Active Charities

There are a small number of high-impact charities that are active in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OpT), as well as in Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kashmir, Somalia and elsewhere.

A leading organisation like UNRWA which manages large schools, clinics, and off-site camps is understandably going to have sizeable expenses given their enlarged footprint, impact, headcount, and infrastructure – while a small charity with for e.g., 2-3 volunteers may spend much smaller amounts on expenses, but in terms of scale, will also have a much smaller reach compared to UNRWA, Oxfam and others.

A large, established charity will also likely have the experience and local connectivity to assess what is needed today, tomorrow and in the medium to long term while a small charity might be able to operate with minimal complexity and move much faster.

Put simply, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Given their history, track record, reach, impact, commitment and achievements to-date, running a charity is about delivering aid (with full accountability) which understandably – always costs money.

Each of these leading 47+ charities/NGOs play a very important role in their own respective way.

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	CHARITY/NGO	% SPENT ON EXPENSES
1	Ummah Welfare Trust	100% Donation Policy
2	One Nation	100% Donation Policy
3	Islamic Aid	100% Donation Policy
4	Muslim Global Relief	100% Donation Policy
5	One Ummah	100% Donation Policy
6	Abdullah Aid	100% Donation Policy
7	SKT Welfare	100% Donation Policy
8	Global Helping Hands	100% Donation Policy.
9	Children of Adam	100% Donation Policy.
10	Muslims in Need	100% Donation Policy.
11	United Palestinian Appeal	98% Donation Policy
12	Muslim Hands	0-10%
13	Muslim Charity	0-12%
14	Islamic Relief	4-13%
15	Anera	6%
16	International Red Cross & Red Crescent Movement	6.5%
17	Disasters Emergency Committee	7.3%
18	Children of Peace	9%
19	iF Charity	10%
20	ActionAid	10%
21	CARE	10%
22	Medical Aid for Palestinians	13%
23	Humanity Inclusion	14%
24	Save the Children	14%
25	Physicians for Human Rights	15% (On Average)
26	SOS Children’s Villages	16%
27	Penny Appeal	17.84%
28	Middle East Children’s Alliance	18%
29	MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES	19%
30	Human Concern	20%
31	Rebuilding Alliance	20%
32	Oxfam International	23%
33	UNRWA	Refer to Annual Report
34	Palestine Children’s Relief Fund	Refer to Annual Report
35	Muslim Aid	Refer to Annual Report
36	Human Appeal	Refer to Annual Report
37	Global Relief Trust	Refer to Annual Report
38	Defense for Children International (Palestine)	Refer to Annual Report
39	Palestine International Medical Aid (PIMA)
40	Arab Campaign for Education for All
41	Palestine Red Crescent Society
42	Baitulmaal USA
43	American Friends Service Committee
44	Al-Fakhoora
45	Reach Education Fund
46	Al-Amal Institute for Orphans
47	Challenge to Change

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While there are at least 10+ known Muslim charities with a 100% donation policy, most well established Muslim charities spend an average of 16% on operating expenses, with 8% spent on fundraising and the other 8% on governance including audits.

16% also appears to be largely in line with leading non-Muslim charities around the world:

Charities	% Spent on Expenses
Oxfam:	23
World  Vision UK:	21
United Jewish Israel Appeal	20
Plan International UK	17
The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief	16.3
Save the Children	14
Christian Aid	13
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development	13
Relief International UK	9

For source (Ayaan Institute: Aiding the Ummah : Analysing the Muslim Humanitarian Charity Sector in the UK), click here.

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OTHER OPTIONS:

The costs of sending donations into Gaza are exploitatively high.

For example, if one were to send HK$2,000 into Gaza via PayPal, Western Union or MoneyGram, they will stealthily quote an FX rate that is approximately 4% higher than the official FX rate (HK-USD-Shekels). Next, they will charge approximately HK$150+ for the transfer, costing in total no less than 8%-12%, of the amount one is trying to send.

Put simply, for every US$100 sent into Gaza, Western Union, PayPal and others will unashamedly pocket up to $12+ for itself. They will likely claim the regulatory compliance cost is high and while this is partly true, 12% is astronomically high by any standard.

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LaunchGood, JustGiving, DonorBox, GoFundMe & MuslimGiving

There are also several crowdfunding platforms today.

PLATFORM	CHARGES
LaunchGood	2.9% credit card processing fee + 0.30 cents
JustGiving	between 1.9%-2.9%
GoFundMe	2.9% credit card processing fee + 0.30 cents
Donorbox	4.4%
MuslimGiving	Voluntary fees decided by users