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A recent report from the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, “Giving in Faith,” pushes back against the myth that there is a decline in religiously inspired giving. The report suggests that 95% of people of faith report donating. Of those, 78% reported giving to their houses of worship, and 79% reported that their faith inspired them to give outside of their houses
of worship.
This is great news for faith-based institutions, as this provides them greater opportunity to further their missions through philanthropy. However, congregational leaders should not take this support for granted. For example, research from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative suggests that Muslim donors in the United States report that trust or reputation of nonprofit organizations is one of the top determinants of their giving.
Congregational leaders should intentionally develop programs to build and maintain trust. This includes investing in staff trained in philanthropy and faith-based program development. However, recent focus groups in Muslim communities suggest that congregational leaders might be inadvertently making decisions that would create future challenges for Muslim congregations raising funding.
First, many U.S.-based Muslim congregations allow external organizations to raise funds in the place of worship to support causes that their congregations consider important. This is good because the house of worship promoting giving increases generosity within the congregation.
However, in recent years, these Islamic centers are asking these external organizations to pay 10% to 25% of funds collected to the mosque without disclosing the arrangement to donors. This raises some important concerns. Does this violate donor intent? If the donor knew of this arrangement, would he or she still donate? If donors are aware of this practice, would this result in a decline of trust in both congregational leadership and the external nonprofits raising funds?
Second, some Islamic centers stop external funders from coming to the Islamic center to raise money when they feel it will compete with their internal fundraising capital campaigns. More research is needed to determine whether this actually helps or harms the congregation. Giving is a learned behavior, and generosity increases through practice. By limiting outside organizations from raising funds for diverse causes that the congregants feel are important, the mosque leaders might be discouraging generosity. Could the congregation be losing the opportunity to serve a philanthropic need of its members?
The challenge these mosques face is largely that, while U.S. Muslims are very generous, they give less to their houses of worship than does any other faith community in the United States, according to research by the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding.
For mosques to be more relevant, they need staff and programs. Both of these need resources. While U.S. Muslims give to build mosques, they have been less supportive of funding mosque operations. This forces mosque leaders to find other ways to fund their activities. Some of these actions might be counterproductive to the mission of these organizations. They might also lead to an existential shock to U.S. Muslim philanthropy by reducing trust in nonprofit leaders and organizations.
Mosque leaders must find alternative ways to raise funds. They must also take steps to increase generosity within their community. One middle-class mosque in Illinois spends time to learn its congregation’s philanthropic priorities, vets external nonprofits that meet those leads, opens its doors to these organizations, and still finds ways to manage its large operations and programs.
It is critical that Muslim congregations find ways to inspire and increase generosity through an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity mindset.•
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Siddiqui is assistant professor and director of the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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