Behavioral Dimensions of Islamic Philanthropy: The Case of Zakat

This chapter studies the behavior of individual Islamic donors who make a specific type of religious contribution called zakat. It seeks to provide a fundamental understanding of what governs the behavior of these donors—the triggers and motivators, traits and attributes, and preferences. The study uses hierarchical cluster analysis to develop psychographic profiles of individual Islamic donors or groups among them. Interestingly, two of the three clusters closely resemble subsets of the overall sample, when disaggregated on the basis of donor’s country of origin, indicating the possibility that Islamic donors from a given country may be displaying a distinct behavioral pattern. This raises a more profound possibility that the national identity of the donor associated with a unique social, economic, legal, and political environment may be a key influencer of the way she/he engages in matters pertaining to faith. The evidence highlights the need to give due importance to the observed diversity among zakat donors in any initiative to develop core principles, regulatory standards, institutional infrastructure, and models of governance for the development of this component of the global Islamic social finance sector.