As a senior citizen who regularly donates to several alms organizations, Masnoni Hasanudin, is grateful for the alms pick-up service that she says made it easier for her to fulfill her obligations as a Muslim.
“I regularly donate to Lazismu and Dompet Dhuafa, who offer pick-up services to mosques around my neighborhood,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Masnoni said she occasionally still transferred money for alms, but when she had no time or when she needed more information on what causes she was donating to, she preferred using a pick-up service.
“I believe these organizations can better manage the alms rather than if I were to personally distribute money directly to people, which could only result in people stampeding for a mere Rp 10,000 [US$1.1],” she said.
Muslims are obliged to pay alms in several forms, including Fitrah, which is paid prior to Idul Fitri, and Maal, a 2.5-percent share of one’s savings, silver or gold within a year.
Various alms organizations are reaching out to donors through pick-up services, Internet and test message transactions to keep up with the growing mobility of city residents.
“We have provided a pick-up service since Lazismu [run by the second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah] was first established in 2002,” Lazismu marketing official Adi Rosadi said.
Despite the fact that not many donors make use of the service, the ones that do tend to find it quite helpful, he said.
Adi did not specify the minimum amount donors needed to pledge to make use of the pick-up service.
“It all depends on the donors, but we probably wouldn’t make a house call for Rp 100,000,” he said.
Apart from collecting alms, Lazismu also receives payments through bank transfer and direct payments at its head office in Muhammadiyah headquarters or its branches in several locations, including Blok M Square and Plaza Melawai in South Jakarta, Cempaka Putih Islamic Hospital in Central Jakarta, and Pondok Kopi Islamic Hospital in East Jakarta.
“Around 70 percent of the contributors, however, still rely on bank transfers, 20 percent use the pick-up service and only 10 percent of them came to our offices to pay in person,” he said.
Adi said ever since it was established the organization has 25,000 donors.
The donations, he said, were used to finance education facilities and scholarships for poor children as well as various economic empowerment projects.
“We do not distribute the alms in the form of direct cash to the poor because we do not want them to be dependent on handouts. Instead, we want to train them and give them the skills to eventually become independent,” Adi said.
Ahmad Juwaini, the executive director of another alms distribution organization, Dompet Dhuafa, said his organization had provided a pick-up service since 1997 because they believed people did not have time to transfer money themselves, let alone deliver it to alms distribution organizations.
“We only provide a pick-up service for a minimum donation of Rp 1 million,” he said.
Even though it provided a lot of convenience, only 10 percent to 20 percent of about 60,000 donors within a year used a pick-up service, Ahmad said.
He added that 30 percent of donors made a direct payment at Dompet Dhuafa offices while the rest preferred to transfer their donations via ATM or Internet banking.
He said most of the money donated was used to finance social activities such as free healthcare services, free schooling and skills training, with only a small amount being directly distributed to the poor.
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