2 March 2021: IndiaZakat.com was launched as India’s 1st zakat based crowdfunding platform on the eve of the Ramzan in 2020. It was launched by India Muslim’s biggest network of professionals, Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP). In a short span of 10 months, IndiaZakat.com has crossed Rs. 2 Crore donations through 6500+ Donors and thus impacting lives of more than 700 deserving families.

An experienced team from diverse background of technology, marketing, social sector and finance volunteered to get the website up and running with user friendly experience. The platform was launched during lockdown in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic and when everyone was confined to homes. IndiaZakat.com emerged as a blessing for many in the difficult times.

Funds were not only raised for COVID-19 pandemic relief. The focus of the platform was to support education, livelihoods, medical & disaster relief anywhere across India. Tabish Sangrar, a technologist, who has helped in building the platform said “I am associated with AMP for long, for their excellent developmental work in Education & Empowerment. When they approached me for helping them to set up a digital platform, I readily agreed so that I could do my bit for the society and the Nation.”

Kashish Yusuf, a 19-year girl from Jaipur, who scored 99.58 percentile in JEE Mains 2020 and the only Muslim Girl in the toppers list from Rajasthan. Her father experienced an extreme setback in his Business few years ago, and has not been able to recover till now. Additionally, the COVID-19 lockdown made him temporarily unemployed and it was very difficult to meet even basic house expenses. Among all this depressing situation, the extraordinary success of Kashish was like a great blessing. Her father could not have provided the required funds for IIT/NIT education like admission counselling, college fees, hostel fees etc. In this bleak scenario, a cause for Education was raised for Kashish. Within 5-6 days, with the help of Social Media promotion and the generosity of donors, the amount of Rs. 2 lakhs was raised. Currently, she is studying Computer Science (CS) at NIT, Jaipur.

Similarly, Md. Dilshad Ahmad, a Patna-based youth, who was selected for admission into Master’s Degree course in Public Policy Program at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore. He had to pay a hefty fee of Rs. 2.77 lakh for the admission within a couple of days. Without having full fees and not knowing what to do, he took to social media and approached Aamir Edresy, President, AMP. Immediately, Edresy arranged for a cause to be raised on IndiaZakat.com, seeking contribution to the extent of shortfall in fee payment. Generous donors responded with electrifying speed on Social Media and within a matter of 3 hours, an amount of Rs. 1.50 lakh was funded by 55 donors. When we contacted Dilshad Ahmed, he was completely overjoyed and exclaimed, “I would like to thank each and every person who made the contribution for me on IZC platform and helped in accomplishing my dream”. He added "This is a revolutionary initiative by AMP and it will impact lives of thousands and lakhs of people in future. One day, Inshallah, I will also fulfil someone else’s dream in future”.

For Livelihood support, take the case of 52 years old Nijamudeen, living in Chennai. He is an auto driver and had been driving a rented auto for the past 35 years. Due to COVID, his auto was taken away by owners as he couldn't pay the rent and he was facing difficulties to get a job due to his advanced age. He desperately needed support to buy an auto-rickshaw to earn bread for his family. Through some acquaintance, he contacted IZC and a cause was raised and promoted on Social Media. Alhamdulillah, a donor saw the post and agreed to arrange the entire funds and get Nijamudeen a brand new auto... Many such success stories abound in this greatly successful platform.

Indiazakat.com team consists of Advisory Board, Zakat Council, Technical, Operations & Marketing Team Members who look after the day-to-day running of the platform purely on volunteer basis.

The management team at AMP had been constantly thinking & discussing ways of reaching out to more Zakat Donors in India so that a Centralized Zakat System could better utilize Zakat for the benefit of the underprivileged seekers and turn them into Zakat givers.

AMP has been at forefront on empowering people through other AMP initiatives of Job Assistance and Employment training programs.