Muslims in the United States gave an estimated $4.3 billion to charity in 2020, with Muslim Americans giving at higher rates than the general population to both religious and nonreligious causes, according to a new study.
On average, Muslims gave $1,810 annually to faith-based causes, compared with $1,138 for the general population. For nonfaith-based causes, Muslims gave an average of $1,400, compared with $767 for the general population.
The results were drawn from representative samples of both Muslim and non-Muslim Americans — about 1,000 of each.
In addition to houses of worship and other religious causes, common areas of giving for Muslims include domestic and international relief and civil-rights protections.
The study was conducted by the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy in collaboration with Islamic Relief USA.
Rafeel Wasif, a co-author of the study, noted that the figures are averages and wealthy donors who gave large amounts skewed the numbers upward for both Muslim and non-Muslim giving. Median figures show that the largest number of donors gave less than $500. The percentage of Muslims giving $5,000 or more was higher than for non-Muslims, while a smaller percentage of Muslims gave less than $500 compared with the general population, Wasif said.
Shariq Siddiqui, the other co-author of the study, said he wasn’t surprised to see that Muslims give at higher rates than the general population, especially given the persecution Muslims have suffered in recent years. “When you’re a small community that is under attack and you’re trying to make things happen, you have to punch above your weight,” he said.
Muslims make up about 1.1 percent of the U.S. population. Extrapolating from the findings of the survey, researchers offered a “guestimate” that Muslims nationwide gave about $4.3 billion in 2020.
The study also found that Muslim men gave an average of $2,572 to faith-based causes, compared with $698 for Muslim women. For nonfaith causes, men gave an average of $1,984 compared with $523 for women.
Muhi Khwaja, co-founder and director of development at the American Muslim Community Foundation, which sponsors donor-advised funds, supports giving circles, distributes grants, and provides other services nationwide, said the findings of the study should help dispel the myth that Muslims are only interested in supporting mosques and other causes that are rooted in Islam. “We deeply care about institutions across the United States, whether they are faith-based or not,” Khwaja said.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
