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When medical bills soar, getting funds to help loved ones can be a tedious task. Some will seek help from various charity

organisations or NGOs while others will try and get help from relatives, friends or even their employers. Sometimes the donations collected are not enough. They would end up eventually walking house to house asking for donations. It is indeed an emotionally challenging period for all involved.

Technology has changed this. With the internet and digitalisation, getting funds for charity will now be made easier through crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. Crowdfunding platforms are now the most efficient way to secure funding.

Sadaqa House is a charity crowdfunding platform by Bank Islam. Through this platform, donors can

donate to charitable projects that are uploaded on it. Donors can donate based on their interest or even to a perpetual fund of Sadaqa House which is not tagged to any charitable projects.

Launched on January 19, 2018, Sadaqa House is created in line with the Value Based Intermediation

(VBI) initiative by Bank Negara Malaysia. It serves to facilitate the ‘demand and supply’ in the social welfare sector.

In the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0, in which the Internet of Things (IOT) is its salient feature, Sadaqa House aims to digitalize the way of fund collection so people can donate through the web or even using their mobile phone. People can also donate through e-donation terminals just by tapping their credit cards or debit cards.

The Bank collaborates with a community of frontliners in civil society which includes, but is not limited to, non-profit organizations, non-

GIVING BACK IN THE DIGITAL AGE Bank Islam’s Sadaqa House serves as a crowdfunding platform for donors

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The three primary types of crowdfunding are donation-based, rewards-based and equity crowdfunding. Donation-based is where there is no financial return to the investors or contributors. These include fundraising for disaster relief, charities, non-profits and medical bills.

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are as follows via Bank in or remit donation to Sadaqa House Bank Islam account number at 140 140 101 88888. This can also be done via Bank Islam internet banking.

There is also the Islamic crowdfunding platform www.globalsadaqah.com/sadaqahouse which accepts donation via PayPal, FPX as well as credit card and debit card.

governmental organizations, institutions and groups of individuals that manifest interest towards the betterment of the community at large and must be in line with the focus sectors of Sadaqa House. The focus sectors are healthcare, environment, community empowerment and economic empowerment.

Sadaqa House plays the role as intermediary between donors and charitable projects. Therefore, good governance becomes the underpinning thrust of Sadaqa House. To underline the Bank’s commitment to good governance, there is a Zakat and Charity Committee that provides oversight on the end-to-end process of Sadaqa House.

As part of the good governance, Bank Islam will ensure transparency and disclosure of Sadaqa House fund management through public reporting.

Sadaqa House provides various platform for public to channel donation. The options

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Anyone in the world can donate to Sadaqa House. They need not be a Bank

Islam account holder.

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will be a check on the background profile of the NGOs and the viability of proposed projects.

The Bank also wants the platform to go beyond charity. The Bank hopes that donors will look to add more value by not only donating but also take interest in some of the projects. For example, instead of just donating to a fund to build new houses for the poor, the Bank hopes donors can also use this as an opportunity to help them build it instead.

Ultimately, the Bank wants to make Sadaqa House the main choice of platform for Malaysians to contribute and donate.

donation boxes at selected areas and the account number of Sadaqa House. It also educates people in using the digital platform to donate. There are tax rebates provided by their strategic partners among the foundation, including IJN Foundation and Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah.

To date, the Bank has collected about RM480,000 from the public, consisting of individual and corporate bodies. With the Bank’s 1:1 matching grant (with maximum of RM500,000), the aggregated amount is RM960,000.

The campaign with IJN Foundation is the fastest in reaching the collection target. For the first phase, seven out of nine paediatric patients have successfully undergone heart surgery.

One of the patients who benefited from this is seven-year-old Asyraf. He had successfully undergone a heart surgery at IJN thanks to the funds collected from the program.

For UTM and Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah, the Bank is still running the collection drive.

The Bank is looking forward to collaborating with new startup NGOs as well as established NGOs. The Bank is however very particular in selecting NGOs and the charity projects follow. There

For those who prefer traditional methods, the Bank provides

A platform for donors and charitable projects

Donor can choose a specific project and donate towards it through

Direct Fund

Donors can also choose general purpose whereby the donation goes to a fund known as Perpetual Fund

The capital will remain intact and be invested in low risk financial

instruments

Only the returns will be used to fund the charitable projects.

There are no administration fees on funds collected

The only charge is by third party service provider or payment

gateway

The bank allocates a matching grant for RM1 collected up to a

maximum of RM500,000

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Moving forward, the bank wants to embed artificial intelligence (AI) and GPS in the platform so in the

future a donor can have a clear overview of the charity project he donates to as if he

is the active participant of such charity project.

The bank is also developing its very own digital

platform for Sadaqa House to provide more channels to the public to donate.