Entrepreneur Zakat Fund
Zakat that funds a livelihood.
We back small entrepreneurs the way Kiva does, except there is no loan. Your Zakat goes to them outright, to keep. You fund the goal on their page, and they decide how to put the money to work. With one gift, a person who was receiving Zakat can be earning instead, inshāAllah.
Open slots
Meet the entrepreneurs.
$0 raised across 0 entrepreneurs
Live campaigns and funding totals, published from our CRM.
What makes it different
The money is theirs to keep.
Programs like this usually lend the capital. We give it. Your Zakat reaches the entrepreneur in full, as an outright gift, and because it is now their money they decide how to use it. We learn the business and what it needs before we commit, but we don't tie the gift to a receipt or a single purchase.
This is still a pilot. We are starting with a handful of entrepreneurs and watching them closely, so that if we scale it we know what actually worked.
More than money
Every entrepreneur is paired with a coach who works through business literacy and saving with them, and through how to grow without overreaching. That coaching is funded separately, so none of it is taken out of their Zakat.
It rarely stops with one person
When a business can stand on its own, the owner hires neighbors and supplies what the area actually needs. We pray they give in turn.
One week, or many years
The same obligation that feeds a family for a week can instead fund the work that feeds them for years.
How it works
From the first meeting to the follow-up.
We get to know them
We find a Zakat-eligible entrepreneur, someone who owns less than the nisab threshold, and spend time on their trade and their plan, down to what it would actually take to make the work self-sustaining.
You fund their goal
Give toward their goal until it's met. 100% of your Zakat reaches them, and the processing fees are covered by our separate general funds.
We give it outright, unrestricted
The full amount is handed over as a gift, never a loan. There is nothing to repay, and they decide how best to put it to work. We don't tie it to a single receipt, because being trusted with your own money is part of what makes this work.
We coach, then follow up
Alongside the gift we offer guidance on business literacy and saving. The coaching is paid for out of our general funds, never out of Zakat, so the Zakat itself goes to the recipient in full. Months later we publish updates, so you can see how the business is holding up.
Put your Zakat behind a business.
Enough capital, given once, can be the difference between waiting for help and earning a living. Pick an entrepreneur and fund their goal.
Fund an entrepreneur →