Online donations for masajid: Sadaqah, Zakat and Lillah

Think about the last appeal after Jumu'ah. The imam finishes, the need is real, and people reach for their pockets. Some have cash. Most don't. A few will remember to do a bank transfer later, and some of them actually will. By Monday, the moment has passed.

Nobody at that appeal was unwilling. They just had nowhere easy to put their generosity. That gap, between wanting to give and being able to, is what online donations are for.

Make giving take seconds

The best donation page is the one people barely notice. Every form field, every "create an account", every bank sort code is a moment where someone decides to do it later. Aim for this:

• One link and one QR code for each appeal. Put the code on the wall, on the prayer hall screen after Jumu'ah, on posters and in your WhatsApp messages.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay, so most people can give in two taps without typing a card number.
• Suggested amounts that make sense for your community, with room to give more.
• Recurring giving for the people who want to support the masjid every month. Regular givers are what keep a masjid open between the big appeals.

Labbaik's donations work this way: two-tap Sadaqah from a link or QR code, with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and recurring donations for regular givers.

Show the appeal filling up

There's a reason the thermometer poster has survived decades of masjid fundraising. People give more when they can see the target and see their gift move it. An online appeal should do the same thing, live: how much has been raised, how far there is to go, and how many people have given.

This matters most in Ramadan, and most of all in the last ten nights, when many people want to give and every night counts. An appeal page that updates as the gifts come in lets the whole community watch the target close together.

Keep Zakat, Sadaqah and Lillah separate

This is where masjid donations differ from any other charity, and where general-purpose fundraising tools often fall short.

• Zakat is an obligation with conditions. It can only go to the eight categories named in the Qur'an, and it generally can't pay for the building or the running costs. The Zakat guide covers this in detail.
• Sadaqah is voluntary charity and can support any good cause.
• Lillah is typically given for the masjid itself: its upkeep, its bills, its future.

A donor who gives Zakat is trusting the masjid to spend it correctly. If it lands in the same pot as everything else, that trust is hard to keep and harder to show. The simplest protection is to separate the funds at the point of giving, so the donor chooses, and the masjid's records show exactly what came in as what.

In Labbaik, Zakat, Sadaqah and Lillah go into separate funds, each with its own target. And Labbaik's platform fee isn't deducted from Zakat donations, so your Zakat stays Zakat.

Know where the money goes

Before you choose any donation platform, ask three things: who holds the money, how long until it reaches the masjid, and what's taken along the way. Some platforms collect donations into their own account and pay out later. Others add fees that are hard to see.

With Labbaik, donations go straight into the masjid's own Stripe account. Labbaik never holds, routes or touches the funds. The software is free; on card payments there's a small graduated platform fee, from 1.5% down to 0.35% as volume grows. Cash and bank transfers you record yourself are never charged, so the donation box and the online appeal can sit in the same record.

Thank people properly

A donor who hears nothing back is less likely to give again. Every gift deserves a receipt, and regular givers deserve to see their history. Labbaik keeps each donor's giving history in one place, and donation receipts reach donors on WhatsApp, where your community already is.

It also helps to tell people what their giving did. The boiler that got fixed, the families supported through Ramadan, the new classroom for the maktab. A short message after an appeal closes turns a one-off donor into part of the masjid's story.

A note on Gift Aid

For UK masajid registered as charities, Gift Aid adds 25% to eligible donations from UK taxpayers. Labbaik's Gift Aid capture is coming soon; until then, keep your current Gift Aid process running alongside online giving.

Giving without borders

Families move. Children grow up and settle in other cities and other countries. For many people, the masjid they grew up in stays their masjid for life. Online giving means they can keep supporting it from wherever they are, in Ramadan, on the anniversary of a parent's passing, or simply every month. That is part of connecting the ummah: the bond between a person and their masjid doesn't have to end at the door.

Questions committees ask