets in a DAF are held at a third party, which accounts for and charges fees for everything from grants management to investment management services. On the whole, we found a DAF to be more economical than a private foundation.
Our family, after going through the discernment process, decided to open a DAF at Chicago Community Trust (CCT). A DAF can be established in as little as a day or two. It’s as easy as opening an account by completing the donor forms, selecting the gifts to be donated (usually cash or qualified appreciated stock), and agreeing to the terms of the charitable gift. We chose a community foundation for our DAF because we wanted to uplift nonprofits in our own backyard in Chicago.
Our family formalized the Waraich Family Fund (WFF) and articulated our values of transparency, collaboration, and trust as the guiding principles of our granting and regranting decisions.
During one of our family conversations a few years ago, we realized that we also needed to establish areas of giving in order to be even more strategic, and we decided to name education, religious pluralism, social services, and Black Muslim communities as our philanthropic priorities.
The next step in our philanthropic journey was engaging with the broader community foundation DAF ecosystem. Our curious question was whether community foundations were equitably distributing assets to all members of their community and whether our family’s funding priorities were reflected in the foundation’s giving portfolio. We’ve brought our own lived experience and viewpoint so that the entire ecosystem gains strength through its members’ and donors’ association with Muslim and Black communities. We’re highlighting these communities in order to demonstrate the need for and the outcomes gained through funding Muslim- and Black-led nonprofits.
As we spoke to our grantees, the WFF family became curious if Muslim-led nonprofits could be better supported in a way that would help them move away from a scarcity mindset toward a mindset of abundance. The outcome of that family discussion was the funding of a three-year study project called the Community Collaboration Initiative (CCI) that has been focused on building trust and a collaborative culture among a select group of Muslim-led organizations. For the past three years, these organizations have worked closely with CCI, which was housed at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, to better understand the difference between intentional collaboration and cooperation. In 2022, the third and final year, these organizations have formed five groups working towards common goals.
To incentivize the organizations for participating in this time-intensive process, CCI launched the $1M Muslim Collaboration Prizes (MCP) to foster a more collaborative mindset. Raising the $1 million prize was a fundraising endeavor! As Chicago Community Trust lives into their mandate, they granted MCP with $500,000.
This generosity was the outcome of a bold ask from me—I realized that if I don’t ask, the answer is always “NO.” Being bold in our asks is not an option but a right as we continue to raise awareness for mission-driven work.
We raised the rest of the funds from foundations such as Marguerite Casey Foundation, American Muslim Community Foundation, Islamic Relief USA, Penny Appeal, and other Muslim philanthropies.
As CCI concludes in 2022, we want to uplift Muslim-led nonprofits while opening doors to funding from community and private foundations. Muslim nonprofits are doing impactful work but not receiving equitable funding from the larger community. WFF hopes to serve as the bridge between foundations and Muslim nonprofits in order to increase funding opportunities. We are also investing in a five-year research project to better understand if community foundations are fully living into their mandate and developing relationships with Muslim-led nonprofits. As this journey continues, my family and I are looking to our faith and our circumstances to guide us.
Harkening back to the long, rich tradition of Muslim philanthropy, my greatest role model in this work is Khadija (RA), who was a holder of considerable wealth, a prominent businessperson, and the Holy Prophet’s first wife. I think about how and what it means to do this work with compassion, urgency, collaboration, and trust. I have found a purpose and want to use this work to create a platform for strategic philanthropy so that Muslim women can tell their own philanthropic story.
Dilnaz Waraich is a philanthropic advocate, community builder, educator, and interfaith leader with more than three decades of experience in relationship building, cultural sensitivity facilitation, spiritual engagement, and civic empowerment. Dilnaz is the President of the Waraich Family Fund (WFF). Through her leadership, the WFF actively works to make impactful connections between individuals that uplift programs and collaboratively engage communities nationally. The Waraich Family Fund invested in The Community Collaboration Initiative (CCI), which is housed at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy which galvanizes the enthusiasm and expertise of 25 Muslim American nonprofit organizations in establishing ways to work together towards solving a common problem. Dilnaz is known for bringing awareness and recognition to multiple causes, serving and connecting individuals through uplifting programs, and collaboratively engaging communities nationally.