Platform models, campaign structures and the treatment of donor funds, for platforms raising sadaqah, zakat and waqf online.
The problem
A charity platform holds other people's money for a purpose they specified, sometimes for months. Every question that follows is about that trust: whether the platform may deduct its costs from the donation or must fund them separately, what happens to a campaign that overfunds or fails to fund, whether zakat may be applied to a given cause at all, and how quickly a zakat contribution must reach an eligible recipient.
These are answerable, but they have to be answered in the platform's design rather than in its terms of service.
Cost recovery
Deducted from the donation, or funded separately
Overfunding or shortfall
What happens to the campaign either way
Zakat eligibility
Whether the cause qualifies at all
Disbursement speed
How quickly zakat must reach a recipient
What we do
The whole model: how funds are held, how costs are recovered, and what the platform's relationship to the donor actually is.
Sadaqah, zakat and waqf campaigns structured so each category is treated according to its own rules.
Assessing whether a campaign or cause qualifies for zakat, and how mixed campaigns should be handled.
What the donor is told, and when.
Certification under a verifiable reference, with campaign-level review as the platform scales.
Why ADL
Our team pairs certified Muftis holding AAOIFI qualifications with people who understand code, systems and product architecture. We hold Malaysia Digital Status from the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, a technology credential, held by a Shariah advisory firm. Where there is an app, we go into it. Where there is a core banking system, we review the configuration.
Registered Shariah Adviser with the Securities Commission Malaysia and with Labuan Financial Services Authority.
We work primarily against AAOIFI standards and reconcile with the applicable local regime. An opinion grounded in AAOIFI travels across borders.
Beyond applying Islamic finance standards, our team has been commissioned by a standard-setting body: research towards a governance standard, participation in the drafting of a preliminary standard, and a series of training assignments.
Auditing against another adviser's pronouncement is ordinary work for us, as is being audited by another firm. Independence is the point of the exercise.
We work in jurisdictions with mature Islamic finance regulation and in markets with none at all, where the structure has to satisfy Shariah while operating entirely within a conventional rulebook.
Best Shariah Advisory in Islamic Asset Management, presented in Jeddah in February 2026.
Members of our team hold Shariah board and committee seats across the institutions we serve, so our advisory work is informed by governance experience, not only by external review.
How we hold ourselves
Our measure of a good year is not only revenue. It is whether we helped one more business get to halal. That is why we will take a call from a founder at ideation stage, and why our pricing bends to what a client can actually carry. We would rather a small platform get its structure right at the start than be priced out and get it wrong at scale.
A business built on an Islamic label still has to be a good business. Sound fundamentals, capable people, honest disclosure, and a high standard of compliance with local regulation, because that is what protects the customer and the investor. Shariah compliance sits on top of that foundation. It is not a substitute for it, and we will say so if we see it being treated as one.
The Lifecycle
Compliance is a state you maintain rather than a certificate you obtain, and the audit cycle is how you maintain it.
We understand the platform model and how funds are held before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: how funds are held, cost recovery, campaign overfunding and shortfall, and zakat eligibility.
Findings returned and worked through with the platform's product and finance teams; the model is adjusted.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
For a charity platform the cycle runs for as long as it takes donations: the model is re-tested every year, and every time a new campaign category is added.
We commit to two to four weeks for a first pronouncement. In practice it often runs longer, and in our experience the reason is the round trip rather than the review. We raise amendments, and your product and engineering teams need time to work through them. We would rather set that expectation now than surprise you in week three.
Engagements are scoped and priced individually. We have worked with platforms launching their first campaign category and with platforms running sadaqah, zakat and waqf side by side. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
Evidence
Charity crowdfunding platforms (Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East)We advised on the underlying platform models and reviewed the Shariah structures supporting their crowdfunding, zakat and waqf campaigns, including the treatment of funds, beneficiary arrangements, governance considerations and related documentation and disclosures.
Questions
It depends on the category. Zakat is the most constrained, and a platform treating zakat contributions the same way it treats general sadaqah is usually the first finding we raise.
Both need a defined policy set before the campaign launches: where excess funds go, and what happens to committed donations if a target is missed. Improvising this after the fact is where disputes start.
Zakat is not meant to sit indefinitely with an intermediary. The acceptable holding period is a live Shariah question and depends on the platform's role, whether it is a collecting agent or something else.
A pronouncement is the scholarly ruling, the reasoned opinion that a platform model, as described, complies. A certification is the instrument that evidences it, carrying a reference your counterparties can check. The pronouncement is the judgment; the certificate is the proof.
Yes, but each category needs its own treatment inside the same platform: the fund-holding structure, the disclosure and the eligibility rules cannot be pooled just because they run through one interface.
Typically yes, through campaign-level review as the platform scales and new campaign categories are added.
Our certification confirms Shariah compliance. It is not an assessment of whether a business is viable, whether its financials are sound, or whether the people running it can execute. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second. Every ADL certificate carries a reference you can check independently.
Book a consultation, whether you are designing your first campaign category or reviewing one already live.