Abd Halim Mohd Noor

Characteristic Affecting Charitable Donations Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia☆

Abstract The recent World Giving Index 2013 had shown that there is increasing rank for charitable donations in Malaysia. Generally, charities have to depend on individual donors and less on the government for fundraising in order to survive in the competition. As charities need to depend on individual donor, it is compulsory to study on the individual donor characteristics which can help to identify and describe recognizably the individual donor features. Furthermore, in Malaysia, there are limited studies on the characteristics of individual donor. Thus, this study aims is to investigate the characteristics of Malaysian charitable donors and the study followed the study on donor characteristics in Britain, Australia, Brunei and Pakistan to develop a better understanding of Malaysian donors extrinsic determinants (demographic determinants and socio-demographic determinants) and intrinsic determinants (psychographic determinants). Data is collected from the individual donors in the Central Region of Malaysia that consist of Selangor, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. To measure the results, factor analysis is used in the development and evaluation of test and scale. Later, logistic regression is used to analyse the relationship between variables. It is basically used when dependent variables is categorical (donor/non-donor). Findings show that age, income, education and religious factors affect the charitable donation behavior in Malaysia. Further, the research also identifies major differences between donor characteristic from Malaysia with Britain, Australia, Brunei and Pakistan. The findings indicate that the characteristics of donors differ between each country and more exploration is needed in this field.

Donor’s Expectations Toward Transparency Features in Websites of Malaysia Charity Organizations

This paper investigates the donor’s perspective on the element of transparency and accountability needed to display in the website by the charity organizations (COs) in Malaysia. This is achieved through the survey of various literatures and study undertaken concerning the foundation. The study was done based on the fact that there is a very limited study on the topic especially in Malaysia based on the context of website or Internet communication technology (ICT). Thus, this study is able to provide an insight toward the readers on the view and how it leads toward trust in donation among donor. The respondents are randomly selected, and the questionnaire is based on online survey. A total of 556 respondents are collected from this research. The ability of potential stakeholder to access organization-specific information concerning the operations of non-profit organization is important for donation decision. It is hoped by this study that the public and more importantly the foundations to see how transparency display in the COs’ website can play a crucial role in encouraging more people to donate and increase their fund. COs depend on people’s donations to continue their mission to help their beneficiaries sufficiently. A long-term goal for this study is for the foundation to see how transparency can help to create a philanthropy society, a society that practises continuous charity and philanthropy in their lives rather than just charity society and a society that elects to donate based on demand and on timely basis.

Does Performance and Transparency Matter to Individual Donors’ Giving in Malaysia?

The recently released World Giving Index (https://www.cafonline.org/PDF/WorldGivingIndex2013_1374AWEB.pdf, 2013) reports that despite the fall in the growth rate of the global economy, the average percentage of people donating continue to increase. However, nonprofit organizations (NPO) were urged to be more transparent and inform the public about their work. This concurs with concern over NPO’s impact and its subsequent effects on donor’s behaviors. With indices of donor performance abound that lead to ranking of donor allocative performance, this may influence donor behavior. As such, this paper seeks to investigate the influence of performance on charitable giving decisions by donors. Performance in NPO is complex and difficult to measure. This paper focuses on the influence of NPO’s performance on charitable decisions of individual donors in Malaysia. Individual donors were chosen since various studies identify them as one of the main contributors to charities. Online survey was conducted requesting information on respondents’ demography and psychographic. The survey also requested information from respondents on various criteria of NPO when deciding to donate. Based on the survey, performance though important is not the major consideration for individual donors when donating to NPOs.

Integrating Awqaf and Zakat: A Case Study of Land Development for the Poor in State Islamic Religious Councils Terengganu, Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the integration of awqaf land and zakat fund for the various purposes of development and assistance to the needy. Awqaf is an endowment made by a Muslim for a religious, educational, or other charitable causes. The development of awqaf land is a part of the social obligations which can contribute to improving the quality of life of the zakat’s recipients. Zakat plays an important role in providing a better life for the poor. Despite the enormous potential of zakat and waqf, these two instruments have yet to be fully utilized for helping the poor. Among the main obstacles in developing awqaf land is the inadequate budget received by the State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs). Furthermore, the lack of involvement of professional bodies from the initial stage of the development results in the unawareness of potential land development. Taking into account the financial requirement in developing awqaf land, the need to integrate zakat and awqaf is important to ensure continuity of the developments. This paper describes briefly the impact of having comprehensive integration of awqaf and zakat. Data from interviews and documents in State Islamic Religious Councils Terengganu are analyzed, and there is a proof that awqaf and zakat integrations have already occurred. By integrating awqaf and zakat, the quality of life among asnaf can be further enhanced. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge of integrating awqaf and zakat as the key instrument for SIRCs to develop the best development for the ummah.

Do Capital Assistance Programs by Zakat Institutions Help the Poor

Abstract Zakat refers to the determined share of wealth in Islam to be distributed mainly to the poor and needy. The portions they received will enable them to fulfill their basic needs and conduct economic activities. One of the distribution instruments of zakat institutions is in form of loan-free capital assistance. The objective of capital assistance programs is to increase the income of the recipients through entrepreneurships. Zakat institutions have also initiated various programs such as offering training as well as giving business and marketing guidance, so that the recipients would become self-reliant and own a formal business. Based on content analysis on secondary data as well as primary data, the discussion of this paper is divided into three sections. First, this paper identifies the capital assistance program which is the most effective in increasing the income of the recipients. Second, this paper investigates the factors that contribute to the success of the program and third, it investigates the challenges encountered by zakat institution in capital assistance program. The study was done with the cooperation from Selangor Zakat Board, one of the main zakat institutions in Malaysia. The findings of the research revealed that the mobile business program is the most effective program in transforming the recipients into entrepreneurs where the success of the business can be seen in as early as 3 months. The findings of this research also revealed that instead of requesting the recipients to repay the capital aid, forced savings method has been imposed which became one of the factors that contribute to the success of the program.

Integrating Zakat Institutions into the Mainstream Economy: Evidence from Malaysia

Zakat is a significant tool in economic growth whereby zakat acts as poverty eradication instrument, income redistributive device, and a stabilization mechanism. Zakat is also recognized as a pioneer instrument of the world welfare system in human history. Zakat institutions play an important role as a supplement to the government’s effort in eradicating poverty. Despite its significant role in the economy, zakat institutions in Malaysia have not reached its full potential yet. Zakat institutions have undergone several developments to improve its performance among them through corporatization of collection and distribution units. This contributes to the integration of zakat into the mainstream economy. This study presents the development of zakat institutions and identifies various phases of its integration into the economy. Despite the development, more effort is needed to improve the efficiency of zakat institutions.

Non recipients of zakat funds(NRZF) and its impact on the performance of zakat institution: A conceptual model

The main purpose of zakat fund is to help the poor and the needy. Financial aids from zakat institutions provide opportunities for these asnaf to uplift themselves to higher socioeconomic levels. However, the non-recipients of zakat fund (NRZF) are excluded from these opportunities. Denied access to zakat fund has significant impact on the wellbeing of the non-recipients. This paper sought to study whether NRZF are really not qualified to receive the fund, or is it due to ineffectiveness in zakat management in the process selecting the recipients? Determinants that influence NRZF are also of interest in this study. The study will utilize an organizational performance indicator proposed by Zakat Research Institute of Malaysia(IKaZ).