Ihsan Standard
Roadmap · v0.1

Practical now. Global by intention.

Ihsan Standard is built for the entire Ummah. We start in the United States because that is where the disclosure record is richest, not because that is where the Ummah lives. Every phase below is gated by evidence of real adoption, not by calendar.

Phase 0Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3
Pre-empting the obvious question

Why haven’t you launched outside the US yet?

Because Ihsan Standard is a disclosure-quality project, and the US currently has the highest-resolution disclosure record of any nonprofit-regulating country in the world. Sequencing matters:

990 XML is uniquely machine-readable

The IRS publishes every Form 990 filed since 2017 as raw XML on AWS S3. Schedule F (foreign activity), Schedule R (related entities), Schedule M (noncash gifts), and Schedule L (insider transactions) are all structured fields. No other country publishes nonprofit data at this granularity. Building the methodology against the richest disclosure regime first means our derived metrics are defensible, and the parsers we write port outward, not inward.

The audience is also concentrated here

The US Muslim donor base is one of the largest pools of zakat and sadaqah giving in the world. Many internationally-operating Muslim charities are headquartered in or fundraise heavily from the US, so the US disclosure record indirectly illuminates flows that touch Canada, UK, GCC, and South Asia. Starting here gives us leverage we wouldn't have starting in a market with sparser disclosure.

Direct reach for the founding team

The team can physically attend the conferences, sit with the boards, and walk through the audit framework in person. International expansion without that ground-truth feedback loop is how methodologies drift from reality. We will not export a framework we haven't first sharpened in face-to-face conversation with the orgs being measured.

Adversarial pressure is healthiest here

The US Muslim nonprofit sector has the densest concentration of journalists, watchdogs, and donor advocates. If our methodology is wrong, we will hear about it loudly and quickly. That is exactly the environment we want to harden the framework in, before exporting it to jurisdictions where critical infrastructure for accountability is thinner.

None of this is a claim that US Muslim charity matters more. It is a claim about where the methodology can be sharpened most quickly and audited most adversarially. The phases below describe how the framework travels outward.

The four phases

How the framework travels

0
Foundations

United States

الأساسActive
2026, in flightScope: 50 states · ~4,000 orgs

We start where the disclosure record is richest. The US Form 990 is the single most machine-readable nonprofit-disclosure document in the world: every 501(c)(3) above a tiny threshold files annually, the IRS releases the raw XML publicly, and the schema covers everything from officer compensation to Schedule F foreign grants to Schedule R related-entity webs. No other country publishes anything comparable at scale. This is why we start here, not because the Ummah lives here.

Scope
  • All 50 states ingested. IRS BMF (1.26M EINs) filtered to ~4,000 Muslim-founded / Muslim-serving orgs
  • Form 990 XML parsers covering Parts I, VII, IX + Schedules F, M, L, R, G, I, J, O
  • 990 risk-signal detection rules: 990 Risk Signals, related-party loans, exec-comp ratios, Schedule F gap, donor concentration, reserve months
  • Mosque cohort: ~2,225 masjids identified in the IRS BMF; 831 ingested with full profiles so far + website discovery + community-health scraper
  • Attestation framework v1: 30+ standards covering zakat policy, qurbani methodology, audit chain, fund segregation, scholar boards
Quality gates
  • Filing data fidelity ≥99%
    Random-sample audits of parsed 990s against the source PDF show ≤1% extraction errors in dollar fields. Schedule F/M/L/R parsers validated on a 100-org stratified sample.
  • Pattern severity is context-aware
    Detection rules don't fire on orgs where the pattern is irrelevant (e.g. Schedule F gap doesn't fire on a US university with no foreign activity). False-positive rate <5% across 50 sampled org pages.
  • Source provenance everywhere
    Every dollar figure links to the source 990 PDF on ProPublica; every scraped website signal links to the page the evidence came from; every attestation links to the org's own published policy.
  • Mosque-side coverage
    Community-health scraper applied politely (5s/host, robots.txt-respecting, 30d cache) to ≥200 masjid websites with per-feature evidence snippets and mosque-rep claim flow.
Ground-truth metrics
  • Orgs publishing zakat / qurbani policies
    ≥50 orgs publish a Quranic-categories-explicit zakat policy on their own /zakat-policy page after Ihsan engagement. Measured against the baseline of <5 at project start.
  • Attestations claimed
    ≥100 orgs sign the Ihsan attestation framework (orphan-fund segregation, restricted-purpose segregation, scholar-board public, zakat methodology). Each attestation is signed, dated, and publicly cite-able.
  • Donor switches
    ≥10,000 documented donor-side switches via the directory and the email-your-org tool. Honest comparative ratios, fundraising efficiency, exec-comp share, reserve months, published for every org large enough to file.
  • Independent audit referrals
    ≥25 orgs commission an Ihsan-aligned independent audit (orphan-fund flow, restricted-fund segregation, related-party disclosures) following the published framework.
Gate to next phase

