Qatar Takes Waqf Digital: Awqaf Partners With Snoonu to Put Endowment Giving Inside a Super-App

Qatar's General Directorate of Endowments, part of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, has partnered with the Qatari technology company Snoonu to let people discover and fund waqf projects directly inside the Snoonu app. Announced on 4 October 2026, the service turns one of the country's most widely used consumer apps into a donation channel for Islamic endowments, with payment by ordinary bank card.

What the new service does

Inside the Snoonu app, users can browse a list of waqf projects and initiatives, read what each one is for, choose the project they want to support, and complete a contribution digitally with a bank card. The ministry's General Directorate of Endowments keeps the project listings updated on the platform, so contributors see current opportunities rather than a static catalogue.

Snoonu joins a network of channels the Directorate already runs: its own application and website, bank card payments, the "Ataa" SMS service, in-person contributions at the Directorate, collection representatives and a rapid collection service. The app adds reach rather than replacing anything.

What is a waqf?

A waqf is an Islamic endowment: a person permanently dedicates an asset, such as property, cash or a business, and its returns fund a charitable purpose for as long as the endowment lasts. The person who establishes it, called the waqif, sets the conditions, and those conditions are binding. It is one of the oldest forms of structured giving in the world, and a classic form of sadaqah jariyah, the ongoing charity whose benefit continues after the giver's death.

Rashid Tuwaim Al Marri, Director of the Waqf Funds Affairs Department, said the partnership is about expanding and diversifying the ways people can contribute, and stressed that the Directorate manages and distributes waqf proceeds in line with the founder's stated conditions, under Sharia and applicable regulations.

Why a super-app partnership matters

The detail that stands out is the choice of channel. Snoonu is not a charity portal; it is a mainstream consumer app people already open for deliveries and everyday services. Putting waqf projects there moves structured giving into a place of daily habit, which is precisely where small, regular contributions come from.

The launch also fits a stated policy direction. It supports the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs' 2025-2030 strategy, which names innovation, institutional development, strategic partnerships and the full digital transformation of services as goals. Abdulrahman Al Qahtani, Business Development Director at Snoonu, framed it as using the company's digital infrastructure "to connect people with opportunities that create meaningful and lasting impact."

Qatar is not alone. Across the Gulf and Southeast Asia, endowment institutions are moving from collection offices and SMS short codes to regulated digital rails, and similar state-backed digitisation of waqf and zakat is under way in Indonesia, Malaysia and the wider region.

Digital rails change who can give, but not what a waqf is: a permanent dedication, bound by the founder's conditions, outliving the founder.

What this means for families

The interesting shift for ordinary families is structural, not technological. A waqf was historically something a wealthy founder established once, with lawyers and administrators. When contributions can be made by bank card in an app, the same instrument becomes something a family can build gradually, project by project, as part of its giving while alive.

That only works if the family's wider affairs are in order: knowing what you own, what you owe, and what you intend to give is the foundation any endowment, will or legacy plan sits on. WiseEnding is built around exactly that foundation, with an optional Islamic layer that treats zakat, sadaqah jariyah and wasiyya as first-class parts of a family's financial map rather than an afterthought.

Sources: Gulf Times, Al Arab (Arabic), 974 Qatar.