> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://wusul.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Largest Islamic Charities in the UK and US: What Our Index of 9,000 Organisations Shows - URL: https://wusul.io/insights/largest-islamic-charities-uk-us/ - Published: 2026-10-11T10:08:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-11T10:12:08.000Z - Description: We counted every Islamic charity registered in England and Wales and the US: 9,088 organisations and about $4bn a year. Twenty-one UK charities hold half the money. - Author: Yomna El-Saeed - Tags: Philanthropy Listen10 min · British voice Muslim giving is one of the largest and least mapped flows of charitable money in the West. Everyone in the sector knows the big names. Almost nobody can tell you how many Islamic charities there are, how much they raise between them, or how concentrated that money is. So we counted. The [Wusul Islamic Charity Index](https://wusul.io/islamic-charity-index/) lists every registered charity in England and Wales, and every 501(c)(3) organisation in the United States, with an Islamic identity or that raises Zakat, Sadaqah or Qurbani. It is built from the official registers, the Charity Commission in the UK and the IRS in the US, and we rebuild it every month. This is what the October 2026 edition shows. ## The headline numbers | | United Kingdom | United States | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------- | | Organisations in the index | 3,899 | 5,189 | | Combined latest reported income | £1.67bn | $1.85bn | | Share held by the ten largest | 40% | 43% | | Organisations above £10m or $10m a year | 21 | 30 | | Largest organisation | Islamic Relief Worldwide, £239m | UMR, $150m | Together that is more than 9,000 organisations and roughly $4bn of annual income across two countries. It is a sector the size of a major international NGO, spread across thousands of mosques, relief agencies, schools and community trusts. ## The largest Islamic charities in the UK By latest reported income, the five largest Islamic charities in England and Wales are: 1. **Islamic Relief Worldwide**, Birmingham: £239m (year to December 2025) 2. **Human Appeal**, Cheadle: £90.2m (December 2024) 3. **Al-Khair Foundation**, Croydon: £74.8m (July 2025) 4. **Ummah Welfare Trust**, Bolton: £71.9m (November 2025) 5. **MATW Project**, London: £67.6m (August 2025) Islamic Relief Worldwide alone accounts for 14% of the income of every Islamic charity in England and Wales combined. Behind the top five sit Muslim Hands (£33.4m), Action for Humanity (£25.6m), One Ummah (£24.4m), Muslim Aid (£23.7m) and Mercy Mission UK (£23.5m). The year-on-year movement inside the top twenty is striking. MATW Project grew 173% in its latest year and Human Appeal 61%, while Penny Appeal fell 41% and Action for Humanity 28%. Rankings that looked settled a few years ago are moving, and they are moving on fundraising performance, not on age or reputation. ## The largest Islamic charities in the US 1. **United Mission for Relief and Development (UMR)**, Washington DC: $150m (year to December 2024) 2. **IDEA: Islamic Development & Empowerment in America**, Alexandria, Virginia: $147m (December 2024) 3. **Palestine Children's Relief Fund**: $94.9m 4. **Helping Hand for Relief & Development**: $89.3m 5. **Baitulmaal**: $77.4m IDEA is the organisation that operated as Islamic Relief USA until it changed its name in September 2026, which we covered in [Islamic Relief USA becomes IDEA](https://wusul.io/insights/islamic-relief-usa-becomes-idea-the-split-the-name-and-the-cost-of-starting-over/). Among US organisations with income over $5m, the fastest grower on record is Muslim Aid America, from $1.6m in 2018 to $26.2m in 2023. ## Finding one: a very small number of charities hold most of the money The single most important fact in the index is concentration. In the UK, 3,285 charities report an income figure. Of those: | Annual income | Share of UK charities | Share of UK income | | ------------- | --------------------- | ------------------ | | Under £100k | 59% | 4% | | £100k to £1m | 35% | 22% | | £1m to £10m | 4.5% | 24% | | Over £10m | 0.6% (21 charities) | 50% | Twenty-one charities hold half the money. Nearly 2,000 hold less than 4% of it between them. The US is even more concentrated: the 30 organisations above $10m a year are 2.3% of those that report income, and they hold 64% of it. For fundraisers, this has two consequences. The large agencies compete with each other for the same donors, in the same ten nights, on the same platforms, which pushes up the cost of reaching them. And the long tail of small charities, most of them mosques and local trusts, raise much of their money in person. In our work, that tail is the least digitally mature part of the sector, and the part with the most room to grow. ## Finding two: mosques are the majority, relief agencies hold the income By count, the UK sector is overwhelmingly religious and community: 2,676 of the 3,899 charities, about 69%, are classified with religion as their main focus. Mosques, madrasas and Islamic centres are the backbone of the sector. By money, it is the reverse. International aid charities are only 638 organisations, but they hold 57% of the income. In the US the pattern is the same: international relief and development takes 38% of income and disaster relief another 13%. This split matters for anyone trying to understand Muslim giving. The donor who gives Sadaqah to their local mosque every Friday and Zakat to an international agency in Ramadan is the same person. Charities that see only their own slice of that relationship are seeing half a donor. ## Finding three: the sector is growing Income reported by the UK charities that filed for each year rose from £1.23bn in 2022 to £1.59bn in 2024, an increase of about 29% in two years. Major emergency appeals in this period, among them Gaza