As we enter the last 10 days of the blessed month of Ramadan, perhaps now is the time for our hours of scrolling on social media to be put towards further good.

This article is sponsored by Islamic Relief UK, find out more about their work here*

Ultimately we can use our phones to waste time and scroll or use it for good. Will it be a witness to our good deeds? The same way the earth will testify for us about how we treated it, our phone holds the history of what we did with our time and how we spent it. Did we spend time sharing good reminders? Did we spend time arguing online in the comments section?

For charities, Ramadan has been a time of raising money at the mosque, at events and fundraisers. Mosque donations are missing this year for charities, and we think we can collectively raise enough money to fill the gap.

We’ve teamed up with Islamic Relief to help fill the gap! We’ve also put together a few tips and insights on how to raise money and awareness. Start with a goal in mind, it may be that you want to try and raise £10k in 10 days and that doesn’t have to be solo, you may gather ten friends and each try and raise £1,000 each.

To create your fundraising page with JustGiving click here and then click the orange’ start fundraising’ button on JustGiving. It literally takes a minute to do.

1.Intention.

There are narrations that some of us will find that many of our deeds and even whole Ramadans missing on the day of judgement, that the deeds we know we performed will not be narrated back when we meet our creator, they will not appear in our books of deeds. How and Why? Well it all starts with the intention behind our deed not being sound and it serves as a powerful reminder that once we have the thought to do good to follow it up by saying Bismillah. Intention is something that we can constantly renew and we should seek to re-visit our intentions. Whether we raise £1000 or £10000 the weight and significance of the act lies in the weight of our intention.

It was reported that a needy person knocked on the door and Aisha (RA) only had one grape, and gave it to him. When asked what the value of a single grape was as a donation, she quoted the following verses from the Qur’an:

“So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.” (Qur’an 99:7 – 99:8)
She rationalised – how many atoms are there in a grape?

£10000 will amount to nothing in the akhira if our intention was merely to ‘feel good about raising money or doing it for others to witness your good deed’.

‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab relates that he heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, say,

“Verily actions are by intentions, and for every person is what he intended.”

2. Research

Whatever platform you decide to use to raise money or awareness about your campaign one of the first things people will look at is the information you provide them with and for the information to be verified we need to make sure we have done our own research and summarise the important information about the campaign like:

• Who is it for?
• What will the money be used towards?
• What happens if the money is not raised?
• What is the duration or impact of the campaign
• How long will you be raising money for?

When people are scrolling and come across a charity link they need information presented to them simply and clearly, too little information and you may find people visiting your fundraising page but not donating as there is very little about the campaign or beneficiaries. It’s also important to educate ourselves on what we are raising money for.

3. Plan

Good intentions need a plan. A plan of action can help you to stay organised and motivated through your campaign. You may have days or moments where you perhaps feel like you won’t meet your target and that’s ok but one way of keeping your motivation up is to plan. Some things like targets are a good place to begin and always help establish a good pattern and checklist each day that also contribute to me feeling as if I’m doing my best. Here are a few things to think about when writing a plan out:

• The DM’s: How many people are you going to message today on one platform? What is the message you are going to send?
• One to one contact: Choose one person a day to explain what you’re raising money or try doing a live on Instagram or Facebook (make sure you tell lots of people ahead of time you’ll be doing a live) for but not asking, sometimes telling the story and explaining the cause might not get someone to donate directly but they may feel compelled to act and start their own fundraising page – that in itself is a win!
• Have a direct amount ask: Whether you ask supporters to donate £1 a day for the next ten days or £20 now, have a specific amount in mind- it can also contribute to you reaching your daily target.

What are the logistics of where they can set up a page to fundraise?

Once you have established your fundraising page and link to send messages on whats app or email to friends and family. The plan may include a list of people you will message, the times you want to remind people eg an hour before we complete our fast or Jummah for example

4. Target- Share the target

Keep your aspirations higher than your target. Whilst you may physically have £1000 displayed on your giving page, have aspirations for that to be exceeded as it will help you go above and beyond in your actions.

What’s the maths behind raising £10,000 in ten days and is it possible? I did some maths and this is my formulae! I’d also encourage you to share your target with those you encourage to donate.

To raise £1000 a day you need to raise £100 a day- that’s the easy bit now for the nitty-gritty and different models.

This is might be a reach but remember what I said about high aspirations? Ask 10 business owners or those in your network to donate £100 each now, wait, hang on what I’m saying is you task one person to raise £100 so it may be that they need 10 people to donate £10 each to meet their goal.
If your project is zakat eligible, you can ask people to consider giving their zakat, this is money they needed to give away anyway, so why not yours?

To encourage people to share your link with ten people on their own social media not only brings the possibility of more people donating but more awareness about the campaign and plight of those you are helping. Remember raising awareness is as important as funds.
Encourage people to pledge, this means they pledge to raise £100.

5. Accountability groups

We all need an encouraging word even when we are doing good for the sake of Allah. If you’ve managed to rally your friends around to help you and enjoy in the deed of raising money for charity then make sure you take advantage of your collective energy and start a whats app group or group on social media- make sure you check-in and update each other on the messages people send, the amounts people are donating and send uplifting and encouraging reminders that can be found in point 9 & 10.

6. Remind yourself of who will benefit

While we are rushing to do these good deeds, we must also keep in mind who the beneficiaries are. Their stories, their needs and why this is important. It is important to keep taking stock to remind yourself of who you are trying to benefit.

“This is about more than raising money. It’s about raising awareness of the needs of others…” – Islamic Relief

7. Make dua

Any success we have in this world is through the help of Allah and Allah alone, it’s important to turn to Allah even whilst raising awareness and funds for charity that we seek the help of Allah to help us do our very best in the task we have set ourselves. Sometimes we can fall into relying on ourselves so much so we forget that ultimately Allah is in control and can help us with our tasks. Allah loves to assist us in all that we do and all we have to do is ask Allah. Make sure to make dua at key times too as there are times where our duas are most accepted.

Ultimately we do what we do here in the Dunya to attain the pleasure of Allah and through this we can attain Jannah Insha Allah. Here are a few hadiths and Quran ayahs that mention the rewards and blessings of raising money for charity-the reminders reflect both the blessings of sadaqa and sadaqa jariya.

A number of sayings of the Prophet (SAW) emphasise the benefits of giving Sadaqah.

“Sadaqah extinguishes sin as water extinguishes fire.” [Tirmidhi]

“The believer’s shade on the Day of Resurrection will be his charity.” [Tirmidhi]

An important concept within Islam is the idea of Sadaqah Jariyah – an ‘ongoing charity’.
The Prophet (SAW) said:
“When a person dies, all their deeds end except three: a continuing charity, beneficial knowledge and a child who prays for them.” [Muslim]

Therefore, many Muslims are eager to give charity which will continue to have benefit to people after their death, and continue to earn them reward.