BAZNAS RI deputy director Moh. Arifin Purwakananta agreed with the findings. Arifin stated that religious philanthropy plays a very important role in Indonesia because it includes zakat (obligatory alm) collected by the National Alms Agency movement and informal one from the community.
According to him, the donation came from people who were not affected by the crisis and those who hoped that, by donating, the pandemic would be over soon. “When there is a crisis and it is widely reported, people will become donors,” said Arifin.
As the first survey to look at the development of philanthropy in Indonesia, the finding captures the increase of beneficiaries of philanthropic activities, growing by 42.15% from 27.42 million people in 2019 to 38.71 million people in 2020. This means that cumulatively philanthropy activities in Indonesia have reached 91.6 million beneficiaries in the 2018-2020 period.
The use of modern technology is believed to be the driver of this growth. Although it still has a number of challenges, the use of technology to carry out philanthropic activities remains the main choice, especially during a pandemic.