How much sadaqah did you donate after the khutbah last week? Wait, did you remember to donate? Or do you have a different system in place for tracking your charitable contributions? You need one. The Feeling Blessed app is one.

Instead of remembering to drop money in your mosques donations box next time you go, insha Allah, or waiting for a relief agency to reach out to you during their next major (and expensive) campaign drive, there is now an easy way to track your regular donations and even spontaneously give whenever you are “feeling blessed.”

The app “Feeling Blessed” features hundreds of organizations across North America, so that not only can you paperlessly and with less-complications (the app is happy to have a “three click donation flow”) give to your local organizations with a location finder, you can also easily find other organizations to give to while traveling. All organizations are also searchable by name and categorized, such as qurbani, udhiya, zakat, sadaqa, etc.

Charity for deceased

One of the favorite uses of Feeling Blessed is to give sadaqah jariyah on behalf of a deceased relative.

It was narrated by al-Bukhaari from Sa’d ibn ‘Ubaadah that his mother died when he was absent, and he said: “O Messenger of Allaah, my mother has died when I was absent. Will it benefit her if I give in charity on her behalf?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “I ask you to bear witness that my garden that bears fruit is given in charity on her behalf.” (Bukhaari)

At least one user no longer worries about collecting and distributing sadaqah jariyah for his parent. App user Danish now donates everyday after praying fajr, “Alhumdullilah, this has become part of a daily routine for me. It takes less than 15 seconds, but it makes me feel satisfied and blessed.”  

Innovating

Developed in 2014, Feeling Blessed listens and responds to users’ needs. Founder Tauseef Rab says, “We believe in constant improvement and innovation.” Two new functions it is currently adding is a zakat calculator and Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment processing. The zakat calculator will have an option to email results to yourself for references. ACH further reduces fees for processing your sadaqah payments.

Rab developed the app based on his need and appreciation for his mother’s constant reminders to give charity. Now Rab’s mother can conveniently give to her favorite organizations and local mosque whenever and from wherever she wants.

What’s the benefit for organizations?

The biggest benefit to organizations using the Feeling Blessed to receive payments is user ease and therefore more likeliness of payments. There’s no more filling in forms – for both giving and receipts – no copy down important and easy to botch details, such as bank routing numbers and exact spelling of business names. Recurring payments mean not having to chase after promised funds from donors. And best of all for overworked orgs, Feeling Blessed does a host of in-house tracking and data crunching for its organizations delivering them in tidy graphs and reports.

Feeling Blessed can also help reduce fundraising campaign costs by easily communicating with and encouraging those who have already donated to orgs through the app. Again, more effective payments of sadaqah lead to less admin costs and more money going directly to where it is intended and needed. It’s encouraging to see Muslims using the best technology to maximize our giving potential.

You can find the Feeling Blessed App on iTunes, the Google Play Store, on the Web, and even on Facebook.