We do not expand beyond the US until the US methodology survives adversarial scrutiny from the orgs being measured. Every pattern flag must have a defensible source. Every attestation must be one an org can read, sign, and stand behind in front of its donors. Premature expansion is the failure mode of every Muslim institution, we resist it.

1
Comparable-disclosure jurisdictions

Canada · United Kingdom

الانتشارNext
2027, pending Phase 0 gatesScope: 2 countries

Two countries with regulatory disclosure regimes structurally similar enough to the US 990 that our parsers can be adapted rather than rewritten. The CRA Charities Directorate (Canada) and Charity Commission (UK) both publish per-charity annual returns; both expose the data via APIs or bulk downloads; both have established Muslim-charity sectors with their own scandals, their own audit gaps, and the same need for honest framing.

Jurisdictional reality

CRA T3010 returns are downloadable per-charity in CSV form and cover revenue, expenses, top-5 compensated positions, fundraising costs, and foreign activity disclosure (Form T1236). UK Charity Commission publishes annual returns and full financial accounts (PDFs, but with structured XBRL for larger charities). Neither is as granular as a US 990 Schedule F, but both are workable.

Scope
  • CRA T3010 + T1236 (foreign-activity) parser
  • Charity Commission API integration + XBRL parsing for charities >£250K
  • Country-specific patterns: CRA-revoked-registration history, UK Charity Commission inquiry register
  • Per-country attestation framework localized to local Sharia Board norms (Canada: CCMW / Fiqh Council of NA, UK: ECFR / Wifaqul Ulama)
  • Mosque cohort extended via Canadian Council of Imams + Muslim Council of Britain directories
Quality gates
  • Parser parity
    T3010 + UK XBRL parsers produce the same eight headline metrics our US pipeline produces (revenue, expenses, exec comp, fundraising-cost ratio, reserve months, foreign-activity disclosure, related-party flags, donor concentration).
  • Currency + jurisdictional clarity
    All figures rendered in local currency with USD parity for comparison. Jurisdiction tag on every org page so US donors don't confuse 'audited by CRA' with 'audited by IRS'.
  • Localized sharia framing
    Zakat / qurbani / orphan-fund attestation language reviewed by at least two scholars per country. No copy-paste of US-centric framing.
Ground-truth metrics
  • Cross-border donor flows surfaced
    ≥20 documented edges where a US donor sends to a Canadian or UK org (or vice versa) and Ihsan surfaces the transparency profile of the receiving entity. Reciprocity matters, many Muslim charities operate trans-border without disclosure parity.
  • Per-country org coverage
    ≥500 Canadian and ≥500 UK orgs profiled within 12 months of country launch, with the same depth of attestation framework as the US cohort.
Gate to next phase

Phase 1 unlocks only when Phase 0's ground metrics prove the framework caused change, orgs publishing real zakat policies, donors making informed switches, not just measured it. We do not export an unproven model, even into welcoming jurisdictions.

2
Major Muslim-majority disclosure regimes

GCC + Malaysia + Indonesia

ديار الإسلامFuture
2027–2028Scope: 8+ countries

Markets where the regulatory disclosure exists but is structurally different, often a hybrid of state oversight (e.g. UAE's Islamic Affairs Authority, Saudi Ministry of Human Resources, JAKIM in Malaysia, Kementerian Agama in Indonesia) and voluntary publishing. We expect to add country-by-country parsers, regulatory MoUs where appropriate, and to extend the attestation framework to cover region-specific norms (e.g. the role of state zakat collection in Malaysia, awqaf law in the GCC).

Jurisdictional reality

Disclosure here is rarely a single machine-readable filing. Saudi nonprofits report to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development; UAE charities are licensed by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (Dubai) or the Department of Community Development (Abu Dhabi). Malaysia's JAKIM and Indonesia's BAZNAS publish aggregate zakat figures but per-charity granularity is mixed. We will need direct partnerships with regulators in many cases, and we will only enter where transparency cooperation is feasible.

