Charities Helping Gaza: Anera, IRUSA, PCRF, CRS and Others Explained

Anera is a US nonprofit, founded in 1968 and based in Washington, DC, that provides humanitarian aid and development programs for refugees and vulnerable communities in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. It is one of several organizations people search for by name or initials when they want to help Gaza; others include IRUSA, PCRF, CRS and Muslim Aid.

This guide gives a short, factual entry for each one, taken from the organization's own website, so you can tell them apart and find the right site. It is not a ranking and we do not rate anyone. After the entries there is a short checklist you can apply to any charity, including us.

Anera

Anera, originally American Near East Refugee Aid, describes its work as humanitarian assistance and sustainable development to advance the well-being of refugees and other vulnerable communities. Its website says it has worked since 1968 with people hurt by conflict in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, across health, water, education, agriculture, community projects and emergency relief.

In Gaza, Anera says it runs primary healthcare centers in Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, distributes fresh produce and food baskets to displaced families, trucks drinking water to shelters and sets up temporary learning spaces. Its US office is at 1101 15th Street NW in Washington, DC, and its website is anera.org.

IRUSA: Islamic Relief USA, now called IDEA

IRUSA is the abbreviation for Islamic Relief USA. If you type irusa.org into a browser today you are sent to development.org, where the organization states that Islamic Relief USA is now IDEA, short for Islamic Development and Empowerment in America. The site says it is the same organization with the same registration, teams and programs, and that nothing about giving changes.

IDEA lists its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, with regional offices in Illinois, Texas, California and New Jersey. It describes seven areas of work: emergency response, food and water, health, education and youth, livelihoods, protection, and orphans and families. Its donation form has separate options for charity, Zakat, fidya and kaffara, and the site includes a Zakat calculator.

Because the name is new, be careful with look-alike sites and old links. The address to check is development.org, reached from irusa.org. Islamic Relief Worldwide, based in the United Kingdom, is a separate organization with its own website.

PCRF: the Palestine Children's Relief Fund

PCRF stands for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. The initials are often mistyped as PCFR or PRCF; they all mean the same organization. Its website says it was founded in 1991 by humanitarians in the USA and provides free medical care to injured and sick children.

PCRF describes two main ways of doing that: sending children abroad for treatment they cannot get locally, and sending volunteer doctors and nurses to operate and train staff in local hospitals. Its Gaza page lists an orphan sponsorship program, an amputee project and a pediatric mental health initiative. The site gives a US mailing address in Los Angeles, an office in Ramallah in the West Bank, and the EIN 93-1057665. Its website is pcrf.net.

For background on the kind of care involved, see our explainers on what a PICU is and pediatric neurosurgery.

CRS in Gaza: Catholic Relief Services

CRS is Catholic Relief Services, which describes itself as the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. It was founded in 1943 by the US Catholic bishops to serve survivors of the Second World War in Europe, and says it serves people on the basis of need, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.

CRS has a country program for Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Its website says that, together with local and international partners, it has delivered food, shelter, water, cash assistance and social and emotional support to more than 1.7 million people across Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023, and that it also supports Church partners sheltering families in Gaza. Its website is crs.org.

Muslim Aid and its Zakat calculator

Muslim Aid is a British international charity. Its website says it was established in the UK in 1985 by community leaders from 17 Islamic organizations, in response to drought in the Horn of Africa, and that it now provides emergency relief and long-term development through field offices and partners. Its current appeals include one for rebuilding Gaza.

People often look for the Muslim Aid Zakat calculator. It is a free form on muslimaid.org: you enter the value of your gold, silver, cash, savings, investments and trade goods, subtract debts and bills that are due, and it works out Zakat at 2.5 percent if the total is above the nisab threshold. The page shows the day's nisab value in pounds sterling for both the silver and gold standards.

A calculator gives a figure, not a ruling. Scholars differ on details such as which nisab to use and how to treat pensions, so check with your own scholar or mosque. Our guides to what Zakat is and Zakat on gold explain the rules the calculators are built on.

Amaanah Refugee Services

Amaanah Refugee Services, which now uses the name Amaanah Services, is a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas. Its website says it began in June 2008, when University of Houston students started collecting donated items for newly arrived families, and that it supports refugees and other new neighbors through education, empowerment and athletics programs. It lists the EIN 26-3047598.

It is worth being clear about what this means for Gaza: Amaanah's work, as its site describes it, is with families resettling in Houston, not aid delivery inside Gaza. If your aim is to help refugees where you live, it is a relevant kind of organization. Its website is amaanahservices.org.

Islamic Relief and Zakat al-Fitr

Zakat al-Fitr is the small, fixed charity given on behalf of every member of a household before the Eid al-Fitr prayer. It is different from the annual Zakat on wealth. Many Muslim charities collect it during Ramadan and publish a per-person amount for that year, which varies by country and by school of thought.

If you are looking for a particular charity's rate, use that charity's own Zakat page in Ramadan rather than a figure quoted elsewhere, and pay early enough for it to reach people before Eid. Our guide to Zakat al-Fitr explains who pays it, when and how much, and Zakat al-Fitr vs Zakat sets the two side by side.

How to check any Gaza charity before you give

The same few checks work for a large agency and a small one. None of them takes long.

• Type the web address yourself or follow it from an official source. Names change, as IRUSA's did, and impostor sites copy real ones.
• Look for a registration you can verify. In the US, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search confirms tax-exempt status; in England and Wales, the Charity Commission's register lists every registered charity with its accounts.
• Read what the organization says it does, in specifics: where it works, through whom, and what it delivered last year. Annual reports and financial statements should be easy to find.
• Search the name with words like complaint or review. The US Federal Trade Commission recommends this, along with independent evaluators such as BBB Wise Giving Alliance and CharityWatch.
• Be wary of pressure. A genuine charity will still be there tomorrow and will answer questions.
• For fundraisers run by individuals or informal mutual aid groups, check who is collecting the money, how it reaches Gaza and whether anyone you trust can vouch for them.

Where Fight for Palestine fits

Fight for Palestine is a small organization by comparison with the agencies above. We fund emergency aid in Gaza through local partner teams: food parcels and hot meals, clean water, medical aid, shelter and winter items, and education and child support. Donations to us are made in cryptocurrency through our donate page.

Hold us to the same checklist. Our guide on how to donate to Gaza safely goes through the checks in more detail, where we work describes the aid we fund, and our Zakat page explains how Zakat gifts are handled. If one of the organizations above is the right fit for you, give there. What matters is that help reaches families in Gaza.