Is the obligation discharged by paying zakah to charitable organizations?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The questioner asks: Is the obligation discharged by paying zakah to charitable organizations in the Kingdom?
The Shaykh : Regarding charitable organizations in the Kingdom, I am unable to rule on all of them, because I am not fully aware of those in charge of them. However, if a person trusts those in charge and hands them the money, he must inform them that it is zakah. Because, to my knowledge, charitable organizations distribute the funds they receive as zakah if it is zakah, and as voluntary charity if it is a donation other than zakah. The important point is that if you pay it to a charitable organization that is trustworthy, you must tell them that it is zakah so that they distribute it as zakah.
The Shaykh : Regarding charitable organizations in the Kingdom, I am unable to rule on all of them, because I am not fully aware of those in charge of them. However, if a person trusts those in charge and hands them the money, he must inform them that it is zakah. Because, to my knowledge, charitable organizations distribute the funds they receive as zakah if it is zakah, and as voluntary charity if it is a donation other than zakah. The important point is that if you pay it to a charitable organization that is trustworthy, you must tell them that it is zakah so that they distribute it as zakah.
Source
دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1403هـ - 7 — binothaimeen.net (1:17:36)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.