and the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in February 2023, are likely to account for part of it. We think part of it is structural too: better digital fundraising and a younger, more online donor base. The countries UK Islamic charities most often say they work in, after the UK itself, are Pakistan (413 charities), Bangladesh (322), India (291), Turkey (114) and Kenya (101). The map of Muslim giving follows the map of the diaspora. ## Finding four: geography is not where you think In the UK, London is home to 820 Islamic charities, Birmingham 327, Leicester 212, Manchester 118 and Bradford 99\. Yet some of the largest agencies are in Bolton, Batley, Dewsbury, Middlesbrough and Wakefield. Northern towns punch far above their population. In the US, New York has the most organisations (730), followed by California (638), Texas (458), Illinois (319) and New Jersey (272). By income the order changes: California ($300m), Michigan ($261m), Virginia ($242m), Texas ($231m) and Illinois ($158m). Michigan and Virginia are there because of where a handful of large national charities are headquartered, which is a reminder that a charity's address is not its donor base. ## What this means for charities and the brands that work with them - **Benchmark against the right peers.** A £500k charity should not measure itself against Islamic Relief. The index lets you find the twenty organisations closest to your size, cause and region, and see how fast they are growing. - **The middle is where the movement is.** The charities between £1m and £10m (149 in the UK, 184 in the US) are the ones moving fastest up and down the rankings. Their results depend on fundraising capability more than on brand. - **Ramadan is crowded.** With half the income in 21 UK charities, and much of it raised in a few weeks, the cost of attention in Ramadan keeps rising. The charities that grow are the ones that plan the whole Islamic year, not just the last ten nights. Our [Ramadan 2027 planning calendar](https://wusul.io/insights/ramadan-2027-planning-calendar/) sets out the dates. - **Transparency is now a ranking factor.** Donors can look up any charity's accounts in seconds. The index links every entry to its regulator record and website for exactly that reason. ## How we built the index We start from the full public registers: the Charity Commission register of charities for England and Wales, and the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File with Form 990 e-filings for the US, with filing history from ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. We include organisations with an Islamic identity in their name, objects or activities, and organisations that raise Zakat, Sadaqah or Qurbani. Every entry is checked, and organisations that do not belong are removed by hand. Income is total income as reported to the regulator in the latest accounts, not donations alone. US figures lag, because Form 990 filings are published a year or more after the year they cover, and most mosques and congregations are not required to file a Form 990 at all, which is why only 1,307 of the 5,189 US organisations report an income figure. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators and are not yet included. The ranking is a measure of size, not of quality or of Zakat eligibility, and it is not an endorsement. **Explore the full ranking, search any charity, and see the top 100 in each country:** [**the Islamic Charity Index**](https://wusul.io/islamic-charity-index/)**.** If you are planning where your own Zakat goes, our [zakat calculator](https://wusul.io/zakat-calculator/) builds a shortlist from the index by the cause you care about. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the largest Islamic charity in the UK? Islamic Relief Worldwide, based in Birmingham, is the largest Islamic charity in England and Wales, with £239m of income in its accounts for the year to December 2025\. That is about 14% of the combined income of every Islamic charity in the Wusul Islamic Charity Index. ### What is the largest Muslim charity in the US? By latest reported income, United Mission for Relief and Development (UMR) is the largest, with $150m in the year to December 2024, just ahead of IDEA: Islamic Development & Empowerment in America, formerly Islamic Relief USA, with $147m. ### How many Islamic charities are there in the UK? The Wusul Islamic Charity Index lists 3,899 registered charities in England and Wales with an Islamic identity or that raise Zakat, Sadaqah or Qurbani, with a combined latest income of £1.67bn. About 69% of them are mosques and other religious charities. ### How much do Islamic charities raise? Islamic charities in England and Wales report a combined latest income of £1.67bn, and US organisations $1.85bn. In the UK, income reported by charities that filed for each year rose from £1.23bn in 2022 to £1.59bn in 2024. ### How often is the index updated? Every month, from the latest Charity Commission and IRS data. ## Sources - [Charity Commission for England and Wales](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/?ref=wusul.io), register of charities (public extract of 29 September 2026) - Internal Revenue Service, Exempt Organizations Business Master File and Form 990 e-filings (tax periods to November 2026) - [ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/?ref=wusul.io), filing history - Wusul analysis, [Islamic Charity Index](https://wusul.io/islamic-charity-index/), October 2026 edition --- ### Related reading - [AI Agents In Islamic Philanthropy: A New Frontier for Nonprofits](https://wusul.io/insights/ai-agents-in-islamic-philanthropy-a-new-frontier-for-nonprofits/) - [What Motivates First-Time Donors?](https://wusul.io/insights/what-motivates-first-time-donors/) - [Qurbani Meaning and the Psychology of Qurbani Giving](https://wusul.io/insights/the-unique-psychology-of-qurbani-giving/)