Blog/Islamic giving
Zakat and Sadaqah: tracking Islamic giving in a CRM
8 September 2026
Islamic giving is not one bucket. Zakat is obligatory and restricted. Sadaqah is voluntary. Many UK Muslim charities also collect Lillah, Fidya, and Kaffarah. If those labels live only in the payment description field, your reports will lie.
Treat the type as data, not a comment
A donor CRM that only has “amount” and “campaign” will collapse Zakat into general income the first time someone runs a chart. You want a dedicated type on every donation, chosen at entry (online or by an administrator recording a bank transfer).
DonorPulse’s donation types include Zakat, Sadaqah, Lillah, Fidya, and Kaffarah today. That is already in the product — it is not a seasonal add-on. A dedicated Zakat calculator for supporter sites is planned; until then, donors choose a type and an amount.
Why this matters for Gift Aid and audits
Trustees and auditors ask “how much Zakat did we collect, and did we spend it as Zakat?” Gift Aid claims ask a different question: “which gifts from UK taxpayers were eligible?” Those two cuts of the data must both be possible without re-tagging a year of bank lines.
If a mosque or Islamic charity cannot produce a Zakat total by month, the CRM is not doing its job — even if the website looked beautiful in Ramadan.
Online and offline should share types
Counter collections, bank transfers, and card checkouts should offer the same list. Training volunteers to write “ZKT” in a memo field is how types get lost. A required field on the donation form is slower for ten seconds and faster for the rest of the year.