Public trust and literacy challenge zakat management

Indonesian zakat organizations face a central challenge: public trust must keep pace with the growing responsibilities placed on charitable funds. Rizaludin Kurniawan, who oversees mobilization and collection at Baznas Indonesia, said Islamic philanthropy literacy needs greater attention, particularly among young people.

Research from Baznas’s Zakat Literacy Index in 2020, 2022 and 2024 showed a gap between people’s knowledge of zakat and their behavior in paying it, he said. Separately, Forum Zakat said recent public attention and criticism should serve as a reminder that trust is an entrusted responsibility that organizations must continually protect.

The forum called on zakat management organizations to uphold integrity, transparency, accountability and neutrality. They must manage every entrusted donation professionally and ensure it provides the greatest possible benefit to recipients. Zakat, infaq and sadaqah funds support more than religious obligations. They also fund education, health, economic empowerment, humanitarian work and disaster response.

Forum Zakat said the wider zakat movement depends on cooperation among managers, donors, recipients, government, religious scholars, businesses, communities and other stakeholders. That role becomes especially important during emergencies and disasters, but the scale of the responsibility also demands greater openness to public scrutiny and evaluation.

Trust, the forum said, depends not only on the number of programs or the amount of money collected. It also rests on governance, transparency, accountability, compliance with Islamic rules and consistent fulfillment of the organizations’ mandate. Funds must be handled cautiously and accounted for, then distributed to groups legally entitled to receive them. The forum also warned that zakat organizations should remain free from practical politics and actions that could create the appearance of favoritism or glorify particular figures.