There is a version of Muslim philanthropy that most people never hear about.
Not because the stories aren’t there — they are, in abundance. But because there hasn’t been a place where nonprofit founders talk candidly about how they built what they built. Where researchers share what the data actually says about Muslim giving, Muslim aging, and Muslim community health. Where donors and practitioners sit together in conversation and talk through what it means to give strategically, to build sustainably, and to root institutional work in faith.
The #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast is that place.
Hosted by AMCF Co-Founder Muhi Khwaja and published through the American Muslim Community Foundation, the podcast has become one of the most substantive ongoing conversations in the Muslim philanthropic sector — a growing library of conversations with the nonprofit founders, academic researchers, community leaders, and engaged donors who are shaping what Muslim philanthropy looks like in America and around the world.
What the Podcast Covers
The #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast doesn’t have a narrow lane. It follows the sector wherever it leads, and the sector leads in a lot of directions.
Some episodes go deep into organizational development — the decisions an organization made at a critical juncture, the fundraising strategy that changed their trajectory, the operational challenge they had to solve before they could grow. Guests like Mohamed Barkhad, co-founder and chairman of Retain Quran Foundation, bring the specificity that comes from years of building something real: how a team gets assembled, what a product roadmap looks like for a faith-based technology nonprofit, where the funding comes from when you’ve decided the app should always be free.
Other episodes move into research territory that has rarely been brought into public conversation. University of Michigan researchers Dr. Kristine Ajrouch and Dr. Noah Webster came on to discuss nearly two decades of work on Muslim aging, social isolation, and the untapped potential of mosques as a resource for older adults’ well-being — research that has direct implications for how Muslim community institutions design their programming and where Muslim philanthropists direct their support.
Still other conversations center on the field of Muslim philanthropy itself: the state of the sector, the funding gaps that leave Muslim nonprofits underresourced, the growing infrastructure of donor-advised funds and giving circles and endowments that is beginning to change the picture. These episodes are as much strategic as they are informational — they help donors and practitioners understand the landscape they’re operating in, so they can make better decisions within it.
Across all of it, the thread is consistent: the podcast treats Muslim philanthropy as a serious field, populated by serious people doing serious work. The conversations are substantive, the guests are credible, and the listener comes away knowing something they didn’t know before.
Why It Matters
Muslim nonprofits in the United States operate in a sector that has historically been underfunded and under-researched relative to the size of the community it serves. Research from the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Indiana University found that Muslim-led organizations receive a fraction of mainstream philanthropic dollars, even as Muslim Americans give at rates comparable to or exceeding those of other faith communities (Siddiqui & Kordahi, 2021). Part of what sustains that gap is invisibility: when the work Muslim nonprofits do isn’t documented, discussed, and amplified, it remains unknown to the broader philanthropic sector.
The podcast is, in part, a response to that invisibility. Every episode that brings a Muslim nonprofit founder onto a public platform, documents their methodology, and articulates their impact in specific and credible terms is a contribution to the sector’s visibility. Every conversation with a researcher publishing data on Muslim communities adds to the evidentiary base that the field needs. Every donor who listens and decides to give more strategically is a downstream effect of a conversation that might not have happened otherwise.
This is also why the podcast functions as more than programming. It is, in the language of Islamic tradition, a form of ‘ilm nafi’ — beneficial knowledge that spreads. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said, “When a man dies, his deeds come to an end except for three things: sadaqah jariyah (ceaseless charity), knowledge which is beneficial, or a virtuous descendant who prays for him” (Muslim). Knowledge shared publicly, with the intention of benefiting others, carries its own reward — and its effects extend beyond any single listener in ways that can’t be fully traced.
Who Listens
The podcast’s audience spans the ecosystem that AMCF serves.
Muslim nonprofit leaders and practitioners find in it a peer resource — a chance to hear from people building similar organizations, working through similar challenges, and drawing on similar traditions. Episodes that go deep on organizational development give practitioners language and frameworks they can bring back to their own work.
Muslim donors — especially those who give through AMCF’s donor-advised funds or giving circles — use the podcast as a way to stay connected to the sector they’re supporting. When a DAF holder listens to an episode about Retain Quran Foundation and decides to direct their next grant recommendation to that organization, the podcast has done exactly what it was designed to do: close the distance between donors and the work they care about.
Researchers and academics working in the Muslim philanthropy space find in the podcast a place to bring their work to a practitioner and community audience — not just the academic conference room, but the broader field.
Community members who are curious about the intersection of faith and giving, who want to understand what organized Muslim philanthropy looks like in practice, find in it an accessible entry point. The conversations don’t require prior expertise. They reward careful listening.
How to Listen
The #MuslimPhilanthropy Podcast is available wherever podcasts are found. You can subscribe through:
- Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/amcf-mpp-a
- Spotify: bit.ly/amcf-mpp-sp
- Google Podcasts: bit.ly/amcf-mpp-g
- YouTube: bit.ly/amcf-mpp-yt
New episodes are announced through AMCF’s newsletter and social channels. Each episode is also accompanied by a written blog post on the AMCF site, for those who prefer to read — or who want to dive deeper into the research and resources a conversation surfaces.
You can explore the full episode library and read companion posts at amuslimcf.org/podcast-2/.
The conversation is ongoing. Pull up a chair.