What is zakat? Zakat, the third pillar of Islam, is the practice of charitable giving by Muslims and is obligatory for all who are able to do so. In addition to financially supporting communities in need, zakat is also about much more than the money and embodies the spirit of social responsibility. Whilst JustGiving has always been a trusted platform for religious giving up until now we’ve never really focused on making it easy for people during Ramadan. This year Ramadan will start on Monday, the 6th of June and will continue for 30 days until Tuesday, the 5th of July. During that time it is not uncommon for people to give their zakat or sadaqa online and so we wanted to offer a solution that makes it as easy as possible. To that end we’ve launched our new Zakat calculator.   In 2015, we estimate there was £396k in zakat related giving, £200k of which came during Ramadan.  How does the calculator work? We looked around for an open source calculator that we could use but we struggled to find any so resorted to building our own. The JustGiving Zakat calculator thereby allows users to enter differing amounts of personal wealth as well as being able to switch between Silver and Gold nisab values in order to calculate their zakat. Because the nisab is a minimum amount of wealth that a Muslim must possess for a whole year before zakat becomes due, and the price of gold and silver fluctuates on a daily basis, we update these values in real time from http://e-nisab.com/   How can a charity use the calculator? We simply recommend you point your supporters, wherever they are in the world, to our calculator to donate given we make the process as easy and quick as possible. A donor can search for any charity on JustGiving so they can importantly find you and make their gift. We also accept donations in multiple currencies so you may want to consider reaching out to your international supporters. One easy way to make use of our calculator is to embed our Zakat button on your website. Simply copy and paste the following snippet into your website CMS and we’ll handle the traffic for you. <a href=”http://about.justgiving.com/content/zakat/?utm_source=zakat&utm_medium=button”><img src=”https://www.justgiving.com/charities/content/images/logo-buttons/white/donate_white.gif” alt=”Donate with JustGiving” /></a> It’s also mobile We also recognise that in an increasingly mobile world, people will want to give their Zakat on the go. So the calculator is responsive to mobile devices. Coupled with JustGiving’s trusted donation service there is no time or place when your supporters won’t be able to give easily and securely, knowing the funds will be distributed to your cause quickly and effectively. See the JustGiving Zakat calculator online now by clicking here.