What is the criterion for establishing charitable associations? And is it permissible to mix zakah funds with voluntary charity?

The questioner : What is your opinion regarding charitable associations that are established on a religious basis, meaning for the purpose of helping the poor and needy for charitable works, meaning they have no connection to the state, the government, or parliaments? Is this permissible? For example, we have a charitable association in Yemen called the Yemeni Hikmah Association, and its work is charitable, and it includes Professor Dr. al-Rimy, one of the students of Shaykh Mubarak.

The Shaykh : If the charitable association is as you say, and this brings us back to saying that the issue is one in all Islamic countries. If you have a charitable association, and we also have, perhaps, more than one charitable association, and in Syria as well, and so on, the answer covers all these associations in all the lands of the world, especially those who live in the lands of disbelief in Europe, in America, and so on. If these associations are based on the rulings of the Shari'ah, they are permissible, and they fall under the general meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: and in it, after the verse we always read. So, the exhortation to feed the poor is a prescribed matter. But what happens, and this is what I want to warn about, is that they collect funds from zakah funds and collect funds of endowments and voluntary charities that are not zakah funds, and they are placed in one box. So, for example, a poor man, he and his family, food and drink and clothing and so on are bought for him from the zakah funds. This is not permissible. So we advise that it is obligatory that there be two boxes in every charitable association: a box for zakah funds so that they are spent on the people of zakah, and the people of zakah are specified in the Noble Qur'an to the end of the verse, and a second box for endowments to be spent in the paths of good, which is broader than the spending of zakah in the known categories. This is an example. So if the charitable association is based on the rulings of the Shari'ah, then yes, it is permissible; otherwise, there is no difference at that point between the Red Crescent Association and the Red Cross.