Islamic-American Zakat Foundation

We assess, collect and distribute mandatory (ZAKAT) and voluntary (SADAQA) Islamic charity primarily to assist the poor and needy in America and seek to help them attain self-sufficiency.

Why do we exist?

Islamic-American Zakat Foundation is the only national muslim charitable organization focused on granting assistance to the poor and needy in the United States. We have provided assistance for housing, medicine, utilities, transportation, food and legal expenses as well as counseling and referrals for hundreds of families seeking to make them self-sufficient.

Our work has not only directly benefitted needy people from an amazing variety of national origins, but has helped to demonstrate Islamic values of helping neighbors to the broader American public by our cooperation with variety of different faith and social service organizations at a time when inter-religious understanding is badly strained and in need of practical collaborative efforts.

What have you accomplished?

We have assisted over 1500 different families from a variety of national origins with assistance for housing, medicine, utilities, transportation, food and legal expenses as well as counseling and referrals for hundreds of families seeking to make them self-sufficient. We have done this in cooperation with their own faith institutions and other social service agencies.

One memorable example was the woman who had fallen into a coma. Her husband, who needed to remain here to continue to earn money to support them could not afford the $7000 it would take to fly the family and the mother's caretakers home. We contributed $1,000 from our general funds, $1,500 we raised through a special fundraising effort, solicited $1,000 from her family's mosque and persuaded the airline to cut the cost of the airfare in half so that she could be sent back with her children to her country of origin where she would get medical treatment and the children would be cared for by her extended family.

	How do you help people in my community?		Why do you need my support?
	How can I be sure that you will use my money wisely and won't waste it?		Can I Volunteer? How?