Managing a zakat fund separately

Zakat has narrower permissible uses than general charity, which makes mixing it with other funds a practical problem as well as a religious one.

Short answer. Zakat should be held and recorded separately from general donations, because it may only be given to eligible recipients. A combined balance cannot demonstrate that, so a fund holding both needs two records, not one with a note.

Two records, not one

	Zakat	General / sadaqah
Who may receive	Eligible recipients only	Discretionary
Held	Separately	Separately
Carried forward	Stays zakat	General balance
Published	Amounts and categories	Amounts and purposes

What to record

In: amount, date, donor unless anonymous, and that it is zakat.
Out: amount, date, category, and who approved it.
Held: the balance still to be distributed.

Discretion about people, openness about money

These are not in tension. A zakat fund can publish exactly how much came in, exactly how much went out, in what categories and on what dates, while the identities of recipients stay with the small group who approved each case. What it must not do is go quiet about the totals in the name of protecting privacy.

Approval

Two or three named people, and never one alone. Zakat decisions involve judgements about eligibility that should not rest on a single person, and recording who made each one protects them as much as it protects the fund.

Common questions

Can zakat be kept in the same account as general donations?

It is far better not to. Once mixed, a fund cannot show which rupees went where, and that is precisely what it may be asked to show.

Should zakat recipients be named publicly?

Normally no. Amounts, dates and categories can be published while recipients are known only to those approving — receiving zakat should not make somebody a public example.

What if zakat is left over at year end?

Record it as held zakat carried forward, not as general funds. It remains zakat.

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