Scope
  • GCC: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, per-country regulator adapters
  • Malaysia: JAKIM-recognised charities + state zakat boards (LZS, MAIWP, etc.)
  • Indonesia: BAZNAS-registered orgs + Kementerian Agama dataset
  • Arabic + Bahasa UI localization, RTL support
  • Per-country fiqh framework: state-zakat-collection treatment, awqaf disclosure norms, dual-board governance
Quality gates
  • Regulatory cooperation in writing
    Memoranda of understanding (or equivalent published cooperation) with at least one regulator per country before launch. We do not publish charity profiles in jurisdictions where doing so would put the data subjects at regulatory risk.
  • Localized sharia framework
    Sharia Board federated across the new jurisdictions. Country-specific fatwā stacks published before any org in that country is profiled.
  • Language + cultural review
    All UI copy reviewed by native speakers. No machine translation of attestation language. The framing must read as belonging in each country, not as an American export.
Ground-truth metrics
  • Producer-side transparency
    ≥10 major orgs per country publishing Ihsan-aligned attestations (audit chain, zakat methodology, orphan fund segregation) within 24 months of country launch.
  • Cross-jurisdictional accountability
    Where a charity operates in multiple countries (e.g. a Saudi-headquartered relief org with US and UK fundraising arms), each arm's disclosures reconcile to the parent. No more opacity-by-jurisdiction-hopping.
Gate to next phase

Phase 2 carries the burden of the entire thesis. If Muslim-majority regulators won't cooperate on transparency, or if the orgs being profiled aggregate political pressure to suppress the work, we re-cut the model before further expansion. Ihsan operates with the cooperation of the Ummah, never as an imposition on it.

3
Wherever Muslim charity flows

Rest of the Ummah

كل الأمةFuture
2028 onwardScope: Worldwide

Every market with a Muslim community of significance. EU, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia beyond Malaysia/Indonesia, and the further diaspora. By this phase the methodology is proven, the parser stack is portable, and the attestation framework speaks the local fiqh of each jurisdiction. Country onboarding becomes a months-long effort, not a years-long one.

Scope
  • EU member states with significant Muslim populations (France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden)
  • Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya
  • Diaspora completeness: South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore
  • Annual State-of-the-Ummah-Charity report, published in print and online
Quality gates
  • Self-sustaining federation
    Country chapters operate semi-autonomously under Foundation governance. Sharia Board federated, not centralized.
  • Methodology under audit
    Third-party Sharia + technical audits published annually.
  • Resilience without us
    Ihsan Standard could run for 12 months without the founding team. Institutional, not personal.
Ground-truth metrics
  • Ummah-wide attestation density
    ≥40% of profiled orgs across all phases carry at least one signed Ihsan attestation. ≥10% reach full-framework attestation (all eight categories).
  • Donor-side switching at scale
    Documented annual donor-flow shifts toward Ihsan-attested orgs measured in tens of millions of USD across the federated network, not because we lobbied for it, but because the comparative data made it the obvious choice.
Gate to next phase

The endgame is not expansion. The endgame is a Muslim charity ecosystem that operates with ihsan because the institutions and incentives make it the default, not because we measured it.

Operating principles

How we move between phases.

A roadmap is only as honest as the rules that govern the transitions. These four principles keep the gates real.

Practical, not provincial

Starting in the US is a sequencing choice, not a value statement. The intention is and always was the entire Ummah. The phases reflect what we can prove first, not who we serve.

Gates over deadlines

Each phase ends when the quality milestones land and the ground metrics show real adoption. If a phase takes three years instead of one, the phase takes three years. We do not ship time, we ship change.

Measure outcomes, not activity

Orgs profiled is an activity metric. Attestations signed, zakat policies published, audits commissioned, donor switches documented, those are outcomes. Phase gates use the latter.

Sovereign at every step

We never accept funding, certification reciprocity, or platform partnerships that would compromise editorial independence. A smaller Ihsan Standard that owns itself is worth more than a larger one that doesn't.

One roadmap. One Ummah.

The Ummah is not waiting for us. Every quarter we are not in a market is a quarter that market’s charity sector compounds without honest framing. We move as fast as our gates allow, and no faster. The roadmap extends as far as the Ummah extends.

﴿ وَقُل اعْمَلُوا فَسَيَرَى اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ ﴾

“And say: act. Allah will see your work.”. Sūrat al-Tawbah 9:105

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